{"id":167,"date":"2017-08-06T14:05:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T14:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2019-02-24T19:58:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T19:58:35","slug":"one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"The Brain and My Stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stroke: impairment caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain<\/p>\n<p>Pilgrim: One who embarks on a quest for some end conceived as sacred<\/p>\n<p>The brain is an organ that is the center of the nervous system.\u00a0 It is truly a miracle.\u00a0 It has neurons which have the ability to send signals to target cells located throughout the whole body.\u00a0 These signals are sent via axons which are fibers which run like superhighways throughout the body.\u00a0 Axons transmit signals to other neurons by specialized junctions called synapses.<\/p>\n<p>The brain is divided into many compartments, which have evolved through the ages. The base of the brain is the oldest evolutionary part of the brain.\u00a0 It is involved in basic life support functions.\u00a0 It is divided into compartments starting with the medulla which regulates involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.\u00a0 As part of the brain stem, it transfers neural signals from the brain to the spinal cord.\u00a0 The next area is the pons. It serves as the message center between several areas of the brain. It is involved in sleep, breathing, swallowing, bladder function, and equilibrium. The hypothalamus and thalamus are involved in eating, drinking, defecation and some communication between the hemispheres of the brain. Above the brain stem is the cerebellum.\u00a0 This area modulates the signal coming from other brain regions, involving thought or motor related activities.\u00a0 It creates a precise and smooth signal for walking, writing, staying balanced, and is learned instead of being built in. For example, the stumbling drunk has impaired his cerebellum with alcohol.\u00a0\u00a0Above the cerebellum is the cerebrum. It is the largest region of the brain and is involved in cognitive thought or shall I say, &#8216;thinking&#8217;.\u00a0 The brain is also divided into two hemispheres, which are referred to as right and left.\u00a0 The left hemisphere is related to more logical &#8216;language&#8217; related thoughts and more specialized specific tasks.\u00a0 The right brain is related to more big picture &#8216;thinking&#8217;\u00a0 and is often thought of as artistic and creative thought, and the home of the subconscious.<\/p>\n<p>When a brain has a stroke, blood flow is lost to a portion of the brain.\u00a0 This can be because of a clot or a hemorrhage.\u00a0 the severity of the stroke is determined by how much of the brain is involved, and the duration that\u00a0 blood flow has been lost. This is why getting someone to the hospital immediately is of utmost importance.\u00a0 If the stroke was\u00a0 in the cerebrum, memories may be lost. You might not recognize a friend, you may forget how to write, These things will have to be relearned. If you had a stroke in the brain stem, you may lose muscle control, or worse, respiration.\u00a0 The hemisphere of the brain affected will also affect how the stroke manifests itself.<\/p>\n<p>My stroke was the result of a clot in the pons region of my brain. It resulted in what is called &#8216;locked in syndrome&#8217;, resulting in paralysis below the eyes, where all one can move is the eyes.\u00a0 The cognitive part of the brain is unaffected, resulting in being fully aware of what is happening, but being locked into a solitary prison. Communication must be accomplished by eye movement.\u00a0 In a body that no longer responds to wishes or commands.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stroke: impairment caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain Pilgrim: One who embarks on a quest for some end conceived as sacred The brain is an organ that is the center of the nervous system.\u00a0 It is truly a miracle.\u00a0 It has neurons which have the ability to send signals to target &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/?p=167\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Brain and My Stroke<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/strokepilgrim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}