Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain

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The phrase A and O times three means "awake, oriented to self, oriented to place, and oriented to time." Some people add a fourth: oriented to situation. The problem is that everybody is "oriented times one" unless they are hysterical or dead. At East Shore Hospital an MRI showed an ambiguous blotch on the left frontal lobe of Vincent's brain, and at the suggestion of one of his sons, a pediatrician, the family requested a transfer to us. He arrived sometime around 10:00 that morning and was brought up to the ward. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. There are any number of ways the brain can go wrong and Ropper seems to have encountered them all: meningitis, subarachnoid haemorrhage, embolism, tumours, gliomas, seizures and hemiplegias.

I've rounded up the book from a very precise 2.75 to a 3 because it wasn't a bad read, just not a very good one. When all his colleagues think a patient is suffering from a brain tumour or a stroke, Ropper knows that it’s herpes encephalitis. He doesn’t need to look at scans. He can tell from a bedside exam. We started him on acyclovir, an antiviral medication, and he soon improved. Five days later, Vince was discharged, talking normally again, and, for better or worse, just like his old self. The brain, that eternally mysterious blancmange of grey matter, has become very fashionable these days. That may seem a curious observation, given that our brains have always been at the centre of everything we think and do. But there does seem to be a growing popular interest in all things neurological. This starts out strong, with an introduction into various complex and interesting neurology patients. We have hydrocephalus, subarachnoid haemorrhage, strokes and even ovarian teratomas. It's fascinating stuff, told in a way that feels accessible and not too weighed down by medical jargon. However, I did find the stories petered out somewhat towards the end, and I also really didn't like the way Allan Ropper describes some of his patients. Is 'blonde, very attractive, a little on the plump side, but very lovely' really appropriate? No, I think not.Yes, good, good, fine," Vincent replied. He was sitting up in bed, watching television with a smile of bemused innocence. Vincent Talma was a picture of contentment. His room on the tenth floor of the hospital tower commanded an outstanding view of Fort Hill Park in Boston's Roxbury section, but Vincent took no notice. Along with twenty-nine of our other patients, he had been waiting for a visit from the neurology team on their morning speed rounds. But those friends that were able to look into the ugly face of ALS and not turn away came to realize that the essence of George had survived this calamity, and for that they have been blessed with the ongoing gift of his love, his humor, his friendship, and an inspiration for life that comes from being around him.” PDF / EPUB File Name: Reaching_Down_the_Rabbit_Hole_-_Allan_Ropper.pdf, Reaching_Down_the_Rabbit_Hole_-_Allan_Ropper.epub Dr. Allan H. Ropper and Brian David Burrell comprehensively explain, through the lived experiences of a number of patients, the complex and sometimes utterly bizarre nature of the brain and the things that can go wrong with it.

White Matter Hyperintensity Trajectories in Patients With Progressive and Stable Mild Cognitive Impairment I have noted from a previous reviewer that the writing in this book doesn't seem to match Dr. Ropper's real life demeanor - his talks, conferences, lectures - where he presents himself as a thoughtful and considerate character. If this narrative in this book is the doing of a money-minded publisher who just wants to create a "hit" by creating unnecessary drama at the patient's and staff's expense, then Dr. Ropper would strongly benefit from getting another literary agent. Something I learned from the book. That what a patient reports are symptoms and they are all subjective, things we feel, and have to be taken at face value. But what a doctor sees are signs, and they are objective. I'd never thought of it that way. Put the two together and you are on your way to a diagnosis.

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I kept reading hoping he would stop talking about himself and talk about something interesting, but alas, his reference to women neurologists using a reflex hammer to test brain reaction in unconscious patients by saying they, "tend to press harder than men, as if to insure that no one is getting out alive" was my final straw. I’m not sure that those statistics are entirely up to date, but in any case this is not a book for hypochondriacs or anyone who worries that their difficulty in remembering film stars’ names might stem from something more troubling than unmemorable film stars. Because the fear it plays on, consciously or not, is the sudden and cruel inversion of normality. To become a good clinical neurologist, you have to be intensely interested by what the brain does, how it works, how it breaks down.”

This book is about neurology, but the lessons apply to all medical specialties. It teaches all physicians to recognise the importance of the basics of clinical assessment, and to recognise the limitations of technology in making diagnoses. It is very enlightening and I recommend it to all doctors. Book Details I just ran into your Mr. Talma in the elevator lobby." Elliott, a colleague who seems to keep closer tabs on my patients than I do, had buttonholed me in the corridor outside of the ward. "When I gave him a shout-out," he said, "you'd think I'd asked him to put up bail for the Unabomber. The guy comes in here a pussycat, and when you finish with him he's Mr. What's-It-To-You-Pal. No more smiles, no more jokes. What did you do to him?"Reading this is like being a fly on the wall in a neurology ward. There are some real characters, and some real highs and lows. It’s in part an eye opening education and part like watching a car crash. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_module_version 0.0.5 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA18237 Openlibrary_edition Apropos of nothing really, but this reminds me of British game shows. It is very alien to the British to applaud oneself or one's accomplishments, whereas Americans jump up and down and shout out how proud they are of themselves, this makes British people cringe. However, it makes much more exciting television, so the producers now have got the British to run around arms in the air shouting out and generally looking awkard and embarrassed. Everyone feels the same inside, it's just a difference in expression and probably the one people prefer is the one of the culture they were brought up in.

Suspecting an overdose of some kind is not a transcendent judgment about them or their lifestyle or their character. It is one moment in somebody’s life. People poison themselves all of the time.”urn:lcp:reachingdownrabb0000ropp_l7b0:epub:92c2fff5-a301-4e3e-849e-845a7902dcb9 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier reachingdownrabb0000ropp_l7b0 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t31350j3g Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781782395478 Disclosure: The author reports no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures.