A Stitch of Time

A Stitch of Time
Author: Lauren Marks
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451697619

“Readers will be compelled by this illuminating debut memoir…a captivating” (Kirkus Reviews) account of one woman’s journey to regain her language and identity after a brain aneurysm steals her ability to communicate. Lauren Marks was twenty-seven, touring a show in Scotland with her friends, when an aneurysm ruptured in her brain and left her fighting for her life. She woke up in a hospital with serious deficiencies to her reading, speaking, and writing abilities, and an unfamiliar diagnosis: aphasia. This would be shocking news for anyone, but Lauren was a voracious reader, an actress, director, and at the time of the event, pursuing her PhD. At any other period of her life, this diagnosis would have been a devastating blow. But she woke up…different. The way she perceived her environment and herself had profoundly changed, her entire identity seemed crafted around a language she could no longer access. She returned to her childhood home to recover, grappling with a muted inner monologue and fractured sense of self. Soon after, Lauren began a journal, to chronicle her year following the rupture. A Stitch of Time is the remarkable result, an Oliver Sacks–like case study of a brain slowly piecing itself back together, featuring clinical research about aphasia and linguistics, interwoven with Lauren’s narrative and actual journal entries that marked her progress. Alternating between fascination and frustration, she relearns and re-experiences many of the things we take for granted—reading a book, understanding idioms, even sharing a “first kiss”—and begins to reconcile “The Girl I Used to Be” with “The Girl I Am Now.” For fans of Brain on Fire and My Stroke of Insight, the deeply personal and powerful A Stitch of Time is an “engrossing” (Publishers Weekly) journey of self-discovery, resilience, and hope.

The Language and Imagery of Coma and Brain Injury

The Language and Imagery of Coma and Brain Injury
Author: Matthew Colbeck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1350077801

What occurs within coma? What does the coma patient experience? How does the patient perceive the world outside of coma, if at all? The simple answer to these questions is that we don't know. Yet the sheer volume of literary and media texts would have us believe that we do. Examining representations of coma and brain injury across a variety of texts, this book investigates common tropes and linguistic devices used to portray the medical condition of coma, giving rise to universal mythologies and misconceptions in the public domain. Matthew Colbeck looks at how these texts represent, or fail to represent, long-term brain injury, drawing on narratives of coma survivors that have been produced and curated through writing groups he has run over the last 10 years. Discussing a diverse range of cultural works, including novels by Irvine Welsh, Stephen King, Tom McCarthy and Douglas Coupland, as well as film and media texts such as The Sopranos, Kill Bill, Coma and The Walking Dead, Colbeck provides an explanation for our fascination with coma. With a proliferation of misleading stories of survival in the media and in literature, this book explores the potential impact these have upon our own understanding of coma and its victims.

Soul Repair

Soul Repair
Author: Rita Nakashima Brock
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2012-11-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0807029084

The first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on veterans, their families, and their communities Although veterans make up only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they account for an alarming 20 percent of all suicides. And though treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has undoubtedly alleviated suffering and allowed many service members returning from combat to transition to civilian life, the suicide rate for veterans under thirty has been increasing. Research by Veterans Administration health professionals and veterans’ own experiences now suggest an ancient but unaddressed wound of war may be a factor: moral injury. This deep-seated sense of transgression includes feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs. Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal the damage inflicted on soldiers’ consciences. In Soul Repair, the authors tell the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—Camillo “Mac” Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey, and Camilo Mejía—who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually helped soldiers with their moral injuries. Soul Repair will help veterans, their families, members of their communities, and clergy understand the impact of war on the consciences of healthy people, support the recovery of moral conscience in society, and restore veterans to civilian life. When a society sends people off to war, it must accept responsibility for returning them home to peace.

Writing against Racial Injury

Writing against Racial Injury
Author: Haivan V. Hoang
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-06-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780822963622

Writing against Racial Injury recalls the story of Asian American student rhetoric at the site of language and literacy education in post-1960s California. What emerged in the Asian American movement was a recurrent theme in U.S. history: conflicts over language and literacy difference masked wider racial tensions. Bringing together language and literacy studies, Asian American history and rhetoric, and critical race theory, Hoang uses historiography and ethnography to explore the politics of Asian American language and literacy education: the growth of Asian American student organizations and self-sponsored writing; the ways language served as thinly veiled trope for race in the influential Lau v. Nichols; the inheritance of a rhetoric of injury on college campuses; and activist rhetorical strategies that rearticulate Asian American racial identity. These fragments depict a troubling yet hopeful account of the ways language and literacy education alternately racialized Asian Americans while also enabling rearticulations of Asian American identity, culture, and history. This project, more broadly, seeks to offer educators a new perspective on racial accountability in language and literacy education.

Social and Communication Disorders Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Social and Communication Disorders Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Author: Skye McDonald
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2013-12-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1136768645

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can seriously disrupt the social and communication skills that are basic requirements for everyday life. It is the loss of these interpersonal skills that can be the most devastating for people with TBI and their families. Although there are many books that focus upon TBI, none focus on communication and communication skills specifically. This book fills this important gap in the literature and provides information ranging from a broad overview of the nature of pathology following TBI and its effects on cognition and behaviour, through to the latest evidence about ways to assess and treat social and communication disorders. Much has changed in the field of communication disorders and TBI since the first edition of this book was published in 1999. There have been advances in neuroimaging, providing more accurate understanding of how the brain is damaged in TBI and also insights into its repair. There has been a burgeoning interest in social cognition, and advances in how communication is conceptualized, with a particular focus on the role of how context facilitates or impedes communicative ability. Most importantly, much has changed in the arena of rehabilitation. There is now a growing evidence base of treatments aimed at improving communication problems following TBI, new resources for accessing this information and renewed interest in different kinds of methods for demonstrating treatment effects. Bringing together a range of expert international researchers interested in understanding the nature and treatment of TBI this book covers topics from understanding how the brain damage occurs, how it affects social and communication skills and how these problems might be treated. As such it will be of great interest to clinicians, postgraduate and undergraduate students and researchers in neuropsychology, speech and language pathology.

Communication Disorders Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Communication Disorders Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Author: Skye McDonald
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1134950063

There are very few books available which are concerned with the unique communication problems that can come with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In recent years there has emerged a realisation that these difficulties in communication are closely tied to the cognitive, behavioural and social problems observed following traumatic brain injury. This is changing the way people with TBI are assessed and is generating new approaches to rehabilitation. This volume will be of interest to psychologists, speech pathologists and therapists and linguists. Clinicians and researchers working with people with traumatic brain injury, and their students, will find it a comprehensive source of contemporary approaches to characterising the communication problems of people with TBI and for planning rehabilitation.

A Caregiver's Guide to Communication Problems from Brain Injury or Disease

A Caregiver's Guide to Communication Problems from Brain Injury or Disease
Author: Barbara O'Connor Wells
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1421442566

An all-in-one guide for helping caregivers of individuals with brain injury or degenerative disease to address speech, language, voice, memory, and swallowing impairment and to distinguish these problem areas from healthy aging. Advances in science mean that people are more likely to survive a stroke or live for many years after being diagnosed with a degenerative disease such as Parkinson's. But the communication deficits that often accompany a brain injury or chronic neurologic condition—including problems with speech, language, voice, memory, and/or swallowing—can severely impact quality of life. If you are a caregiver coping with these challenges, this all-in-one book can help you and your loved one. Written by a team of experts in speech-language pathology, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of caregiving and features relatable patient examples. Providing answers to common questions, definitions of complex medical terms, and lists of helpful resources, this book also: • touches on expected, age-related changes in communication, memory, swallowing, and hearing abilities, to name a few • offers practical strategies for caregivers to cope with speech, language, and voice problems and to maximize their loved one's ability to communicate • reveals how caregivers can assist their loved ones with swallowing challenges to maintain good nutrition and hydration • provides crucial information on how caregivers can handle grief and take care of themselves during the caregiving process • explains how to incorporate the arts, as well as a loved one's hobbies and interests, into their communication or memory recovery This comprehensive book will allow readers to take a more informed and active role in their loved one's care. Contributors: Marissa Barrera, Frederick DiCarlo, Lea Kaploun, Elizabeth Roberts, Teresa Signorelli Pisano

