'Nough Said?

Sometimes the least said is best.

Prepared to Die

What I find extremely concerning about our passive outlook on life is our lack of preparation for death. Many of us think that if we don't think about death it will somehow pass us by or at least get distracted elsewhere. This mentality often leaves families devastated and ill prepared to carry on. From personal experience, my brother, Jay, at the age of 39 died of a heart attack. You can be sure that he did not expect to die at 39. He had not updated his pension and insurance at work to reflect his then 16-year-old daughter as his beneficiary. His pension for his work of 19 years and 6 months with the corporation he worked for reverted back to the company. Had he been active in ensuring the well-being of his daughter, she would have received his pension.

I think... we can choose to be passive and continue to let things happen to us or we can become active and take action to make things happen the way we truly desire. I don't believe anyone wants to create a hardship for their loved ones. To that end, we should all make sure that our affairs are in order. Check your insurance policies annually. Make sure that your beneficiaries are current. Make sure your family knows where important papers and information are kept. Be clear as to what your wishes are by talking to family and friends in a frank and honest manner. It doesn't help to ignore the inevitable. Since we never know when death will come, we should always be prepared.

Financial Woes

I have not blogged for a few days. I've been thinking...

Like many others, I have hit some incredibly hard financial times. I have been thinking about my options on how to resolve those problems. I find it especially difficult to understand the great depths to which my situation has sunk. This is because I am an extremely frugal person with few possessions and even fewer needs. Yet and still, here I am... struggling. I had to think about what choices I have made up to now that has led me to this point. I know that every choice that I have made has been instrumental in where I am now. So, now to go back and review those choices. Those choices can not be reversed, but can be reflected upon in order to avoid repeating any that will continue to cause me financial problems.

I know that I have an inclination to want to help others. In spite of the fact that I have little (relatively speaking), I tend to want to take care of others. I think that is in part the mothering side of me.

But, what I really struggle with is how some decisions that I have made, seemingly in my favor, have somehow turned out to be to my detriment. For example, at 42 I left my full-time job and finished my undergraduate education. On the surface this seemed to be a wise decision. In my work life I had consistently been told that without a degree my ability to make more money would be stifled. So... I received a Bachelor's degree with a double-major and graduated Maxima Cum Laude. Well, that decision did not lead to more opportunities or a better salary. With my many years of experience and now an undergraduate degree, I was told that the positions I was then applying for required a graduate degree. So... once again, I entered school to pursue a degree that was to provide me with the credentials necessary to fulfill the requirements of the positions that would offer a better salary and opportunities.

I have completed my coursework and await graduation from an Ivy League school. I am now over $100,000 in educational debt. I am working full-time in a position slated to end in June 2008. I will begin teaching this month, but with no prior teaching experience will only make a small salary.

With a past due mortgage, student loans, car insurance, utilities, one last minor child at home, etc. I would need to make $100,000 a year just to meet all of my obligations. What are the chances of that? I don't know. At this point, my options are waning, the creditors are calling and my home is in jeopardy.

With each email entry Publisher's Clearing House assures me they are on the way. I hope they get here soon!

String Theory

Are you ready to stretch your mind and what you know to consider the possibilities?

Have a Great Day !

I hope that you're having a great day!!! Don't forget to smell the flowers along the way.

Traumatic Brain Injury in Military Personnel

During my graduate studies I took a neuroethics class. This is an excerpt of my paper on Traumatic Brain Injury in Military Personnel. I know the content and vocabulary may be a bit complex, but I believe it is well worth the effort to read.

Due to the prevalence of undiagnosed traumatic brain injury (TBI) in military personnel, proactive screening utilizing established tests employed in other applications would best identify those suffering from TBI. I suggest three readily available and portable tests (Stroop Task, Virtual Water Maze and Field Sobriety Test) currently employed in other applications that could potentially be most efficient in detecting traumatic brain injury in military personnel in the field.

Traumatic brain injury can lead to a diverse range of neuropsychological deficits, including attention, memory, processing speed, and executive functioning (Axelrod, Fichtenberg, Liethen, Czarnota, & Stucky, 2001). “Sixty-four percent (64%) of soldiers wounded in action in Operation Iraqi Freedom sustained blast injuries, according to the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army.” (http://www.hjf.org/research/feature_DVBIC.html) There is a lack of clear evidence as to whether or not the military proactively screens its injured personnel for TBI in the field. Due to the sheer numbers of traumatically brain injured personnel, the implication is that proactive screening should be conducted in the field to identify military personnel with closed head injuries where no visible signs of injury are present.

Personnel sustaining injuries from blasts, motor vehicle accidents, falls or gun shot wounds to the head, who are medically evacuated to hospitals, are proactively screened. (J Head Trauma Rehabil, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp 398-402, 2006) Unlike visibly obvious wounds, closed head injuries can go undetected for years. “Proactive patient education, ongoing health screening with appropriate medical follow-up, and timely interventions for individuals with TBI are indicated.” (J Head Trauma Rehabil. 1998 Aug;13(4):47-57) Military personnel diagnosed with TBI report subjective symptoms that are unlikely to be measured through conventional means, such as diagnostic imaging.

Therefore, tests need to be devised that can capture and evaluate the subjective complaints expressed by undiagnosed TBI personnel. The nature of brain injury itself is damage to the core of the central nervous system. The brain is the organ we use to create and decipher our experiences and understand who we are as a person and our place in the world. Therefore, the brain itself becomes an unreliable source of detecting and measuring cognitive and motor function and selfhood. TBI military personnel often complain of symptoms of not feeling like themselves and experiencing difficulty navigating without bumping into obstacles and difficulty in completing routine tasks. This subjective reporting is not addressed by traditional measures of objective diagnostic imaging which may detect structural damage to the brain. Objective questioning to determine alert and oriented status (e.g., person, place and time orientation) too may be less than optimal in determining the functioning of the TBI person. One can potentially maintain person, place and time orientation while suffering from a disoriented selfhood, altered spatial orientation and an inability efficiently process information needed to complete routine tasks. Therefore, military personnel suffering from a traumatic brain injury could potentially be assigned where they are driving, utilizing hazardous equipment, handling weapons, making snap judgments and other tasks that require full capacity thinking and reflexes where theirs is lacking. There exists some established testing for the counterparts of TBI patient’s suffering from organic diseases with similar symptomatology. These are the three tests that I recommend:

Stroop Task: Publishing his PhD thesis in 1935, John Ridley Stroop devised a psychological test of mental (attention) vitality and flexibility. “The task takes advantage of our ability to read words more quickly and automatically than we can name colors. If a word is printed or displayed in a color different from the color it actually names; for example, if the word ‘green’ is written in blue ink we will say the word ‘green’ more readily than we can name the color in which it is displayed, which in this case is ‘blue’.” The cognitive mechanism involved in this task is called directed attention, you have to manage your attention, inhibit or stop one response in order to say or do something else. (http://www.snre.umich.edu/eplab/demos/st0/stroopdesc.html)

Virtual Morris Water Maze: Devised by Prof. Richard Morris in 1984, the Morris water maze tested mice introduced into a pool where an unseen platform gave them access out of the pool. Around the pool are several markers as points of reference. When the mice are placed into the pool at the same point of entry they eventually recall the location of the platform. After repeatedly placing the mice into the pool they become familiar with the location of the markers in reference to the platform. Therefore, when placed into the pool at different locations the mice are able to identify the markers as a point of reference to where the platform is located.
In its virtual application, the Morris water maze was used to test humans by simulating the same pool scenario. In their research, Human spatial navigating deficits after traumatic brain injury shown in the arena maze, a virtual Morris water maze, Skelton, Ross, Nerad and Livingston found that TBI survivors were unable to remember the location of the hidden platform that was always located in the same place. (Brain Injury 20 (2): 189-203 Feb 2006) This test in particular is important in identifying TBI military personnel during wartime because of the significant implications in their ability to identify targets and their locations in reference to the positions of comrades and allies.

Field Sobriety Test: The Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) is a battery of three tests administered and evaluated by trained examiners to obtain validated indicators of alcohol impairment. These tests were developed as a result of research sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and conducted by the Southern California Research Institute. As previously stated, TBI personnel often complain of difficulty navigating around objects. This battery of tests may aid in identifying TBI personnel experiencing balance and navigation difficulties, along with difficulty in following simple instructions. The test consists of three parts: the horizontal gaze nystagmus, the walk-and-turn, and the one-leg stand. (http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/deskbk.html#SFST)

Hillary Smack Down

This humorous article from the New York Times emphasizes how silly the presidential campaign has become.