Day three

The third day of my stay at Fiona Stanley starts off like the last two days I was there. Breakfast always starts off first at around 7:30 sharp and the catering crew never comes late, always punctual. As usual, the catering crew would always ask me for my details; name, date of birth and patient ID on my wrist band. Without these details, i would not be able to receive any of my meals and it's already hospital protocol that these questions are asked to prevent the wrong food from being given especially when the patients have allergies. After providing the patient details, my breakfast was then placed on the bed side table, i reached over the tray and lifted it to see what the menu was. To my surprise it was the same kind of menu as yesterdays breakfast but with an additional baked beans and toast. This was an upgrade but the drinks are still thickened and horrid to taste. I started with the eggs first before taking on the beans. I aded a bit of salt and pepper on the eggs as they were quite tasteless to begin with. After having aded some flavor on the eggs, I hurry up as i could to finish up my food to start the day a bit earlier than usual.

The last to be eaten on my tray was the toast. I aded a bit of jam on it for flavor before putting them in my mouth. After having eaten all the food on my tray, i grabbed the patient buzzer to call for the nurses to help me transfer myself on the toilet. I pressed the button and one of the nurses came into the room. Strangely enough, it wasn't the usual morning nurses that came into the room. It was a trainee nurse from ECU, so it was clear that she was still a greenhorn, still learning basic nursing. I don't know how she will help me transfer on the toilet but i'm willing to give her a chance. Once i got on the wheelchair, she rolled me into the bathroom and brought me close to the toilet, I then held on to the disability bars on the side of the toilet to make my transfer easier. A i shifted my bottom from the chair onto the toilet, I slipped and fell on the floor. Thankfully i landed on my posterior and not my head otherwise, the impact would be fatal. As i lay on the floor in pain from the fall, the student nurse panicked and pressed the emergency button. The entire hospital staff came rushing into the bathroom to inspect my condition. They asked me if i hurt my head to which i responded," not my head but my ass hurts" Hearing my response, they all chuckled with laughter and were relieved that it was my bottom that was the victim and not my brain. However i did tell them with sarcasm that some people do have their brains in their asses, especially the senior nurse for not supervising a novice on handling patients but it was also my fault for not telling the student nurse to pull up my pressure stockings before i transferred myself on the toilet. Thus it is therefore important that all stroke patients should be aware of either removing or pulling up their pressure stockings before moving around to prevent any slipping from happening.

The doctors and other nurses then drew their attention on the student nurse and began interogating her on how my fall took place.  I told them to go easy on her since it's only her first day of actual practical in the hospital, she was then relieved of her duties and was transferred to different ward with less difficult patients to deal with. The doctors and nurses then assisted me in getting myself back on the wheelchair. After the fall I decided to go to the bathroom a bit later in the evening when i have more free time to do whatever i want. Looking at the clock on my phone, it was already 8:45, i had to rush myself to occupational therapy and see Jescinta to do my daily exercises. I asked Ellie, the nurse to push me all the way to the OT room, she did and i arrived there only a few seconds late. I was relieved that she wasn't furious about me being a few seconds late. She then handed me a crossword puzzle to complete, the questions asked on it were pretty simple. I managed to complete it within five minutes. She then proceeded to asking me some logical questions. They were mostly logical such as safety questions on what should be done when there is a grease fire at home, what would be the appropriate thing to do to resolve the problem or how to plan a vacation. the questions are pretty straightforward and logical.

At the end of the test, Jescinta concluded that i did well on my probing and reasoning questions but when it comes to planning, i was labeled as slightly impaired as my planning sometimes weren't coherent or in line with the intended sequence of how things should be done. But this didn't prove anything as i was mostly a person who never plan anything in real life even prior to my accident. I just do things as i see fit or necessary just like the joker from the batman trilogy of Christopher Nolan. With the OT test completed, I went straight to my speech therapy appointment with my speech pathologist, Jan. I visited her inside her office, inside she was waiting for me in front of her computer and on her desk were three snacks; a sponge cake, an Oreo and some cheese crackers. I approached her and she told me that we were going to do some food test. She wanted me to eat each and every one of them to see if i was able to properly chew my food and swallow it without choking. To me this seems like a fun test since i get to eat something that's way better than your average hospital food. Without further a due, i approached the snacks and tore the packages open before gobbling them down my throat. I finished them all with lightning speed as i was hungry and had not tasted real food for a long time. By the end of the session, jan concluded that i had passed the test and i could now go back to eating normal things. She turned towards her computer and began writing down the results with an additional note sent to the hospital catering team that said," normal diet" This indicated that i was finally off the standard thickened food for stroke patients and i could immediately consume anything i want. The moment i left the speech therapy room, i headed to the hospital food court and bought myself a subway sandwich for appetizer before my main lunch back in my room. I asked one of the nurses to escort me to the food court to purchase my sandwich, they did so and i managed to buy the sandwich before my meal arrived in my room.

On my way back to the ward. I ate my sandwich as fast as i could so i could save some room for my lunch. Having tasted a subway sandwich after months of being in hospital was truly a blessing. The suffering that i have endured has made me realized the importance of gratitude for the little things in life such as good food, being able to drink water, being able to sleep in your own comfy bed and taking a shower in your own bathroom. I realized how lucky i was to have experienced all these things while i was healthy and wished i could return to that state of joy of being whole and healthy again. As i arrived in my room, my room mate Roy had already finished his lunch and had already dozed off to his nap. the nurse rolled me over to the bedside table where my lunch awaits me and i ate it silently as best i could so i wouldn't disturb roy from his midday slumber.







   

dealing with life after brain injury

Having a brain injury is quite a major incident that could ever happen to any individual. The damage caused by the injury not only afflicts the person physically and mentally but it also affects their social life. With a blink of an eye, the damage caused by the injury kills off the personality of that person. What arises after the tragic event will be something else. It won't be the same person or the same thoughts that will occupy the mind of that particular survivor. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that brain injury survivors get the appropriate treatment that they need to get back on their feet and this doesn't just mean getting good medical treatment, this would also mean that they have to get the right kind of social support and interaction. Many people are aware of the needs of brain injury patients and yet most of the time they are not able to do it the right way and they end up offending the patient, which may give them depression.

Patient recovery is also an effort from the patient itself. As a wise man once said the best kind of help is self-help, so patients have to contribute most of their healing journey. If you are a current in-patient inside the hospital after a traumatic brain injury then this entry is for you. Before you read through, I would first like to tell you that I understand your problems. I was once a patient myself after having been admitted to hospital because of an AVM rupture and was placed into a coma for thirteen days and became a vegetable for early a month. I know what it's like to wake up somewhere else and not knowing what happened to you or when the doctors tell you that your left side is paralyzed particularly your arm. Life can be cruel and unforgiving with all these circumstances as they go against our plans and expectations. However, we as patients and survivors of stroke or any other form of brain injuries are told often to suck it up and accept it, though this may be the right advice to give it is often the most offensive as this message is always presented as an unchangeable destiny for patients and that they have no hope of going back to their former self and being whole again.

If you are a brain injury survivor of any kind, the best advice or words of encouragement I can give you is that you are not bounded by your condition, your recovery as a survivor is progressive, it may not happen immediately but in the long run, improvements will always continue. if your doctors tell you otherwise then he is mostly lying or just being inconsiderate and should be fired for indecent treatment of patients. Just remember that the human brain continues to produce new neurons as we age, we just have to speed up the process and learn to use our brains differently after the accident. If you are worried about your social life especially your friends moving on and leaving you behind or that they have excelled in their career, while you are stuck in the same corporate position due to you being absent because of your accident then don't fret. Your suffering and disability is a strong indicator that you are on the right track to something great. The Universe has a way of rewarding those who endure suffering while punishing those who had it easy.

