I've decided that I'll be posting on Mondays and Thursdays on a regular basis.Thursday because it's usually my day off and Monday because it's about half way through my work week and I already know I won't be able to post during the weekend. However sense I have to post them from the library for right now I won't be able to post on bank holidays,but I'll let everyone know ahead of time.
Today I want to talk what has affected me the most,as least when it comes in hydrocephalus.It has affected how people see me more than anything,and sometimes it's affected how I function.It's also the main thing that caused me to take longer to learn things that other kids were able to learn alot earlier.It's also something that my parents were never told about when I growing up,causing them to wonder if it could be because of how long it took them to diagnose me or if it was something worse.
My topic for today is ataxia,which means "lack of order".It's a neurological symptom that usually stops after treatment (shunt placement or ETV for Hydrocephalus).However along with other symptoms it's not something that always goes away. It causes the nervous system to not work properly,and that results in a lack of Motor coordination.This may have been part of the reasons why I couldn't even hold myself up until my shunt was placed,but I know it has to do with alot other problems I have or had. I couldn't even speak until I was in preschool and it took years of hard work before I even got to the point where people could understand me,which is really disappointing now because of the chronic headache and daily migraines during the last couple years because my ability to speak is back to being worse as it was when I was about 10.So after all that hard work I'm back to the point where people can't understand what I'm saying.It also has affected my hands,to the point where I couldn't open door knobs as a kid,and that's something else that I've started to struggle with that again.It caused me to not be able to tie my own shoes until the fifth grade,something I was really ashamed of.The last thing it really impacted me as a kid was getting potty trained.I caught on while I was still young but it was after elementary,and it ended up being one of the things that started years of constant bullying.
Ataxia caused my hands to shake constantly started when I was about 8 or 9 something that was thought to be caused by early signs of Parkinson's,something that I'm very thankful that it's not.It was also thought to be caused by being hyper,I've always been borderline adhd.I was diagnosed in elementary school but I was tested again my senior year and found out that I don't have it.Something else that I thought that I had caused it was my late diagnosis,and that caused me to be angry with the doctors that had told my parents that I didn't have hydrocephalus,and that there was nothing was wrong me.I'll never know if ataxia would have affected me differently or if at all if I would have been diagnosed earlier but it's also something that I'll rather now know,thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
introduction
I've had a interest in writing since the third grade.I remember the teacher who got me interested,and how he did it too.When I entered that grade I was always trying to get out of it by writing in ridiculously large letters.But a project having to do with the children's book "wayside school is falling down" changed that for me.He had us each write a short story about our fellow classmates.After until I finished high school I liked to write short stories.Some were for classes but most were for my fellow classmates.After high school that all stopped,and I don't remember why.Before Myspace wen't downhill I would blog on there but that stopped a few years ago.Yesterday a good friend told me that he had seen what I've written on facebook lately and that I have wasted talent.He encouraged me to use it,and to write a book.I'm not ready to go far since it's something I haven't done much of in years but I am taking his advice.I've decided to start this blog and to start taking gen ed classes to get a journalism degree no matter how I'm physically doing at that point.
I knew I wasn't going to have a problem trying to think of something to write about,that's never been a problem.I just thought I was gonna think of a topic I could write about.I knew I wanted to write about my neurological condition because it's became a passion for me since I'm stuck living with and there's no cure for it,only treatment.I also know that I don't know alot about,and there are already blogs about that topic.Instead I've decided to write about how it's effected my life in almost every way.
I have Hydrocephalus,it's either something I was born with or developed as a new born.Even with the severe lack of of motor skills and almost constant high pitched screaming there was a least a couple who over and over told my parents that there was "nothing wrong me".Thankfully at 17 months a volunteer nurse at a clinic for poor families told us that I have it and refered us to a neurosurgeon,and then one of the doctors still told my parents I didn't have it.I may have problems that I may or may not have had if I would have been diagnosed but I would have been in deep trouble if I wouldn't have been diagnosed at that point.
Hydrocephalus is a build up of spinal fluid on the brain,normally the fluid is drained normally but with someone Hydrocephalus that doesn't happen.Instead a shunt is usually placed to drain it.A shunt is a silicon tube and valve that drains the fluid,it's either a "non-programmable" like mine where it's just placed and you can't make any changes but with programmables a setting is set depending on conditions that stop it from draining as fast.50% of shunts fail within the first 2 years and for some people there childhood becomes a "merry go round" of surgeries and hospital stays.For me this didn't happen and mine hasn't malfunctioned yet after 24 years..Just because that hasn't been a normal part of my life and headaches hadn't been up until the last couple years doesn't mean I have struggled.Having Hydrocephalus or a brain injury in general has caused me to struggle daily,and for a long time I was "fighting alone".There's alot of stuff my neurosurgeon didn't tell my parents,and that's something that's very common.This blog is to help people understand how it's effected me,to help others dealing with the same thing and to help me get my writing to the point where I'll be able to write a book.Thanks for reading :)
-Timothy Landry
I knew I wasn't going to have a problem trying to think of something to write about,that's never been a problem.I just thought I was gonna think of a topic I could write about.I knew I wanted to write about my neurological condition because it's became a passion for me since I'm stuck living with and there's no cure for it,only treatment.I also know that I don't know alot about,and there are already blogs about that topic.Instead I've decided to write about how it's effected my life in almost every way.
I have Hydrocephalus,it's either something I was born with or developed as a new born.Even with the severe lack of of motor skills and almost constant high pitched screaming there was a least a couple who over and over told my parents that there was "nothing wrong me".Thankfully at 17 months a volunteer nurse at a clinic for poor families told us that I have it and refered us to a neurosurgeon,and then one of the doctors still told my parents I didn't have it.I may have problems that I may or may not have had if I would have been diagnosed but I would have been in deep trouble if I wouldn't have been diagnosed at that point.
Hydrocephalus is a build up of spinal fluid on the brain,normally the fluid is drained normally but with someone Hydrocephalus that doesn't happen.Instead a shunt is usually placed to drain it.A shunt is a silicon tube and valve that drains the fluid,it's either a "non-programmable" like mine where it's just placed and you can't make any changes but with programmables a setting is set depending on conditions that stop it from draining as fast.50% of shunts fail within the first 2 years and for some people there childhood becomes a "merry go round" of surgeries and hospital stays.For me this didn't happen and mine hasn't malfunctioned yet after 24 years..Just because that hasn't been a normal part of my life and headaches hadn't been up until the last couple years doesn't mean I have struggled.Having Hydrocephalus or a brain injury in general has caused me to struggle daily,and for a long time I was "fighting alone".There's alot of stuff my neurosurgeon didn't tell my parents,and that's something that's very common.This blog is to help people understand how it's effected me,to help others dealing with the same thing and to help me get my writing to the point where I'll be able to write a book.Thanks for reading :)
-Timothy Landry
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