I love the genre sci-fi-philosophy and books that make you question life and existence basically. My favorites so far are:
Contact, Carl Sagan
Story of your life and others and exhalation, Ted chiang
Dispossessed, leguin
Hyperion, Simmons
Three body problem
I recently read dark matter and thought it was meh. Looking for a book that fits my preferences!
I had a severe hemorrhagic stroke from AVM rupture at 18, underwent craniectomy, cranioplasty, all of that. I recovered tremendously well that I don’t even feel like I belong in this group, because so many of you have recovered with deficits of a much larger scale than I have. I lost half of my sight, live with chronic paresthesia, headaches, and both cognitive and physical fatigue. Yet I was able to push through college, a job, and now graduate school (in progress).
I feel like a fraud when I tell people I’ve lived through a brain bleed and surgery. I basically function so well that nobody can even tell my sight is impaired or that I’ve had severe brain damage. Of course that took years of adapting, immense struggles, enormous amounts of work and effort which people don’t see. I don’t even feel right when I tell people I’m partially blind, even when it’s a fact. I’m so lucky to have lived, and even more lucky to still be able to lead an independent life. Lots of people have it worse, and I see my current deficits as nothing given how bad it could have been otherwise.
Does anyone struggle with this and how do you cope/get around your life with it?
Do you guys on this subreddit with hemianopia have macular splitting or sparing? I am lucky to have my macular spared so my central vision is good. I want to know for my own understanding and awareness of how different hemianopia with macular splitting can be, if anyone is comfortable sharing.
long story short i had a brain bleed from a congenital issue at 18 and nearly died from that and the emergency decompressive craniectomy i had. I spent 11 years in avoidance of the event and I could never talk about it to anyone, even new friends that I made in my 20s. Throughout my life from then on I tried to keep myself busy so that I wouldn't think about the trauma and pain and grief of losing so much of my life. I eventually thought that life was just supposed to be this difficult and that it was the same for everyone.. and I hide all of my disabilities. I hide my visual impairment and cognitive challenges from everyone all of my life ever since. I refused to accept the changes and the fact that I was different from who I was before.
I am almost turning 30 and these coping mechanisms are now starting to crack. I realize I cannot avoid what happened forever. Yet I try to avoid thinking about it because it fills me with sadness that I never had a life that I should have had. I don't know what to do. Thinking about losing so much of my 20s and struggling through what was supposed to be the defining years of my life...
Hi there, I am an econ phd candidate studying innovation and science; I am looking into USPTO work environment and I have several questions that I hope anyone could respond (anything would really help, as I have little knowledge of how things work in the patent office and zero friends in this field)
How are applications assigned to examiners? Does this depend on the supervisory patent examiner of each unit? Is there some kind of examiner specialisation (say by technical expertise) within each unit?
Can multiple units examine one subclass?
What is the average number of examiners per unit?
Are applications getting more complex and difficult to evaluate?
thank you! any responses are greatly appreciated :)
Hi everyone.. my life has been a lot, and i was recently diagnosed with years of unresolved PTSD. I thought I would share my story here as a start.
I had a brain hemmorhage at 17 due to congenital condition that i was not aware of. one day i was fine, the next I had the worst headache of my life. I could not describe the pain even until today. I guess it was like a block of steel had been thrown and left in my head. I was throwing up from the severe pain and I slowly blacked out.. thankfully a friend was around and took me to the ER; the last thing i remember was being carried onto a wheelchair at the ER.
A couple of days later I wake up in the neuro ICU having gone through an extremely risky brain surgery (decompressive craniectomy). I was paralysed on one half of my body, lost around half of my sight, and was in intense pain and obviously fear. The days in the hospital are a blur to me, partly because I was sedated and exhausted. I remember going through a lot of physical pain recovering from the surgery (feeding tubes, head swelling, fevers and all of that). Also from the intense rehab I had to learn how to walk and do things again.
A year later I've made great recovery and thankfully I could walk and be independent. However past that, I was recovering (or trying to) in an awful, unsupportive environment. My family refused to accept that I had become partially blind even though the neurosurgeon confirmed that this was unlikely to resolve from the extent of damage I had. My parents would assure me that I'd get my vision back "as long as I believe it" which I thought was ridiculous. They'd get mad at me when I did not see some things around me. Even today (11 years later), they tell me that I should get a driver's license which is obviously something I cannot do. They also refuse to accept the new person I am. I have a scar and slight deformity in my head that can be covered by my hair. My family tells me that I need to look normal and hide it from people, once they even told me to go for plastic surgery to get it fixed.
During the time of my trauma I was in an unstable relationship out of the need for someone to be there for me. 3 years when we were together, my ex would guilt trip me whenever I asked to split. Things like, 'i did so much for you back then when you were dying'. I stayed in that relationship for far too long out of fear and manipulation.
Because of all that, and from the traumatic experience, I lived almost a decade hiding my impairment, my scars, my emotional distress from everyone. I can cope with my blindness well that people don't realise it. I hid it in a way because I don't want to be reminded by what happened to me, and because the environment was unsafe for me to be who I was. I lived with anger, fear, anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies (part of which was due to medications that messed with your mood), which went unresolved and unchecked for years until now. I was extremely avoidant and I absolutely could not talk about the incident for a really long time -- I deleted all of my pictures before my bleed, so that I would not miss the person I was and the life I could have had. I isolated myself back then from friends that knew me from before. As life went on and I got to college, I pretended that everything was fine, passing off as a fully functioning person. My friends then had no idea what I had gone through. I kept myself extremely busy with courses, or hobbies, so that I wouldn't think or be reminded of what had happened. I was also hypervigilant and extremely aware and anxious about small things, that I have only come to realise it recently..
Things have been getting better as I met my new partner a couple of years ago, the most supportive and kind person. I moved to a new place to pursue my dreams in a faraway place from home. I start finding ways to deal with my difficulties - using a white cane, for instance. Telling friends and receiving the help that I need. Getting therapy and finally dealing with trauma.