Saturday, March 21, 2009

Breaking News!!! Rashidah Robinson of Dorchester, MA was Charged with Neglect upon a Disabled Person



Should She Continue Working as a Caregiver?


Rashidah left me flat on my back in bed with my TED stockings on and only a sheet to cover me. She did not give me any water. Yes, she did give me a phone. Fortunately I knew the cell phone number of one of my other Caregivers, and I called her. She was taking care of her grandmother who was recovering from pneumonia. My Caregiver did not want to leave her grandmother alone, but she called me every hour to check on me. It was probably only six hours that I was left alone, since my live-in Caregiver came home at midnight and found me in that condition, She got me settled for the rest of the night.


Rashidah's lawyer wanted to have a trial to try to acquit her of the charges that I had against her. The District Attorney's Office called me about a week and a half ago to inform me that they did not have enough information to go forth with a trial.

Yes, I agree that I would have survived with no water, but with a Supra Pubic Catheter, your bladder is never filled. Therefore, it is constantly draining your urine into a drainage bag. Leaving me for that long on my back would have left me very dehydrated.

Yes, I agree that I would have been all right flat on my back in that condition. I had a pressure sore on my buttocks. In that length of time, pressure sores do worsen.


This does not pertain to Rashidah but I would like to emphasize that if I get a scratch on my arm, my hand, or anywhere on my body, my Caregivers have to cover the scratch with a Duoderm.

Due to the fact, there was not enough information to convict Rashidah for "Neglect"; I will pursue the "Advocacy" to heighten the "Awareness" of the "Legal Language" for doctors. Perhaps, a "Medical Student" could look at the law to assist the doctor with the interpretation of it. Doctors are not aware of the "Definition" of the law -(link below)

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/265-13k.htm; it is essential for convictions!

Moreover, it is essential for the Elderly, and Persons with Disabilities to report the crimes. Frequently, these crimes are not report due to the fear of retaliation.


Rashidah Danika Robinson
Sister
Danecia Robinson



Although, Danecia was not "Allegedly Charged with Neglect" she did not show up for her shift, therefore, she was release from her duties. Should Danecia have me on her "Resume"?



Although Rashidah was not convicted, when or if she does try to get a Caregiver job again, the family or person who checks her background will find that she was charged with a felony.


Click the link below to see th Massachusetts Law and make a decision.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/265-13k.htm






RASHIDAH DANIKA ROBINSON

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 UNITED STATES


WORK EXPERIENCE

March 2008 - July 2008
cna


Marian Manor


South Boston, Massachusetts
Daily living skills for the residents
Organization Name


12/2007 - march 2008
customer service

manpower staffing/ The Territory Ahead


chestnut hill, ma
greet customers into the store. Keep the store looking good by folding clothes and cleaning up. Retag the clothes with new sales tags.

JUNE 2007 - JULY 2007
DELI CLERK

STOP & SHOP

BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS
CUT MEATS AND CHEESE. ALWAYS SANITIZED AND GAVE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

DECEMBER 2006 - APRIL 2006
MAIL ROOM STAFF

PROFESSIONAL STAFFING GROUP

CAMBRIDGE, MA
OPENED AND SEPARATED MEDICAL BILLS IN APPROPRIATE PILES. WORKED IN A GREAT AND FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT.

JUNE 2006 - AUGUST 2006
SECURITY OFFICER

APOLLO SECURITY

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Gave excellent customer service in the busy office building. Secured the building while the clean up crew were there overnight. Took 4 tours of the building to make sure things were safe and secure during my shift. Called the command center every hour of shift to report to them everything was safe. Wrote down everything in the log book every hour of shift. Signed in the contractors in the morning

MARCH 2006 - AUGUST 2006
OFFICE ASSISTANT

DOWNTOWN PHYSICAL THERAPY AND REHAB

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
greet patients into the building. Pulled patients charts and scheduled appointments for therapy. Cleaned the therapists rooms before appointments. Called insurance companies to pay of the patients medical bills. Closed the building when I worked the late shift.

JULY 2005 - AUGUST 2005
CHILD CARE STAFF

COLONEL DANIEL MARR BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Watched young children during the day. Took the children on field trips. Played with the children during the day and made sure the children were safe.

SEPTEMBER 2003 - NOVEMBER 2004
RECEPTIONIST

COLONEL DANIEL MARR BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Greet parents and members into the building.Answered telephones and transferred calls to appropriate staff. Filed members memberships after they filled out a new membership. Faxed important documents for co workers.