The Neuroscience of Traumatic Brain Injury

The Neuroscience of Traumatic Brain Injury
Author: Rajkumar Rajendram
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 1206
Release: 2022-05-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0323995756

Diagnosis and Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury will improve readers’ understanding of the complexities of diagnosis and management of traumatic brain injuries. Featuring chapters on drug delivery, different treatments, and rehabilitation, this volume discusses in detail the impact early diagnosis and effective management has on the long-term prognosis of these injuries and the lives of those affected. This book will be relevant for neuroscientists, neurologists, clinicians, and anyone working to better understand these injuries. Traumatic brain injury has complex etiology and may arise as a consequence of physical abuse, violence, war, vehicle collisions, working in the construction industry, and sports. Cellular, Molecular, Physiological, and Behavioral Aspects of Traumatic Brain Injury will improve readers’ understanding of the detailed processes arising from traumatic brain injury. Featuring chapters on neuroinflammation, metabolism, and psychology, this volume discusses the impact of these injuries on neurological and body systems to better understand underlying pathways. This book will be relevant for neuroscientists, neurologists, clinicians, and anyone working to better understand traumatic brain injury. Diagnosis and Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury: Covers both the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain cord injury Contains chapter abstracts, key facts, dictionary, and summary points to aid in understanding Features chapters on epidemiology and pain Includes MRI usage, biomarkers, and stem cell and gene therapy for management of spinal cord injury Discusses pain reduction, drug delivery, and rehabilitation Cellular, Molecular, Physiological, and Behavioral Aspects of Traumatic Brain Injury: Summarizes the neuroscience of traumatic brain injury, including cellular and molecular biology Contains chapter abstracts, key facts, dictionary, and summary points to aid in understanding Features chapters on signaling and hormonal events Includes plasticity and gene expression Examines health and stress behaviors after traumatic brain injury

Brain Injury Medicine, Third Edition

Brain Injury Medicine, Third Edition
Author: Nathan D. Zasler, MD
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
Total Pages: 1891
Release: 2021-09-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0826143059

“This updated textbook was much needed as there has been increased attention in recent years toward brain injuries. The book provides updated guidelines and clinical practice recommendations that support the intended audience of trainees and current practitioners. This update makes it the current standard text for any brain injury specialist." ---Doody's Review Service, 4 stars This revised and greatly expanded Third Edition of Brain Injury Medicine continues its reputation as the key core textbook in the field, bringing together evidence-based medicine and years of collective author clinical experience in a clear and comprehensive guide for brain injury professionals. Universally praised as the gold standard text and go-to clinical reference, the book covers the entire continuum of care from early diagnosis and assessment through acute management, rehabilitation, associated medical and quality of life issues, and functional outcomes. With 12 new chapters and expanded coverage in key areas of pathobiology and neuro-recovery, special populations, sport concussion, disorders of consciousness, neuropharmacology, and more, this "state of the science" resource promotes a multi-disciplinary approach to a complex condition with consideration of emerging topics and the latest clinical advances. Written by over 200 experts from all involved disciplines, the text runs the full gamut of practice of brain injury medicine including principles of public health and research, biomechanics and neural recovery, neuroimaging and neurodiagnostic testing, sport and military, prognosis and outcome, acute care, treatment of special populations, neurologic and other medical complications post-injury, motor and musculoskeletal problems, post-trauma pain disorders, cognitive and behavioral problems, functional mobility, neuropharmacology and alternative treatments, community reentry, and medicolegal and ethical issues. Unique in its scope of topics relevant to professionals working with patients with brain injury, this third edition offers the most complete and contemporary review of clinical practice standards in the field. Key Features: Thoroughly revised and updated Third Edition of the seminal reference on brain injury medicine Evidence-based consideration of emerging topics with new chapters covering pathobiology, biomarkers, neurorehabilitation nursing, neurodegenerative dementias, anoxic/hypoxic ischemic brain injury, infectious causes of acquired brain injury, neuropsychiatric assessment, PTSD, and capacity assessment Multi-disciplinary authorship with leading experts from a wide range of specialties including but not limited to physiatry, neurology, psychiatry, neurosurgery, neuropsychology, physical therapy, occupational therapy speech language pathology, and nursing New online chapters on survivorship, family perspectives, and resources for persons with brain injury and their caregivers Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers