Indeed, this is a very hard disease to deal with.  Especially for the people who are not experiencing the disorder.  I can't imagine how difficult it is to be unable to console a child who is seeing things and hearing voices.  I guess they have never known what it is to be normal.  I too have the seen the Jani story in TLC and in one of my earlier posts I posted a link to one of the documentaries.  That family has two siblings who have schizophrenia.  The oldest is being treated for it and the younger one is labeled with Autism but the parent states that he is already showing the same symptoms that Jani had at an earlier age.  It is so much more sad when it is a child because they have not lived.  Older people who suffer from it have lived a life already but children.  There are just so many questions about this disease.  It must be very frustrating to not have answers.  We are now having to look for symptoms in children, when before that was not happening.  Good luck to all the families of those suffering from this.  May they get the strength and patience needed to love and care for their loved one. http://health.discovery.com#mkcpgn=yfit1

Sleeping Debt

I am usually able to survive with at least seven hours of sleept.  Gone are the days when I used to stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning and wake up at 7 to go to school and later to work.  I used to think in those days that somehow, sometime I would be able to catch up on my sleep only to find out that those hours are lost and cannot be caught on to.  During the last week I went on one to those sleepless weeks and it was hard to wake up.  I felt dizzy and with a headache and tired.  Not from a hang over.  Just from pure tiredness. I am glad to be back to my regular sleep schedule.  Sleep makes all the difference!!  Unfortunately, my sleep debt has not decreased.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep

Infidelity?

I thought about what this meant to me.  My thoughts about infidelity were mixed.  Half of me thinks that infidelity is wrong because that is what I have been taught.  I've heard many friends cry and suffer over this.  Many times when I heard them talk about it I was tempted to justify the man.  Many times they didn't want to hear it but I believe that infidelity is not done with the intent to hurt anyone.  It is just happened for the pleasure of oneself.  It is hard to be in the shoes of either party.  But living happy is not against the rules.  I believe that life is only lived once.  Mistakes will be made.  Maybe we'll regret what happened or regret it not happening but it was an experience either ways.  It would be perfect to marry the perfect person but even when we do things change, other people come along, and even we change.  An affair, is just a fling.  Nothing serious.  Just something fun to do for a while.  I've seen friends, lose everything because they are offended and the husband doesn't even stay with the other woman.  In my opinion, its not worth it.  We should be free.  For everything.   Love, Life, Marriage.  I don't know how I would react but I tend to be understanding and free!!! and expect the same!!!  No judging.

Pain is something that I wish I could get rid off.  I am otherwise a health person.  I am tolerant of pain.  I can function properly regardless of sleep depreviation, if I have a cold, or even if I am tired and hungry.   The one pain that I cannot stand is a migraine.   I am unfortunate to be one of many who suffer from these kind of headaches.  My level of pain for this becomes intolerable.  I literally go to my room and turn off all lights,  no noise.  I become nauseous and find no relieve even after I eventually throw up.  This migraine can last all day and sometimes a dull pain remains for days.  That is the only thng that throws me in bed and makes me cry in pain. My drug of choice.....Excedrin Migraine.   Which is now off the market.  Generic work but gives me an upset stomach but anything is better than a migraine.  I wonder how I will function normally.  I wonder if I will be able to hold a stable job.   I wonder if today will be a good day with no pain.healthyfellow.com

Missing brain

I recently heard about a toddler who was born with no brain.  It was hard for me to understand how he could live without having a brain.  UnfortunAtely, he could not hear or see or move.  Many other things were also wrong.  I just had never heard about a baby born like this.  It intrigues me as to whether or not the mother did something or if it was just nature.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMlVNFpzKNI

Meningitis

Meningitis is a disease that causes inflamation to the protective membranes  that cover the brain and the spinal cord.  This inflamation is caused by either a virus or a bacteria.  It a medical emergency that can cause death.  When the infection is bacterial, medications are available.  My daughter became infected with this disease at 2 days old.  I was released from the hospital with what I believed to be a healtyh newborn.  But one hour after being released I was in the emergency room with a crying baby.  Her neck was stiff. Babies heads are wobbly and unable to hold it straight, but in my baby's case it was different.  The first thing they had to do was withdraw fluid from the spine to find if a bacterial disease was present.  After getting a positive result, they started medication through her foot.  It was two weeks of hearing that she could die within the next 48 hours, to perhaps living in a vegetative stage to finally being released with a possibility of a hearing impairment.  Only time would tell who severe her learning disabilities would be.  But the medical field can only go so far and God will do the rest.  Thirteen years later, she is a normal teenager with no trace of ever being contracted with a deadly disease.http://children.webmd.com/vaccines/meningitis

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is also a brain disorder. A seizure or convulsion is caused when abnormal electrical charges occur between nerves in the brain.  When this happens, the normal electrical activity is interrupted and this causes temporary loss of communication between cells.  People who experience these seizures are unaware of what is happening to them.  The seizures vary in intensity.  Some people's body completely shake and they fall.  Others have "staring moments" or temporary forget where they are or what they were doing.  They notice a strange odor that doesn't exist.
I have witnessed the more severe seizures where the person convulses between 1 to 4 minutes.  Their bodies become rigid and they shake from head to toe.  After the convulsion has ended they remain unconscious and have trouble breathing.  They expel some kind of foam from their mouth and generally cannot function for a couple of hours.  These seizures leave them exhausted.  Medication does exist to try and control the episodes but there is no cure.  Patients have to routinely get their blood levels checked and other side effects are common.  Such as swollen gums (to the point where there teeth are barely visible).  It takes time for doctors to find the right combination of drugs to control the seizures and the patients will have to be under medication for life.  I have known of a couple of cases where the patient has died during one of these episodes. 
The brain still continues to surprise me.

My first blog.

 Hi cass.