Tuesday 13 December 2016

Cortical Basal Ganglionic Degeneration

Cortical Basal Ganglionic Degeneration. What a mouthful aye. Let's call it CBD for short. CBD is a very rare brain disease. The reason i'm writing a blog post all about it is because my beloved Nan was recently diagnosed with CBD. When my granddad first told me what the disease was called, it was like a blur to me. I thought he was speaking in some kind of different language. I knew my Nan had been diagnosed with Dementia but i knew there was more to it, i just didn't realize how quite serious it was...


What is Cortical Basal Ganglionic Degeneration?

CBD is a very rare brain disease. It's so rare in fact that the doctor's looking after my Nan don't even know about it and they're relying on the fact's from my granddad. CBD is caused when the natural protein in our brain, known as tau, doesn't break down enough. It causes clots in the brain, killing and damaging the cell's. It affects not only the brains surface (cortex) but it also affects deeper down in the brain, know as the Basal ganglia, hense the name CBD.

Diagnosis:

There is no one way to test for CBD. Patients are put through many test's and thing's are ruled out. They often look for things such as Motor Neurone Disease (ALS) and Parkinson's first. They will rule out diseases such as these and thing's such as strokes before they can diagnose them with CBD.

Symptoms of CBD:

There are quite a few symptoms of CBD and they're taken very seriously. They consist of:


  • Struggles Swallowing
  • Struggles controlling limbs
  • Struggles talking
  • Memory problems
  • Muscle Stiffness
  • Slow and slurred speech
  • Balance is off
  • Lack of Coordination
The symptom's tend to develop over a long period of time.They tend to find that one limb will become uncontrollable first on one side of the body and over time it will spread to several limbs.

Complications of CBD:

CBD causes many complications due to the brain cell's not being there anymore.In my Nan's case, CBD has meant:

  • She has to be fed through a tube, known as a Peg. This is because she is unable to swallow food's due to the muscles in her mouth being attacked. It also mean's she's unable to drink properly and tend's to drink via a swab. This is just a little sponge that get's dunked in her drink that she has to suck on.
  • She can't stand on her own without the help of people. Because her muscles are wasting away and getting attacked, it mean's her balance is very off. If she was to try and stand by herself, she would most likely fall over causing broken bones and further damage.
  • Violence. Following on from the dementia symptoms, it often causes my Nan to become violent. She can go from a fantastic mood to telling everyone to f*ck off and leave her alone withing 2 seconds.
  • Due to the clot's in her brain that CBD is creating, it gives her a higher chance of contacting Phenomina, which can be deadly in normal circumstances, let alone this one.
Treatment:

There is currently no treatment for CBD. Once you have CBD there is no cure for it. There are many tablet's that can make it easier to deal with. For example, tablets can help with 
  • Memory
  • Muscle Stiffness
  • Pain
  • Sleep
Due to the nature of the disease, it can make it very difficult to administer the tablet's at times.

Rate of developments:

Doctor's say that from first symptoms,the life expectancy for someone with CBD is 6-8 years.Symptoms tend to differ in speed from person to person. From my personal experience, One month i was at my Nan's, she was able to hold a cup and drink alone, she was able to make a drink, talk, walk, go to the toilet alone etc. After a month of not seeing her (which is rare for me) she had completely gone downhill. She was no longer able to walk properly, drink, talk or even pick thing's up. Within a couple of day's she was admitted into hospital, where she has been ever since. We've been quite unfortunate with how quickly thing's have progressed but it's not the same for everyone.

What care is needed:
People with CBD need very intense care. They need something that is known as Palliative care. What this basically mean's is they need care to work around the problem. Since they can't cure it, they need to care that can make it a bit easier and more comfortable to live with. My granddad had been my Nan's main carer on a day to day basis but due to the rate of development, he's not longer able to care for her alone. She need's 24hr care from specialists.

Another thing that CBD patients have to go through is therapy. There are 3 kinds of therapy they have to endure including:

  • Physiotherapy- This is therapy that helps deal with the physical side of the disease. Due to muscle stiffness and uncontrollable limbs, physiotherapy is really vital to patients with CBD. It help's to keep their muscles from completely locking up and becoming uncontrollable.
  • Speech Therapy- Speech therapy is also key. It help's them to improve their speech and talk a lot better. I've personally noticed a big difference thanks to psychotherapy
  • Occupational Therapy- Occupational Therapy is less of a physical therapy. They identify the problem's that you're having and they help you to plan a goal on how to make it easier in the future.This is used more towards the earlier stages of CBD when everything is a bit more manageable. 

CBD has been linked to genes but the likely hood of it being heredity is very slim. CBD is such a niche thing that has completely blow up mine and my family's lives. It's very expensive and very painful, not only for my Nan but for my family also. We're trying so-hard to get out of hospital for 1 last Christmas together because it's highly unlikely she will be with us next year and if she is she won't understand what's going on.
I've set up a Just Giving fund-raiser page to try and raise some money for my Nan's care. If you have any money you can donate then please do. You can donate as little as £2 and it could really make our lives a heck of a lot easier. If not then please, take the time to share it. Two seconds of your time could give us 2 million more seconds of her time

Thank you 
x


Just Giving Page:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/charlie-nichols?utm_id=60&utm_term=pXYKzKnaA

Monday 16 May 2016

Luke Grundy- 2 years on.

Hey Luke
This is just a short post today. Just an update you might call it.

So what have you missed? Nothing exciting.

  • Some bellend called Donald trump wants to become president. You'd think he is complete twat tbh.
  • There's been a few dance moves out recently. The Dab and the Nay Nae. They're pretty fkn shit (they're kinda catchy tho but shhhhhhh don't tell anyone i said that!)
  • Bieber kinda became a massive thing. He's dropped some pure bangers.
  • Meme's. So MaNY MEMES


2 years though...
How the heck has it been 2 years already. How time flies. We are nearing the final few weeks of college now. Im preparing to go to Uni. Scary times. To Think that this time 2 years ago we were all preparing to do our exams (Which i know you would of smashed btw.) is absolutely fricking cray cray.

Sometimes i stop and just think, i wonder how things would of ended up if you were still with us? Would you have gone to College? What what you of studied? Would you be going to uni. Who know's what would of happened aye. All i know is that whatever you would of chosen to do in your life, you would of absolutely smashed it, even if you would of got distracted along the way ;)

Sometime i get random memories pop up on my facebook of me and you and they really make me smile. The other day the video of you me and Sammie in science popped up, you know the one where you said "oh No" in the family guy accent? Fkn classic Luke that was. Super good times <3

People say everything happens for a reason. I reckon the reason you left us is because everyone in heaven needed you brains and your humor more than us.I'm sure we would all do anything to have it back though <3

Anyway buddy. I miss you so much. I love you so much.
Until next year
 x

 

Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time- Panic! At The Disco Video Review







Pop rock sensation Panic! At The Disco have finally released the highly anticipated video for their track "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time." 

"Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time" is the second track off of Panic!'s 5th album " Death Of A Bachelor" that was released earlier this year.

In term's of weird scary sci fi shit, this music video really ticks all of the boxes. It might seem sweet and innocent from the start but if you know Brendon Urie, you know nothing with him is ever as straightforward as it seems. If what you're into is weird transforming space octopuses then look no further as i've found the perfect video for you.

Supposedly, the song is about a drunken night out where Brendon wakes up and he has no idea who he is or who he is with. He tries to recall his wild night as comes to the conclusion that these kind's of nights are the best and they shouldn't be used as warnings hence the phrase "Don't threaten me with a good time."

Back to the video. The video is styled very much on a movie. The opening credits and movie roll sound effect's make it very clear that the video is going to tell a story. The whole video is told through out main character's point of view. 



The story starts with our main character getting ready and going to a night club. As she makes her way to the bar she meets our character who is played by Brendon Urie. His character start' to flirt with her. At first she seems reluctant but she soon gives in and they drink a lot together before finally reaching the dance floor.




This is when our music explodes. Using many different quick cut shots, the story continues to show us how well our two characters are getting along. They show us shot's of them dancing and just having a all round great time together.

Going into our second verse, thing's start to take a dramatic twist. Brendon's character realizes that this girl is in fact, not human at all. He starts to walk away but she follows him, enticing him back in. Confused and bedazzled he decides to drink some more before eventually being taken back to our main character's house. Completely wasted, Brendon's character get's chucked around the place whilst slowly getting undressed. Thinking he's in for a really good time, he ends up on the bedroom floor, only to find out that he's actually come home with a space octopus.



Quickly, dashing down the stairs, he looks for a way to escape. He picks up a lamp and chucks it straight at the octopus. Of course, octopuses have sucky tentacles meaning our octopus just grabbed the light, before swinging it back round and knocking Brendon's character clean out. Before he can fully wake up again, he get's dragged away by the octopus. Vulnerably, he's left hanging in the octopus's arms. As the music erupts, so does Brendon's character as a tentacle goes straight through his skinny little body.

Finally, his dead caucus is eaten and our octopus friend transforms into Brendon, ready to start his whole process over and over again.

If you're waiting to see Brendon in High Heel's and a chiffon skirt, then prepare to be disappointed because this video is a whole new level of crazy.

To watch the video you can head on over to Fuled  By Ramen's youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5NqIsnyTG8

You can also by the single "Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time" here:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/death-of-a-bachelor/id1050385369

You can also view exclusive behind the scene's footage on the RockSound website.
http://www.rocksound.tv/news/read/take-a-look-behind-the-scenes-of-panic-at-the-discos-latest-video?utm_content=bufferdad2d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer