Unlocking paralysis

Monday August 6, 2012 Rehab: One thing I saw when I first entered rehab was a video about ‘learned paralysis’. It was a lecture by VS Ramachandran that I found on the Internet [ link ]. Although my paralysis wasn’t learned in the sense he talks about ..it made me realize how much of a stroke is information-based. Transmission from the motor areas of my brain had been interrupted. Rehab was going to depend on me finding pathways around this. I needed to re-establish contact with the left side of my body. To me this meant flooding my brain with information. Tuning-in to internal (proprioceptive / kinesthetic) as well as external sources (visual / tactile). So, even though my paralysis wasn’t ‘learned’ ..I was going to have to re-learn and re-juvenate neural-pathways to unlock it. Gaining a better sense of ‘somatic awareness’ was the first step.

Day four

Monday August 6, 2012   I watched a video by VS Ramachandran (below). He talks about a simple procedure designed to alleviate phantom limb pain that is being used in hospitals throughout the world. At the time the video was produced (2006) ..the procedure was just entering clinical trials to test it’s effectiveness for alleviating paralysis. It’s based on the premise that a component of paralysis is learned. It suggests that by seeing what the weak limb should do ..watching how the good limb does it, the brain gets additional information it needs to re-wire itself accordingly.

   It consists of a mirror box where you put both hands inside ..except what you see is the good hand where the weak hand ordinarily appears. Patients see this and it looks as though the weak hand is moving with ease. Repeated sessions in the mirror box can boost the outcome of physical therapy. I’m reminded of the multi-sensory training we give kids in speech and reading therapy. Informs the brain how to re-wire itself by not only hearing ..but also by seeing and feeling the vibrations required to produce the subtle sounds of language. It has proven most successful in treating dyslexia.

   I suddenly realize how much of my rehab is actually going to be about information. Targeting my brain with information .. telling it what needs to be done. Banging my heels. Exaggerating my moves. Training my nervous system ..not just my muscles. Using dramatic gestures to get my body to recruit different neuro-muscular pathways and get the job done.

   I ask Noah if the method ever passed clinical trials. Affirmative, he answers. They use it mainly for severe cases where the patient experienced motionless before therapy. They learned they can’t move. The mirror box works by helping the patient unlearn the perception that they can’t move and triggers the brain to find a way. For me, seeing this video unlocks the power of information that I harness the rest of my days at rehab and beyond. I'm still mirroring my good side to inspire my weak side