The next time you go about walking in public and you meet any of your friends or work colleagues who have become successful and are living your dream. Just walk away from them to prevent any feelings of envy or feeling being inferior to them. not getting in touch with them is often the best choice for self-healing and personal development. Therefore if you feel uneasy with someone just delete or block them on social media to prevent any contact that may cause you discomfort. It should be remembered that humans are social creatures and we need each other to survive, especially our friends to give us support during tough times but if they are not there for you when you need them or that they boast about they are achievements to rub it in your face then you know he or she is not a friend but an arrogant cunt.

If you are currently feeling down in the dumps because you are not able to do the things you used to do because of your disability after the injury then it should be reminded that your disability is only a temporary barrier and that you have to continue to work on it to be better. At times our disability acquires us to do things differently than we normally used to do it. it may take some time but as long as you accomplished what you wanted then there's no wrong with going slow. if you really feel that you are not progressing with what you are doing then perhaps you may want to consider changing to something else as an alternative. if you enjoy running but are currently confined to a wheelchair because of a paralysis then you should switch to an indoor activity like reading or writing to stimulate both the mind and brain to repair itself. This way yr brain gets engaged and reduces more neurons to reconnect the damaged connections and your other disability will follow suit and start to repair itself just like your brain.

Do not spend your time pondering on the glories of the past because it's already over. As a wise Viking by the name of Ragnar Lothbrok once said, "Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way again" in your free time try to divert all of your energy on things that are productive to your recovery, try diving in into books and read more information that will be helpful to you in the future, the more we learn the more we earn just as the great investor Warren Buffet once said. Avoid all unnecessary activities as possible such as watching TV or streaming pointless youtube videos. Though both TV and youtube can be educational, a lot of us tend to go off ou intended track and we end up watching something pointless such as twerking or pornography which could ultimately dumb us down by lowering our IQ and encourage us an unhealthy lifestyle of hedonism.

Our social life also affects our healing as well. If we hang around people who don't understand our condition then we end up being misunderstood most of the time and we don't get the support we need to be in a healthy friendship and we could even be exploited. It's best to say that brain injury patients should start hanging out with those who are older than them since older individuals tend to have more empathy than those of the same age. They may even have similar experiences which could help us or inspire us to improve.     

                                     

                                         

            

Second day at Fiona Stanley

The next morning after the day of my arrival, I woke up a little bit early than usual as when I was at Charlie Gairdner. This time I woke up at around 6:45 with thein shades still closed. I could tell that I had woken up too early and everything was still quiet outside, especially in the hallways as there were only a couple of nurses patrolling the corridors and at the nurse's station. Ellie the nurse came into my room with an observation machine to monitor my heartbeat, blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen saturation. She approached and asked how my sleep last night was and I responded by saying that it was okay, I fell asleep almost immediately. Upon hearing my response she said," that's good to hear, most patients usually have a difficult time sleeping on their first day. Settling into their new be is usually tough for many patients but it's good to know that your sleep was okay." Ellie then placed the blood pressure cuffs on my arm and began taking notes of my blood pressure. The results cam ou normal, there was no high blood pressure and the temperature was normal too.

 After the observation, I asked her what my schedule for the day was. She said it was occupational therapy first and I had to find my occupational therapist, Jescinta Brown. Ellie told me that she will come shortly in a few minutes. Sure enough, she did. Jescinta came into my room. She was wearing her navy blue colored uniform and wore glasses. Her overall physique was somewhat chubby but still bearable to look at. She approached me and sit next to my left. She began introducing herself and asked if I was willing to participate in her mental testing to examine my cognitive ability after my brain injury. I said," ye to her question and she began asking me some basic question such as my knowledge of my current whereabouts, the time day and date. I could only answer where I was but couldn't answer the date except I knew it was 2016. he then told me to start looking at a calendar and to be more aware of the date so I won't lose my time orientation. The second question she asked was a form of probing, she asked me to name objects that start with the letter P. I answered the question with ease and passed it with little effort and told me that my left hemisphere is still functioning normally. After the probing question had ended. Jescinta concluded the therapy for that day and left my room. I was again left alone to my self and my roommate, Roy inside our room.

