Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Help me with my brain

For those of you who loved Black Sabbath and were amused by Ozzy Osbourne long before his recent fame, the phrase "Help me with my brain," brings a chuckle and a smile. For the rest of you? It's too late. Anyway, here is a nice shot of actual brain damage. This image appears to be flipped left for right, but the reason for that is that the MRI is taken from the perspective of the toes looking up at the top of the head. So in the image you see, the problem is the brighter, horizontal area about halfway up the skull on the left side (but that's really the right side of the brain.) It looks like it is on the fourth brain squiggle up, depending on how you count brain squiggles. There is a little bit of the same brightness in the corresponding area on the left side of the brain (the right side in this picture). There are numerous "slices" of the brain that they image in the MRI, and this bright smudge is seen in a number of them, ascending through the motor cortex in what I have been told is the typical ALS pattern. Today my lovely wife goes with me to the speciality center, where they will hopefully hit me with their best junk. I will let you know how it goes.

My right side is much better than my left side, but last night I asked my lovely wife to wiggle her fingers as quickly as she could, and it seemed faster than I can do it even with my right hand.
|
Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com