Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Climate Joke Not Very Funny

Did you hear about the one where Google wants to become an energy trader?

Google to buy and sell power…
It appears that Google is making plans to have the same type of advantage as Al Gore and many others who really need to see the invented industry of carbon credit get off the ground. Essentially Google wants “… to have the ability to procure renewable energy to offset power usage of our operations,” said Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman. Meaning they want to create a carbon neutral status for themselves in preparation for when the government approves cap and trade.

Google and many in the elite circles, seem to have a vested interest in pushing for approval of cap and trade – even if it is backed by convoluted, contrived data (a lie). We need to ask ourselves why these entities see the need to control the air? Even in the face of mounting evidence that is contrary to the lies that have been propagated for many years about carbon and the effects it might have on the future climate.

Google and the elitist have proven that they chose to lie about the facts (actually though fear mongering), they have felt it very important to hold on to a delusion (through deception and self interest), and they have decided they should prepare to have advantage over the rest of us (thought elitist thinking) – with regard to the false science and impending possible passage of cap and trade.

Yeah, I am not laughing either.

IAN Research For ASD Affected Individuals

From the IAN Project…

I wanted to tell you about a groundbreaking online autism project that is contributing to hundreds of scientific studies and empowering autism advocates: IAN, the Interactive Autism Network. Visit today at www.IANproject.org.

IAN links researchers, families, and the entire autism community to accelerate the pace of autism research. It’s a great opportunity to get involved!

IAN consists of two complementary parts: IAN Research and IAN Community.

IAN Research is the nation’s largest online autism research effort. Via secure online questionnaires, and from the comfort of their own home, parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), independent adults with ASD, and guardians of adults with ASD can share valuable information about individual development, diagnosis, behavior, challenges, and services received. This input becomes part of the largest ever data set on individuals with ASD — a crucial resource that assists both researchers searching for answers and advocates fighting for a better situation for people on the autism spectrum.

IAN Community is a comprehensive online library and meeting place focused on autism research and open to individuals with ASD, families, researchers, teachers, medical professionals, and anyone impacted by ASD. You can participate in the IAN Community to learn about the latest research, become a more informed consumer of research, and join in a worldwide collaboration of people dedicated to finding answers. On the Community site, there is information both for beginners and for the more advanced, plus articles by leaders in the field and reports on preliminary findings based on the IAN data collected so far.

Please check it out at www.IANproject.org, and help spread the word to others you know who might be interested.

Musicophila Comparison (Comp 4); Bombarding The Autistic Brain With Media

Musical imagery just happens…maybe even for Sarah!

Okay, if you don’t know already. Musical Imagery is the brain hearing music when there is no music actually playing!

In Musicophila Dr. Sacks points out that “Musical imagery is not voluntarily commanded or summoned but comes to us apparently spontaneously.” Could the spontaneous nature of the imagery at times be sparked by associative thought? I am not sure. But Dr. Sacks pays attention to the associative thought process as he points out how one of his correspondents stated that “Every memory of my childhood has a soundtrack to it.”

While the following is not verbatim, it is because Dr. Sacks work is sitting right next to me: Musical imagery comes from repeated exposure to a particular piece or type of music. Dr. Sacks points out how musical imagery that entered his mind, while different in type and lacking an associative emotional attachment (like from childhood memory) – was pleasurable enough for him to attend to. The commonality his musical imagery seemed to share was that “I have bombarded my ears and brain with them, and the musical “circuits” or networks in my brain have been supersaturated, overcharged with them. In such a supersaturated state, the brain seems ready to replay the music with no apparent external stimulus.” (Dr. Sacks) For him the musical imagery was rarely intrusive or uncontrollable.

When considering Dr. Sacks bombardment: For Sarah, I discovered (with her) that it was imperative to stop her constant engagement in viewing familiar animated movies, games and TV programs. For the most part they all have a lot of similar music with the added dash of intrigue that ended up being very bad for Sarah. Right before her worsening that occurred at ten years of age she began to need the volume turned up on anything that she listened to. It was as if she was trying to drown out other things in the environment. Soon it was apparent that she was having internal conflict and at that point I realized she was trying to drown out what was going on in her head. She progressed to the point of having inexplicable screaming episodes as she tried to occupy herself with watching her movies or engaging in a video game, and also had the episodes without those things present. She really got to the point where no external stimulus need be present in order that she go berserk. As the outburst intensified in duration, intensity and number of them – the internal conflict (we knew it was auditory hallucination, sometimes visual, but Sarah could not completely articulate what was going on, only offering the occasional miraculous clue in a statement, word or phrase) was coupled with catatonia like presentation. It appears that hers was a mental imagery that may have had music intertwined, and it began to be coupled with motor movements that really took her over.

The above went on for several years. Sarah was eventually able to discern that she needed to be void of stimulus, and when at Generose in Rochester (Mayo) she would many times voluntarily take herself to the seclusion room, that was void of stimulation, during her rougher times. This only emboldened my determination to hang on with her, as I watched her suffer from her hell and try to make her own way out – since for those many years she proved refractory to medication trials and other treatment. I describe feelings about Sarah and how music affected her in Hello, Dr. Wells.

During an Occupational Therapy evaluation, Sarah hated classical music playing in the background. Sarah hates sound with too much treble quality. The OT felt it important to find music that she could enjoy, however all that she experienced turned into conflict, so that not even music soothed her. The OT noted that we already utilized strategies at home such as swimming and swinging, exclusively doing so because Sarah usually responded to favorably to them. The report gave a very long and excellent list of ideas for settling at night, but the active hallucinations and manias cared little for such a list. I previously had exposure to, and understood, the OT’s suggestions since Sarah lived her entire life in the world of autism. Everyone tried so hard to help, but the fact for the current time was that we were not dealing with anything near normal, and Sarah was not responding to most of these types of interventions normally. Her world represented an upside down one. Things considered soothing by many, became intolerable for Sarah.

Another therapist wanted to help Sarah to utilize certain relaxation techniques. Mostly, breathing exercises and music. The deliberate breathing required repetition, or ritual. How could I explain to the therapist that this meditative breathing might be bad? Ritual proved harmful to Sarah, and the repetitive breathing might contribute to future absence spells. Past absence spells disturbed her enough to result in violence and/or screaming. Music and repetition (rote) agitated her. Sarah tried relaxation with the therapist, and she engaged in the deliberate breathing, but she looked disturbed; the way she usually looked when dealing with internal conflict. Sarah’s thought processes were fried, and that made repetition of any sort an enemy. Meditation upon meaningless music, breathing, or idle thinking was in vain. It really pointed to her susceptibility toward spells, as compared to some individual’s susceptibility to hypnotizing. Perhaps Sarah’s involvement in any sort of repetition put her in a trance state, without benefit of suggestion from the hypnotist. All she had was her inner conflict from which to draw.

So yes, I had identified that music represented a trigger for conflict, but I did not comprehend the entirety of Sarah’s music problem. I still don’t understand it completely, but just want to keep trying. As I read Dr. Sacks work and consider Sarah’s presentation over her entire life I can easily conclude that, per our current culture, the constant viewing (over and over) of cartoons, animated movies and other media, most of which have a lot of music intertwined – is something better avoided by those identified as being part of the spectrum of autism. These media in too large a dose may represent for the autistic child the same scenario as the bombardment that Dr. Sacks talked about with regard to his own musical imagery. Dr. Sacks, of course, is better able to make sense of the imagery’s intrusion. An autistic child will have a harder fought life long journey of discernment with regard to what they take in, and how their psyche responds to it all.

That is it for this writing.
Read the other Musicophilia Comparisons

Read Musicophilia!
By Oliver Sacks

Musicophilia Comparison (Comp 3); Hyperacusis, Understanding Life in Context, Memory Types & Neural Underpinnings

With regard to Sarah’s presentation.
*Sarah is a seventeen year old autistic girl who has recovered from several years of significant psychosis, either a worsening of already present autism or actual schizophrenia since is runs in the family. Sarah has hyperacusis, since her earliest years.

