What is Alzheimer’s disease? Dementia brain tour

Charity name help.. PLEASE =]?

So I am starting a charity to promote awareness for a brain disease called Hydrocephalus. My brother was diagnosed with it in 2001 and it is a very serious, yet very unknown disease, that little research is done for. It means a lot to me to get the word out about it. So I am having trouble thinking of a name..here are a few I was thinking about, they are a little pathetic

Here’s one that popped into my head straight after reading your question.
Title: ‘Drain My Brain’
Tag line: Let the drain take the strain from my brain.

** Old version ** The Dangers of Aspartame (Artificial Sweeteners, Sugarfree, Diet, Zero, E951)

What is this disease called when blood vessels in brain got smaller?

Can you help me find the name of this disease when the blood vessels around brain area getting smaller and this could lead to paralyze of certain parts of the body because not enough nutrients could to feed the brain. I believe it’s the opposite disease of cerebral aneurysms, but i’m not sure.
Thank you in advance!

Flust is the most correct so far. If you are talking about actual narrowing of the blood vessels, then it may be stenosis – a long, slow process. However, that is not very common in the brain. You could also be referring to an acute situation called vasospasm that results when brain vessels are traumatized. This is not the opposite of a brain aneurysm where the artery wall is weakened and bulges out. Vasospasm can be extremely dangerous and generally needs immediate treatment. As you describe, blood flow is reduced and downstream areas of the brain are starved for blood.

Dying 7 year old girl with degenerative brain disorder taunted and harassed by neighbors in Trenton

Humor Heals Like Good Medicine

I was sitting in a meeting one evening with other parents like me.  We were all alumni from ICEC, an organization providing various therapies to our special needs children.  The meetings were always moderated by a psychologist who helped us work through our grieving, healing, and milestones.  Thank goodness because we needed all the mental help we could summon.  You know that saying “It takes a village?”  It does. It takes a village of psychologists and pharmacists to get through such staggering times like that.

Nevertheless,  it was quite a liberating group and it was the first time that I realized I could just be myself with no hang-ups, nothing to prove, and nothing to be egotistical about.  It was an amazing time of self awareness, all the while dealing with the most traumatic moments of my life.  You would think that dealing with all the hurt, pain and disappointment of having a child with special needs would only make me feel helpless, unhappy, guilty, and disappointed, but it was the opposite.  I felt relief that Derek is who he is without any need to explain anything.  

So this one mom started talking about her kids, how she had one child with ADHD, one with autism and one with some other undiagnosed syndrome.  And I thought I had a full house.  She went on to explain that her son was born missing several fingers.  She was pouring out her heart to all of us when I suddenly burst into inappropriate laughter.  It was awful.  I felt ashamed at first because everyone was looking at me like I was nuts.  They disapproved of my “bad behavior.”  I couldn’t stop, I was a runaway train at that point.  Tears started rolling down my face.  People started giggling as they watched me explode with the freedom that comes with pure laughter.  The laughter was like rockets jetting out of my mouth.  Finally I had to stop and explain myself.  It took me several times to try and talk, I couldn’t stop the laughing.  Finally, I said,  “I’m so sorry, but I’m laughing because if I would have known you earlier, we could have given you four fingers!  My son was born withextra fingers and toes  –12 of each –we had spares!”  The room exploded in laughter.  The other parents laughed like they’ve never laughed before.  All the sadness, grief and disappointment was washed away for several minutes as we passed around a box of tissue to dab the tears of laughter streaming down our faces.  It was much needed relief.

The absurdity of that sentence that came out of my mouth was appreciated by this crowd.  This is the same crowd that can laugh at things you would never think someone should laugh at.  It’s like me saying, “Oh, your kid’s room is a mess?  Let my “borderline autistic” son come over. He’ll line up all the toys and have the place spotless.”  Only parents of special needs children and the friends and family that they are close too can feel comfortable laughing at that kind of darkness.  It’s such a sense of freedom that I can’t explain when you can be safe enough to laugh at such serious circumstances.  No one is offended, no one makes excuses for it, it is just us “being” with what we have been given.  Our adopted four-year-old son was born addicted to meth. His birth mother used   drugs while she was pregnant with him.  We recently ran with the kids in a children’s 1K race at a local festival and we joked that David would win the race hands down.  We rarely see him walk. His preferred method of traveling is running.  He runs down the street, in the house, wherever we go.  We laughed that he sized up the other kids running the race, bysaying, “You think you can beat me?  I don’t think so, I’m powered by Meth.  I got this thing in the bag.”

As bad as that sounds, you have to realize, it’s the adverse circumstances that our kids have sometimes that make you stop and think, “I have to laugh or I’ll cry.”  We choose laughter, and sometimes it may not sound politically correct to other people, but I have nothing to prove to other people anymore.  And being PC takes too much work. I’m exhausted already.

It’s like my 95 year old grandmother (“Gaga”) said to me after she observed a particularly hectic day we were having in my house, “Honey, you need to drink more.”  Boy, Gaga had a way with humor and that’s what keeps me going – humor.  If I can make someone laugh for a minute when they are in the fight of their life dealing with such traumatic events, you better believe I’m going for the funny bone.  We have to just keep going and I think that’s what laughter does. It just helps us keep moving through the day. Before you know it, you’ve made it through a few minutes, and then you’ve made it through a few more.  Suddenly you realize you’ve made it through a day with less tears than you had the day before and you’re still alive and you’re still functioning.  I think that’s what this is all about – finding a way to deal with what you’ve been given and still being a functional, happy and positive human being.

About the Author

Kelly Seymour, is a mother of three, one of whom has Jouberts syndrome.  Kelly on occasion submits her insightful and warming reflections to the Children’s RARE Disease Network

throatius

My thumb has been twitching every hour for a couple of minutes today?

Its making me very worried! I’m afraid that I may have some rare brain disease like ALS! I’m 14 and I think I may suffer from an anxiety disorder because I looked at a very long list of symptoms and I had about 90% of the symptoms, so could the twitching be related to this? Also, I have a reputation of being a hypochondriac. So is the twitching serious because I am beginning to panic!
Thanks!

Haha, I honestly think your fine. I’m 14 and I suffer (probably from self diagnosed) from kinda big hypercondria. Honestly it’s probably something that your making yourself do, like if you pay big attention to it, your brain will do the rest, so just try your best not to pay attention to it, and that’ll probably be taken care of. Haha, honestly the internet is not the thing to awnser questions on. I have asthma and my chest was hurting one night, and I thought any minute I was going to have a heart attack because of all the things I looked up. Don’t always trust what you read online. Ask your parents and see what they think (I know it’s emmbarrassing), but my mom helped me calm down a lot after I over came my shyness. Honestly, don’t go to the internet, ask your parents. The internet will make you think you have cancer or some shit. (Honestly I thought I did have cancer at one point xD) but I’ve learned not to trust it, and ask my mom (:P). Haha sorry, I had to discuss my problems, but I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s probably a habbit or something (unless you can’t control it), cause I have a habbit of popping my leg, and sometimes I can’t stop. So don’t worry! if you have hypercondria, everything can get fucked up.

Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease