Coincidentally

[trickykitty]

My co-worker/CSR has been in the hospital for a week and a half, and I'm thinking she will probably not be able to return to work. Due to medical conditions, she started having what appeared to be an asthma attack and stopped breathing (although asthma was not one of her previous medical conditions). She was resuscitated after ~15min of not breathing. She has since been having seizures and kidney problems and is having to go on dialysis. She's still on a breathing machine. My biggest worry, though, is her mind. The doctors have told the family that she has suffered brain damage, but they are not sure yet to what extent, and they probably won't be able to know for sure until she's off the breathing machine and able to take some cognitive tests. Right now her responses seem very child-like to me. Although I can totally understand the family members wanting to attribute higher-level cognitive functions to what few movements she's making, I've spent too much time studying cognitive functions to want to make such attributions. I do hope she makes a full recovery, but right now I'm worried about what they will find out once that breathing tube comes out. She just doesn't seem like she's still there at all to me. I really hope I'm wrong.

This has put a major strain on me at work. I was already technically short one staff person since last October, and then we switched to a new system that required tons of work and extra hours to figure out. Now I'm short another staff person, so half my day is doing the job of two other people (a CSR and a dispatcher), and the other half is me trying to keep my sanity without biting people's heads off. My fuse is pretty short right now.

So, my reason for this post wasn't actually to lament the situation, whether it be my co-worker's and her family's situation or my personal work-stress situation. Thinking about her potentially "losing her mind" got me to thinking: I've never heard of someone gaining higher cognitive functions as a result of brain injury. It's always been decreased functionality, or a general return to the status quo (I'm resisting the urge to call it "normal"). As an aside, I'm also reminded of a movie I watched back in the 80's (most likely a made-for-tv movie) about a high school kid that receives a brain transplant and how he and his family have to cope with the fact that he's now a completely different person (personality) than he was previously. This is where we insert the fact that your personality ISN'T some mythical "soul" but is in fact the brain and how it's wired per individual.

So, I did a basic Google search for "smarter after brain damage". Interestingly enough, there's an article that was posted just 3 days ago in Mail Online about an average guy turned math genius who's book about his experience was released yesterday. I found some other articles to read, but that one in particular just seemed interestingly timely for my internet search.

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In completely unrelated news, but it still caught my attention in the side bar, Jodie Foster ties the knot with Ellen DeGeneres' ex-girlfriend Alexandra Hedison. I've always liked Jodie Foster, so this is actually one of those rare gossipy newsy thingies that I actually have an interest in.