As I was lying in my bed watching TV. Roy started talking and asked me a couple of questions such as my condition, where I was from and what my occupation was. I answered all his questions and he was surprised to know that I had an AVM and he told me that  I wasn't the first person he met with it there was a patient before me with one in his occipital lobe and he was partially blind on his peripheral vision. Hearing that I was thankful that my deficits weren't that severe. However, I began pondering whether or not i"ll be able to go back to my normal self ever again. I brought the computer screen closer and opened up google chrome to start searching for some answers. Just as I began searching some lady popped into the room and asked, "Are you Samuel?, I answered," Yep that's me" She then introduced herself as Alicia, my speech therapist. I was in luck because Alicia was stunningly gorgeous. I became a little bit motivated to do my therapy with her, sadly I was solely focused on her looks that would sometimes forget to answer some of her questions and end up sounding like a fool. My session with Alicia lasted for a  total of 45 minutes. After which, the session ended and she left the room.

I was alone again with Roy in the room. Both of us were in our beds watching the same channel on our televisions, the food network. We both have a bit of an interest in cooking so we both tuned in on the same things on the channel. Just as we were discussing food while watching, the catering lady came into our room and dropped off our lunch at both of our bedside tables. I brought my tray closer to me and lifted the lid. To my surprise, the lunch looks somewhat dissatisfying. It was some sort of beef casserole called beef rump. I tasted it and could compare its texture to jelly as they have made it soft until it was mushy. Its appearance was comparable to feces or any other form excrement. I forced myself to eat it until nothing was left on the plate.

At around 1:35 another lady came inside the room with a wheelchair. I had no idea who this lady was but she was definitely a member of the hospital staff since she was wearing the Fiona Stanley Uniform. She headed towards me with the wheelchair and introduced herself as Catherine, my physiotherapist. She explained to me that it was time to go to the physio gym and get some exercises done. After the clarification, I voluntarily move myself to the right where I gently drop off my bed and placed myself on the wheelchair. he then rolled me to the physio gym at the end of the hallway. The moment I reached the gym, I was asked to get on the plinth to start some stretching and basic movements. The first part of my physio program was stretching. Catherine placed me flat on y back on the plinth, she grabbed my left arm and began rotating my wrist both clockwise and counterclockwise while she pulls my arm away from my body. This particular movement is to loosen up the pectoralis muscles that have tightened up. The way she twists my arm was painful and it made me suffocate as the pulling would pull out the muscles close to my lungs. Thankfully this torture of an exercise only lasted for 35 minutes. We then proceeded with the soft motor movements such as learn how to use pelvis equally o both sides, this exercise is known as a pelvic tilt. I sat at the edge of my plinth while Catherine sat behind me, I was then told to slouch and sit upright slowly. this was basically my exercise, slouching and sitting straight, which was frankly quite boring.

After two hours of tedious and mundane physio movements, it was time to conclude the session for the day and head back to my room and await dinner. Catherine helped me transfer myself on the wheelchair and rolled me out into the hallways and back inside my room. As I entered back into my room, I could smell something in the air, it smelled like food. Roy looked at me and said, "start eating, dinner came early today." I went over to my bed and my dinner was already waiting for me on the bedside table. I lifted the lid and to my surprise, it's chicken thighs covered with some sort of lemon sauce and sage. 
             

     




   

                                 

The importance of health insurance

Many of you who are reading this are probably already have health insurance either public like Medicare or private such as Allianz, Prudential and etc. They're all good in covering the costs of the medical expenses that e accumulated during our stay in the hospital or when covering expenses as an outpatient during check-ups. However, it should be noted that there are key differences between the two especially the medical procedures that are covered by the insurance and the parties that are involved in paying these expenses. The descriptions or characteristics of this insurance may vary from country to country depending on where you are.

