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Connecting People Going Through Brain Surgery
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Whether you’re looking for ways to connect with someone going through brain surgery or are a patient yourself, finding a community of support can help make the experience less overwhelming. There are many organizations, online and in person, that offer social and emotional support to patients and survivors.
The first step is to find a good team of medical professionals, including a neurologist and neuro-oncologist who can provide you with a diagnosis and treatment plan. They can also help you understand the risks and benefits of various treatments, so you can make an informed decision about what’s best for you.
A brain surgeon may use a combination of techniques to treat your brain tumor or epilepsy. For example, your doctor might use radiation therapy to kill the cancer cells in your brain. They might also give you drugs to slow or prevent seizures.
One type of treatment that can be done through a small cut in your groin is called endovascular surgery, or thrombectomy. A surgeon threads a tube (catheter) up to your brain and then removes blood clots, repairs aneurysms or treats other conditions that affect your brain. Look for more facts about surgery at https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/divisions-diagnostics-and-procedures/medicine/surgeon.
Before you undergo the surgery, your neurosurgeon or speech-language pathologist may ask you to perform certain tasks. This helps them create a map of the areas of your brain that are important for speaking, moving a body part, remembering information or looking at pictures. This helps them avoid destroying these areas during the surgery, preserving your body’s ability to do the things you need it to do.
The surgery is usually under a general anaesthetic, so you won’t feel any pain or discomfort. Your neurosurgeon can operate from inside your skull, or from outside the skull through a tiny hole in your skin.
You’ll also have scans before and during the operation, which can be done with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine or a computer-aided surgery (CAS) machine. These scans can be used to pinpoint exactly where the tumour is.
Your doctor might be able to use electrical stimulation to control your seizures. During this procedure, they implant electrodes in the area around your brain and stimulate it with pulses of electricity. This sends messages to your brain to prevent seizures and control other symptoms associated with brain tumors. See linked here for more details!
When the electrodes are placed, you’ll be put under sedation so you don’t feel any pain and can remain asleep during the procedure. Your anaesthetic will be gradually reduced until you’re awake and ready to go home.
After your procedure, you’ll be closely monitored by your health care team to make sure you’re recovering properly and that your brain is functioning well. You may be put on oxygen support, given medications to reduce your pain or sent for physical therapy or rehabilitation.
It’s normal to feel scared, insecure, confused and angry about a brain tumor diagnosis. But it’s important to try to take an empowerment approach and gain more control over your feelings and the treatment process. Read this article for more details!
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Connecting People Going Through Brain Surgery With a Brain Buddy
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The brain is a powerful organ that influences so much of our lives. It can help us make sense of the world and create new ideas, but its workings are still largely unknown.
This October, Mental Floss is partnering with the National Geographic Channel to celebrate the human brain by showing a live deep-brain stimulation surgery on TV for the first time. The special, airing Sunday night at 9 p.m., will include pre-produced content that explains what the brain does and how science is helping to discover it.
Deep-brain surgery is an elective procedure that helps patients with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. The technique uses electrodes inserted into the patient’s skull to send electrical pulses to the brain.
Unlike other brain surgeries, the patient remains awake during DBS, which means that they can speak to neurosurgeons and neurologists as they seek to pinpoint the problem areas in their brains. This allows the doctors to put the patient through a series of tests, which may show where electrodes have been placed on the patient’s brain. Be sure to learn more here!
A brain implant can control a patient’s seizures
In the podcast “The Future of Everything,” Emily Borghard talks about how her brain implant, which was developed by Neuropace and is used at Stanford University Medical Center, keeps her from having hundreds of seizures a day. She is one of the few people who have undergone this type of surgery, which involves inserting a tiny computer chip into the brain and using electric stimulation to keep the seizures at bay. Discover more facts about surgery at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/neurosurgery.
The implantation of the chip is done through a tiny incision in the brain, which is then dilated up to 8 mm. Tiny needles are then inserted to make the insertion, which is a painless process.
A brain buddy is a device that can enhance your mental fitness, by integrating audio-visual entrainment (AVE), cranial electrostimulation (CES) and heart rate variability (HRV). It is battery operated, so you can take it anywhere and can be used by people in education, sport or those who would like to improve their mental fitness.
An online support group can be a huge addition to the recovery process for anyone who has undergone brain surgery or is struggling with a related injury. These groups meet virtually on Zoom and can provide a supportive environment for patients, their families and their caregivers to share and learn from each other. Get additional reading here!
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How to Mitigate Hearing Loss
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Taking steps to mitigate hearing loss can save billions of dollars globally.
One way that you can mitigate hearing loss is by making sure you protect your ears from loud sounds. This is especially important if you work in an environment where you're constantly exposed to loud noises or if you listen to music with headphones at high volume.
Wearing earplugs or earmuffs when you're in an area that produces loud sound is the best way to protect your hearing. It's also a good idea to use these anytime you are at a concert, sporting event or anywhere where you may be exposed to loud noise.
Avoiding noise induced hearing loss
Exposure to loud sounds over time can cause a permanent reduction in your hearing. This is known as noise-induced hearing loss, and it can be caused by many different things. The most common is exposure to loud blasts, like gunfire or fireworks. But it can also be caused by less-exciting things, like rock concerts or even high-pitched dentist drills. Know about Printing patient-specific 3D models here!
The damage can take place gradually or instantly. The sooner you get it treated, the better your chances of recovering your hearing.
Preventing noise-induced hearing loss involves avoiding exposure to loud sounds as much as possible, says Dr. Sydlowski. If you do need to be around loud sounds, be aware of your decibel limit: NIOSH recommends that 85 decibels is "safe" for eight hours. But each subsequent three-decibel increase reduces this amount of time by half, so it's important to know how long you can safely be in an environment with loud sounds. Know about this Mitigate Hearing Loss here!
Other ways to prevent hearing loss include wearing earplugs, turning down the volume on your headphones and listening to music at lower volumes. You can also choose to avoid smoking, which is another risk factor for hearing loss, and eat a healthy diet that includes vitamins A, C and E.
Ask your audiologist about a hearing aid
A hearing aid is an electronic device that improves your hearing by amplifying sound. They come in a variety of styles and can be custom-made for you after your doctor takes measurements or a cast is made of your ear.
Your audiologist will help you choose the right style for your needs and will ensure that it fits properly, as well as provide any other information you need to understand how to care for your new devices. Read more about surgery at https://www.britannica.com/science/psychosurgery.
You'll need to return for a follow-up appointment to make sure the hearing aid is working for you, and your audiologist will check its performance over time. Your audiologist can also suggest different types of hearing aids that may be suitable for your specific type of hearing loss.
Avoiding medications that damage your hearing
About 200 drugs can damage your ears, including antibiotics and some cancer-fighting medications. It's important to talk with your audiologist about all the medication you are taking, and whether any of them can affect your hearing.
If you need to take a medication, be sure to talk with your audiologist before and during treatment so that they can monitor the effect on your hearing.
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