In Musicophilia, Dr. Sacks offers the concept that removal of normal auditory input might result in a hypersensitivity of the auditory cortex causing heightened powers of musical imagery – and sometimes auditory hallucinatory process. His focus is with music and how it is utilized and occupied in the brain of persons typically more normal, many of whom developed their atypical and more fascinating response to music later in life. What is not lost where Sarah is concerned is the fact that her sight perception, auditory perception, and other sense perception translates to unique and atypical understanding of all her life experience. The fact that her auditory sense is profoundly unique in how it translates sound from her earliest development (explained in Comp 2 of Musicophilia), and most likely even affects her physical well being, means that she has not learned in the usual manner even from her earliest years. If one is dealing with a confused auditory process, a process that might even have ramifications with regard to feeling physically well or not, their focus would not be in assimilation of all that is going on around them, learning about life in context; the abstract, the concrete, emotions and so on.

Perhaps, because of the above – Sarah’s ability to discern life in context; to understand the abstract, the vague, pretend, real, rote meaning and meaning in context, may be lost in varying degrees. She always has discerned things that are rote in nature, or mathematical and these have been a strength for her. I suppose that for her – abstract, vague, pretend, real, concrete, rote meaning, meaning in context, are of equal relevancy in her mind. Her understanding of all thought and life experience might very well be that; concrete is abstract and abstract is concrete – there is no difference. There seems an absence of pecking order with regard to types of thought and thought’s assimilation in her brain. Thus her intellectual complexity creates a repertoire similar in concept to musical imaging that Dr. Sacks describes, even as her neurological underpinnings might not possess development of separate identity types for different types of thought (Short-Term, Long-Term, Explicit, Episodic, Semantic, Implicit, Priming, Procedural – for chart see this site); those underpinnings hard pressed to develop since the offensive hearing changed what Sarah was able to focus upon. Sarah actually possesses an unique intellectual complexity that is amazing, hardly understandable to the masses. Understood only by those who have in some significant way have witnessed her life experiences. What I suppose is that due to the somewhat offensive way she has heard all along, her neural connections never made the proper pathways with regard to what to comprehend during differing types of thought scenarios. So, her neural connections would be hard pressed to know what to do with all the differing types of thought that are utilized and then occupied within the brain.

The best analogy I can offer: We were under a lot of snow here in the Dakotas. When I drive before the roads are plowed I am not going to be able to discern the location of the road without being able to identify landmarks, farm houses and road signs. I have typically taken in the environment on my many drives and my brain dealt typically with the information I had taken in on the previous drives that were absent of snow. Some aspects of the thought process involved while driving are abstract/less important (like what I listen to on the radio, or the idiot that is tailgating me on any given occasion) and need not be held on to, other aspects are more concrete/important; my neural connections dealt typically and usefully with those aspects of my many drives. Had my brain not worked typically and appropriately filtered and filed (for lack of a better describer) the differing thoughts during the drive, I would not be able to attempt a drive until after the roads were plowed.

Lastly, Sarah’s psychosis seems to represent the “filling in” that Dr. Sacks describes with regard to musical imagery. You are going to have to get his book to find out about how people’s brain seems to function as if it is actually hearing music, when it isn’t (according to imaging). The way they figured it out was to play familiar songs quietly as subjects listened, but have gaps where the music wasn’t playing (while performing the brain imaging). Granted, Sarah’s filling in is not about music, it is about her whole life experience since she seems to lack the filter that is standard in most human models; the filter for differing types of thought. Her neural stimulation seems a hodgepodge that is simply invoked by even the most novel of thought associations. It has made life for the rest of us most interesting and many times for Sarah most exhausting.

That is it for today.
Find more of my Musicophilia comparisons by clicking here.

Shark Monkey Beanie!

(*Sarah is a seventeen year old girl whose recovery from worsening psychosis is documented in Hello, Dr. Wells.)

In celebration of Sarah’s art we developed some gear. Her art can be seen in The Year The Art Stopped book. Information about Sarah’s art is found in this blog under the art label; or you can view all of the gear and art articles on TShirtsBySarah blog.

Sarah recently wanted to send some gear along to her friends and doctors. One doctor decided to wear the beanie even as it might be against the hospital’s dress code. Another doctor confided that the beanie would be added to a special hat collection as a keeper. So, grown ups like the beanie.

I guess kids like the beanie too. Here’s what one mom had to say…”I thought you might enjoy the picture of Riya wearing the hat you sent us! She LOVES wearing the hat…” Well, I am pretty sure this little cutie (Riya pictured above) would look adorable in anything. But, ain’t she sweet in the Shark Monkey Beanie?

Generic & Brand Medication Sometimes Dramatically Different

Wellmark misses the mark.

Got the Blue magazine that is published quarterly by Corporate and Marketing Communications Department of Blue Cross, Blue Shield. They probably want to provide complete information for their marketing material, but unfortunately they missed a little.

Blue’s – Always ask about generics write up implies that FDA approved, high quality generic equivalents is a safe bet for reducing your cost. Yes, the generic might save a bit. There are some facts you need to know. The term equivalent only implies that normal (probably overall healthy) subjects have shown an equivalent response to the generics. But, the generics are not the same. The FDA allows 20 percent difference in the delivery of the active ingredient; the stuff that makes you feel better. The FDA also doesn’t care about how different the fillers are in generics; fillers being the inactive ingredients. The FDA doesn’t care that for many, the fillers in generics will dramatically alter the delivery and therefore the effectiveness of the active ingredient of the product.

Check out People’s Pharmacy and review the multiple years’ worth of reports of adverse response to generic by subjects who had been successfully treated with brand named medication, but forced to switch to generic. The reports are on the increase and I suspect that is because insurance companies have begun to play hardball (denying appeals about continued need for brand name medication due to medical necessity). I have experience this while appealing on my daughter’s behalf but her medical necessity prevailed after a phone call to the Chief Medical Officer for Review.

I used to look over the CrazyMed site years ago, and was overwhelmed by the posters’ necessity to experiment with the generic medication they were forced to switch to, from the brand medication that had given efficacious results. Insurance talks about saving at the pharmacy, but I guarantee you the people who have problems with the generics are needing to visit the doctor more frequently, perhaps needing inpatient stays, and I am just going to say that I wonder how many might have done themselves in due to the psychosis that revisits them while experimenting with generics that don’t give the same results. Generics are not saving money, given that kind of scenario. Perhaps the insurance companies have little regard for those suffering from mental illness since they tend to require more treatment and medication – and perhaps loss of their patronage seems a non event to the insurance company; better for their bottom line.

Generic medication is not always a safe alternative, and does not always maintain the highest standard of care. Visit People’s Pharmacy, or CrazyMeds (not a site to visit if the curse words are going to get to you – or crude jokes. It proclaims itself to be a crazy med site, by crazy people). CrazyMeds is in your face honest and seems to have a pretty in depth write up about generic versus brand medication.

I note that Wellmark’s Blue states that “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that any products with the same active ingredient must meet the same efficacy standards” but I know that the FDA allows 20% difference in delivery of generic medication. Funny math I guess.

I have an idea how Wellmark might save a few bucks in administrative costs. Stop trying to be my nurse per Wellmarks’ Personal Health Assistant – I have a doctor for that stuff. Stop trying to be my doctor with regard to medical decisions, negating medical necessity simply because you have too many sometimes high dollar employees…who are trying to replace the decisions and good judgment of my doctors. My doctors actually do look at my records. Your often high paid employees responsible for reviewing records, don’t even look at them – and just deny the appeal for medical necessity with scripted reasons sent along as denial. Case in point can be seen on insuranceappealblog.blogspot.com – that is a really long appeal process, ridiculous as one considers how many individuals the appeal went through. They ignored the medical necessity and used legal talking points for many, many months. So did the FDA when I tried to point out what the equivalency rating was doing to those who needed proper dosage delivery from their medication…FDA rating has replaced doctor opinion about the unique needs with regard to patient care.