In Australia, the majority of people are covered by Medicare, which is the public insurance that is sponsored by the Australian government an all expenses are paid with the state's money and it's generally accepted in most hospitals and it usually lasts I accordance with the duration o your stay at the hospital with some renewals that had to be done. However, Medicare insurance is only available for Australian citizens in Australia. Foreigners such as myself who are on a temporary work and study visa don't have the option of getting this kind of insurance, therefore it was advised for me to apply for an overseas student health cover under Allianz insurance when I came to study at the central institute of technology. I did apply for it for about a year before expiring at the end of 2014 when my course ended.

The Overseas student health cover as you all know is from Allianz and is recommended by most educational institutions throughout Australia. The same kind or if not similar insurance is used in other Commonwealth countries. If a foreigner were to come to Australia under a skilled visa to work, it is recommended that the employers provide workers compensation under Work Safe Australia in compliance with the health legislation of the country, however, there are variations on what is covered by both employers and the insurance company. At times the insurance company or the employers are only willing to pay certain things while the rest we have to pay on our own.

Both the private and public insurance have their own advantages in paying the hospital bills and giving the patient the financial support they need to pay their hospital bills. For public insurance, one of the main advantages is that they are much cheaper and easier to acquire especially for the natives and the government will be paying all the medical expenses. The downside, however, is that the services provided under Medicare will most likely not be as outstanding as when using a private one especially when you're hospitalized in a public hospital. The other downside is that the patients will most likely not be given the first priority under this insurance since the government hs to pay for the expenses. The private insurances, however, have a different effect on patients who have them. Those with private insurance get better treatment in public hospitals and usually be given the first priority. This is because a private company will be paying the expenses an not the government, therefore, it'often seen as profitable to keep private insured patients longer so more money can be extracted for profit, however not all hospitals will behave this way.

If you are a student studying in college or university, you have the option of applying for health insurance before starting your course of studies. A lot of times students will take the health insurance for granted as they don't see themselves in any health crisis in the near future. However rarer cases such as AVMs tend to be unpredictable and could happen at any time, thus it would be good to have insurance to be safe should anything happen, unless you happen to be very wealthy and could afford to pay all of your medical bills with your own money.       



                                               

   

Fiona Stanley

The next day at Charlie Gairdner starts off like any other day during my stay there. I would wake at exactly around 7.30am in bed eagerly waiting for my breakfast, the only thing that kept me excited every single day there was just the food that I was getting for every meal. At this stage the food that I was getting was still specialized for stroke patients, the contents of my meal would have to be thick and easy to be contracted by my esophagus as I swallow each and every one of them. The doctors and nurses called it thickened fluid and they would often joke around about it to me. One of the nurses named Paul has a habit of mocking me with the kind of that I get, he would say, " Sam, would you like some coffee?", I would definitely say," hell yeah, I would rather drink coffee than this junk", Paul would then reply by saying," but it's thickened coffee, hahaha" This sort of mocking happens almost every morning but it didn't seem to bother me as I've gotten used to it. I would always reply to the sarcastic paul by saying, "Ha ha very funny Paul, that's bad karma for you, insulting a patient with a brain injury"

As my breakfast arrived at my front door Roger, the nurse who was stationed at the front of my room came in to conduct an observation of my blood pressure, temperature and oxygen saturation. As usual, all the readings came out normal and Roer would write down the result on the patient chart that was placed at the end of my bed. After he finished writing them down, I could finally proceed with eating breakfast. The menu hasn't changed much, however, this time I got an extra sausage, which was new and unexpected since they could only give me some scrambled eggs, a packet of salt and chocolate yogurt. All of which are unsatisfying options for breakfast. To receive a couple of sausages was a blessing and it lightens up my mood. Roger who was still in my room asked me if I was enjoying my sausages, I replied by telling him tt it was exquisite to be able to eat them. As I gobbled down on the last pieces of eggs and sausages, Larisa, my nurse came in and told me that that day was my lucky day. I asked her, "what's so lucky about today?" She replied, "you're going to be transferred to Fiona Stanley for rehab and our insurance for the next treatment at the hospital is already covered by the Allianz health insurance, that also includes your stay At Fiona Stanley". Hearing this news, I was delighted to know that I'm making progress and will be moving on to further recovery, though I have no idea what the next hospital will be like.

Larisa then took out her phone and called my mom to come back to the hospital to accompany me on my transfer and to sign some paperwork to be given to the staff at Fiona Stanley. A few minutes Later, my mum arrived and read through the documents before signing them. With the paperwork all signed by my mum, Larisa, and Christopher Lind. I was ready for transfer. Two men from the Patient Transport came inside my room with a mobile stretcher and lifted me on to it, strapping me tightly on the bed with a seatbelt to prevent me from falling overboard when I'm moved. They then rolled me out of my room and through the hallway to the elevators. As I passed through the hallway all the nurses and therapists said goodbye to me especially my favorite nurses, Andrea and Lindsey.you could say I've grown attached to them, mostly because I've ever had an intimate relationship with a woman. it was sad to leave them behind but I promise myself that I'll visit them when my mobility gets better.

I was rolled into the elevator, the guys from patient transport pressed the lobby button and I felt the elevator going downwards. The journey downwards was accompanied by a serious of questions by the two men, they asked me why I was in the hospital, to which I replied, "AVM" the two men responded by saying, "ooh that's pretty rare, not a lot of people get AVM's tough luck buddy". Seconds later, the elevator reached the lobby and the doors opened. The two men pushed my stretcher outwards and I was moved into the docking zone just outside of the main entrance, there a transport ambulance had been prepared with its doors opened and the lifting crane ready. The men rolled me on the crane and pressed the button on the side. I was then automatically lifted and pushed inwards into the ambulance. Before departing, a couple of seatbelts were fastened on the bottom and top of my stretcher to keep me still when the vehicle moves. Soon e were ready and we departed on schedule.

While I was on the road, I looked out the window to see the view. I could see that we were going southwards of the swan river and passing Bentley where my University was at. We head further south until the next suburb, the city of Murdoch where my second hospital was located. surprisingly it's near Murdoch University, which is famous for animal science and there are lots of stables in the area to house farm animals. As I looked out the window I could see horses running around the courtyard and a couple of cows grazing on the green grass in the area and then see the biggest building I've ever seen and at the front, it says, "Fiona Stanley Hospital" I knew by that sigh that I had arrived at my destination. The car then entered the hospital entrance into the docking area where I was later unloaded and received by the nurse on duty, Ellie. She introduced herself to my mother and me. the guys room the ambulance hande over all my documents to her and I was ready to go to my room.

Ellie pushed me through the hallways into ward B of the rehab section for acute brain injury. My room number was 49. Inside this room, I was greeted by my roommate, Roy Hudson who was an old bloke recovering in the hospital after a stroke that he had at home. from his appearance, I could tell that his recovery was going well despite him not being able to move very well. My bed was located near the window close to the bathroom, while Roy was situated near the front door. Both of our beds were also equipped with hanging computer screens that give us 24-hour access to the internet, therefore I have the privilege of reading online news and watching videos on youtube. This was something that I didn't have back at the first hospital since the wi-fi connection didn't reach into m room very well and had to rely on my phone fo surfing the web. The moment I jumped into my new bed, I dragged the hanging computer screen closer towards me and opened Google to begin watching videos on youtube. They are mostly music videos of bands from the 80's such as the rolling stones, the who, cheap trick, and dire straits. I watched all of their musical acts online until bedtime where I was completely exhausted and fell asleep afterward.                                             


