Quote:
Originally Posted by ballerina
For me, the loss of executive function has been every bit as bad as the pain and other symptoms. I took a chance given the odds of success for me was about 70% and I am convinced that cortical reorganization is the key for me. I expect this will wear off in a month to 9 months. I am using this time to push the limits in PT. I am having good results with mirror therapy and graded motor imagery as well as exercises for stretching and balance.
Who is John Lester? That name does not ring a bell but neither do many names from the past two years.
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Dear Ballerina -
I totally get what you're saying about the significance of neurocognitive losses. Funny thing is, when I told my pain doc a couple of months ago that if given the chance, I'd keep my wits and take the pain at full bore, his jaw came close to hitting the floor. He had obviously never heard that expressed before. But it's such an easy call, I'm now starting to work with pain patients, teaching mindfulness techniques for experiencing but not identifying with physical pain. And it's really just a matter of paying close attention to that from which you would otherwise run and flee, until it's no longer an issue.
Granted, it's a lot easier to this on retreat than when you are subject to the social demands of others in a big city, etc. But that's just a matter of making the same problem a little more complicated. Only there your immediate attention has to be on the emotional responses arising within, before they are acted upon.
That said, I'm told that having equanimity with loss of cognitive function is a a strong practice in it's own right. And where we're not exactly in a position to bargain as to the curves that are sent our way, I best keep attending to all phenomena as it arises and stop being picky about what's on the menu.
Right?
Mike
PS John Lester ran a host site called Brain Talk, where this forum had been in its most recent previous incarnation, before the server crashed c. 2006 - 2008, taking with it an unusually rich body of threads and posts. But the place definitely had its quirks . . .