Oil Rich Venezuela Rations Energy Usage

Chavez dictates power consumption due to lack of enough power in his own country. It appears they rely on hydroelectric and are in a drought. This article is a good example of how lack of planning and lack in utilization of available resources stagnates an economy…It appears their government owned industry even had to limit hours of steel production due to lack in available energy in this oil rich nation. Go figure.

Medicare Patients Dropped; Mayo Clinic Arizona

Link to Mayo Clinic Arizona; Drops Medicare Patients
Mayo Clinic dropping Medicare patients. A hospital can’t continue to operate if it is getting underpaid…not even a not for profit hospital. It appears that Mayo overall lost 840,000,000 in 2009 due to Medicare; 120,000,000 of that in the Arizona clinic that is the subject of the article. This doesn’t look good for those who the government says it wants to look out for.

Cell Phones and Teenage Autism; Follow Up

Cell Phone & Teenage Autism Follow Up

A couple of independent texts by Sarah (now 17 yrs old)…
An invitation: come to taco johns at 25th on friday and the mcdonalds at 21 on monday thank you caylee thank you so much sarah
A reply: why thank you caylee uncle wayne make at roast beast grandma patsy and grandpa ron come in the farm house ok?

Here are some test scores that show language ability when she was quite young:
TEST DATE: 11/5/96
Auditory Comprehension – Raw score: 9 (0 years, 10 months)
Expressive Communication – Raw Score: 17 (1 year, 8 months)
TOTAL LANGUAGE SCORE – 26 (1 year, 4 months)
Sarah was one month shy of four years old here.
TEST DATE: 4/7/98
Auditory Comprehension – Raw Score: 29 (2 years, 11 months)
Expressive Communication – Raw Score: 25 (2 years, 9 months)
TOTAL LANGUAGE SCORE – 54 (2 years, 9 months)
Sarah was five years and three months on this test date.
Higher scores and more even development were documented.

Independent sentences from kindergarten for comparison. (6-7yrs old)
• Mom Dad Jeff Jana my fuem. (my family).
• I went wo trgert to baa mivea. (I went to Target to buy a movie).
• I lak two play out sas with looses. (I like to play outside with Lucy.)
• My two cookes tish the good.
• I rud my bak two be pok. (I rode my bike to the park.)
• We drove to to go boating in the lake.
• Mom and I wet rolandblade atder scoolo. (Mom and I went roller blading after school.)
• Dad bot me to schoolo today. Mom wet on a trip.
I was told that these were independently written in Kindergarten. At home, I would ask Sarah to tell me what they said and she would read them back to me helping me to understand what the sentence said.

From a report, sentence writing in second in-home program (10 yrs old), independently done in context of very structured teaching environment. Sarah was generating short simple sentences, but often required assistance. Examples (as written by Sarah):
• Cheese is yummy.
• The grass is green.
• Kevin works at PostNet.
• The rain is wet.
• The dog is soft.
• I like to swim in the pool.
• Sonic is a hedgehog.
• Pringles are soaty (salty).
• Simba are road (roars).
• Yong in is sleep. (I yawn when I am sleepy.)
• Tape is like glue.
• My garnen (garden) is growing.
• Box is emty.
• Letter are something I write.
• The face is body.
• Street is a crossing.
• Is a farm is the sheep.
• The wheel is is bike.
• The paint is the red house.
• Teacher is in the class room.
• Scissors is cut.

As already mentioned, Sarah is seventeen now. For these past several days the texting has given her a lot of enjoyment, a form of independent expression with associations of all types. The people she has been in contact with really seem to enjoy it as a pleasant and fun interaction…Her communications with them are in proper context with regard to her relationship with them. She can’t wait for school to be back in session so that she can get some of her classmates numbers! It will be fun to see how her sentence writing is affected by this form of communication. For now I see all positives…because she enjoys it.