     

               

Education and the brain

Education can be defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school in terms of gaining knowledge. This is the most common definition of what education is according to an online dictionary an yet it fails to include the word, "learning" into its definition, which is essential for any person to grow into a functional and intelligent individual that would fit in into society. Though many of us clearly understand what education is and its purpose, we always tend to make the misconception that education and learning are one of the same things. This is only partially true, education is the process through which society passes knowledge, skills, and values to another while learning is the ongoing process of gaining firsthand knowledge from experience. The two words are often interchanged in today's society and we often misinterpret the two during our school years. This has a disastrous effect on children today especially those with learning disabilities or any other special needs.

The school system would have you believe that standardized teaching is the way for learning but this is, unfortunately, a terrible mistake and would prove to be consequential in the long run, since no two people are the same in the way they learn or think. This is true for those with learning disabilities from birth or acquired through an accident. A lot of times children who do badly in school from such disabilities may not know of their own condition and failing in school would only further discourage them and making them believe that they are not competent or worth nothing. Disabilities such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder are all pretty common in a lot of people and are often regarded by most teachers as being lazy or stupid. This same view is still used and applied by most schools. Today's education should be held accountable for the damage that they may have done to children with a learning disability.

In all honesty, schools and the standardized education institution, we have today prove to be more harmful than beneficial in the long run since it discourages children to be creative and to be their individual self or to learn at their own pace or in their own way for that matter. A good example would be someone who is a hands-on learner, a person who acquires knowledge from doing things instead of sitting in the classroom and listen to theories. putting hands-on learners to a classroom environment is time wasting and ineffective to stimulate learning. A lot of times, the things taught in school are highly irrelevant in the real world with no use at all. Therefore the learning process we experience today with most schools should best be altered to fit the needs of an ever-changing modern world and not to a redundant industrial age that has long ended in the late1920's and30's.

A recent scientific study has also proven that hands-on learning proves to be more beneficial in knowledge acquisition as it activates our hunter-gatherer instincts of survival to adapt to our changing environment and to quickly learn new skills that are mandatory for survival. Thus a combination of knowledge and skill is the key to success in both pursuing a career and healing the brain neuroplastically. Schools would often teach tons of things from textbooks and yet never taught them how to use this knowledge in the real world so that children acquire skills by applying them in real life. A knowledge that is not applied is just knowledge and would undoubtfully waste away like excess items we buy on our groceries that are stored in kitchen cupboards to collect dust and mold.                         

Thankfully the learning process of the average person doesn't end when we finish school or University, learning is still possible even when we're old. Recent scientific studies have proven that the brain remains plastic until we grow old an die, all we have to do s be willing to use it and improve our cognitive ability. So to those who are struggling mentally or having trouble comprehending something, I urge you all not to give up an keep on learning or improving whatever it is you're doing. Even if some parts of our brains that deal with certain functions are damaged, it is still capable of reorganizing itself and assigning other parts of the brain to take over the task. The more we engage our brains into earning and challenging it to do things that are complex, the more we form neural connections in our brains ad it will certainly enhance neuroplastic healing at a much higher rate.  Our neuroplastic capabilities and its contributions to increasing neural networks in the brain also enhances our longevity. Many of us assume that to live longer we have to eat healthily and keep on moving such as doing exercises t prolong our lifespan but recent studies have shown that living longer tends to be a result of a healthy brain that has more neural networks in its circuitry. Therefore to any stroke or brain injury patients who would like to improve their quality of life until old age, it's recommended that they constantly engage themselves in activities that make them think.       

                                               

Jordan and Eric

The next day starts off like any other day at Charlie Gairdner. I would wake up in the morning at around 7 or 7.30 to begin my day by receiving my not so delicious breakfast to be delivered into my room. While waiting for it to come, I turned on the TV to watch the news only to find out that Donald Trump had been elected as president of the United States and was making his way faster into the oval office. I got the notion that I may have slept a little too long while I was in my coma and I have woken up in a dystopic future where the leader of the most powerful country in the world is an orange-haired baboon with a narcissistic personality and a capitalist temperament to disregard important issues such s civil rights and the current environmental crisis we are currently facing. You could say I felt like Rick Grimes from the walking dead when he woke up from a coma only to find out that humanity has gone down the drain and the population had been eradicated by a zombie apocalypse, however, my case was different since there weren't any zombies but rather an increase of human stupidity and the glorification of intellectual retardation.

I felt more like Joe Bowers from the 2006 movie idiocracy where Joe slept into a coma for many decades and woke up only to find out that the human intellect had drastically deteriorated and people perceive stupidity as the norm of society. After realizing this inconvenient analogy to describe what was going on in the world while I was in the hospital, I dreaded what awaits me in the future. Thankfully it started with breakfast as it arrived at my front door. The catering lady dropped it off on the table next to me,  dragged it closer and lift up the lid to see what the menu was. Sadly it was only eggs and some porridge, not the most exciting of all breakfast menus but getting the eggs was something new so I was delighted. I ate them immediately and afterward focused myself on trying to move my paralyzed arm, in hopes of making further improvements. As I was training my arm, I heard a knock on the door. I said," come in" and to my surprise, it was Jordan and Eric that came in, my two best friends from high school. they had come to visit me bearing gifts. I was delighted to see a familiar face in the room and be able to socialize. We chatted for about an hour and a half, discussing my ongoing health dilemma and exchanging questions regarding our area of interests.

I asked them about their studies and they said that things were going peachy and this made me realize that the majority of my friends at Uni have already passed their subject and will be graduating without me. The world outside was moving on without me, I was left crippled in the next coming months. I did feel depressed about this but I told myself to chin up and accept the fact that if shit happens, that means I'm on the right track to success. All I could do was accept my problems and apply a stoic philosophy to view things with positive eyes. One of the positive attributes of being in the hospital was that I got to meet some really beautiful nurses who are taking care of me during my stay, each time they come to take care of me or to talk to me and I would feel like a young lad who was blessed with more than one mother.

Speaking of mothers, a few minutes later Jordan and Eric's mum entered the scenes of my room. She had come all the way from Bali to accompany her boys on their visit to the hospital to visit me and it's mostly because their mother is a close friend of my mum and they were pretty shocked when they heard the news that I was hospitalized and had a craniotomy. I was pretty happy to have a couple of visitors inside my room to talk to me and improved my social life. Therefore it should be reminded to all brain injury patients that being social is good both for the mind and soul as it improves mood and speeds up recovery. If patients can't find someone to socialize with within their close circle of friends, then they should socialize with other patients and with hospital staff. Some of them have interesting stories about themselves and they are worth to be probed into. This is what I exactly did throughout my time at the hospital, asking doctors or nurses on the current condition that I was having and to see whether or not they have current or former patients with the same condition and asking them on some advice on how I can speed up recovery.

At around quarter to noon, I could hear the kitchen staff from the end of the hallway with their trolleys carrying lunch for the patients, it was apparent that I was time for me to grab something to eat. I was happy that food was on its way, hell that was the only thing that I was looking forward to. Eating helped me escape the reality that I was trapped in a hospital with minimal movements on the left half of my body. Jordan, Eric, and their mom heard the sound of incoming lunch trolleys from the hallway and realized it as the time for me to have my lunch, so they decided it was best to end our little chat and leave me in peace with my food. Before they left, they placed a bouquet of flowers with a greeting card that said: "get well soon" on the sink. In all honesty, I don't really need these things but I appreciate their kind gesture of showing their care towards me. Once they left the room, I was alone again with my mother and proceeded with watching the television with her. As I watched the Television she would search up for quizzes and riddles to ask me in order to stimulate my cognitive ability in hopes of speeding up neuroplastic recovery that would help me return to my normal mental state.