SEPTMBER 2003 - NOVEMBER 2003
SALES CLERK/CASHIER

VICTORIA'S SECRET

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Greet customers into the store. Introduced the new product to the customers. Balanced cash drawer during my shift. Worked in the fitting room and fit customers for a bra. Did some stocking when the store wasnt busy. Made sure customers were satisfied with the items they purchased. Helped customers when needed to be helped. Gave excellent customer service.

DECEMBER 2000 - JUNE 2001
CASHIER/ CUSTOMER SERVICE ASSOCIATE

KMART

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Greet customers into the store. Worked at the customer service desk. Made sure customers were satisfied with the products they purchased. Did some stocking when the store was not busy. Helped a customer when needed to be helped. Balanced cash drawer and gave excellent customer service.

JUNE 1999 - AUGUST 1999
OFFICE ASSISTANT

STATE HOUSE/ BLACK LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS OFFICE

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
I worked in a little office where no one really came in so I was alone. I filed important documents. Answered the telephone and took messages for my boss. Delivered mail to the appropriate busy offices.

july 2008 - august 2008
PCA II

Faulkner Hospital

jamaica plain, Ma
took vitals
glucose checks
changed beds
helped care for patients
answer call lights


september 2008 - present
Caregiver

Homeinstead Senior Care

boston, ma
help client with daily living routines

EDUCATION

OCTOBER 2002 - MAY 2003

N.GRAFTON JOB CORPS

N.GRAFTON MASSACHUSETTS

OFFICE ASSISTANT

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY

SEPTEMBER 1999 - JUNE 2003

SOUTH BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL

SOUTH BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA

ENGLISH, MATH, HISTORY, SCIENCE

SKILLS

OFFICE ASSISTANT SKILLS, AND EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

OBJECTIVE

I AM LOOKING FOR A CUSTOMER SERVICE POSITION




DANECIA ROBINSON

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 UNITED STATES

EDUCATION

SEPTEMBER 2001 - JUNE 2005

EAST BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA

WORK EXPERIENCE

September 2008 - currently working
PCA/CNA

Partners Private Care

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Light house work
Make sure that Clients take their Medication
Take clients out for walks
make lunch or dinner if needed

July 2008 - september 8,2008
PCA

Carolyn Wojcik

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Clean up the apartment
Cook Lunch
Take care of Cats
Wash Laundry
Go to the bank/grocery or hardware store when needed
Change ostomy bag and drain super pubic catheter bag
put Carolyn in bed at the end of shift using the hoyer

December 2007 - May 2008
CNA

Marian Manor

South Boston, MA
TAKE CARE OF RESIDENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS, DEMENTIA, ETC.
DAILY LIVING CARE

December 2006 - December 2007
Cashier/Service clerk

Shaws

Boston, MA
REFUNDS, ANSWER TELEPHONES, MONEY GRAMS, CASH CHECKS AND BALANCE CASH DRAWER

June 2006 - December 2006
Photo Specialist/ Cashier

Walgreens

Brigham Circle, MA
Develop Film
Take customers orders and ring up items
balance register

SEPTEMBER 2003 - JUNE 2006
Junior Gym staff

COLONEL DANIEL MARR BOYS & GIRLS CLUB

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
CLEAN LOCKER ROOM, MAINTAIN GYM EQUIPMENT AND WASHED PLAYERS JERSEYS

SEPTEMBER 2002 - APRIL 2003
YOUTH ORGANIZER

LA HISPANA

Roxbury, MA
OUTREACH AND PUT TOGETHER A YOUTH SUMMIT

REFERENCES

MIKE JOYCE, CLUB DIRECTOR
COLONEL DANIEL MARR BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB
tel: 617-288-7120
35 DEER STREET
DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

BRUCE SEALS, GYM DIRECTOR
GYM
COLONEL DANIEL MARR BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
tel: 617-288-7120
35 DEER STREET
DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

DARA SEFTON, ASST. CHECKOUT MANAGER
CHECKOUT
SHAWS
tel: 6172624688
fax: 6172390012
30 HUNTINGTON AVE
Boston, MASSACHUSETTS





Saturday, March 7, 2009

Memory, Learning, and Emotion: the Hippocampus





The purpose of this article is to ask questions. I am convinced that I have "Flash Backs" that were caused from being in a "State Institution".



Psych-education.org (home)


Memory, Learning, and Emotion: the Hippocampus

Emotion and memory are very closely related. You know this from your experience. Go to a party, meet a bunch of new people. Which faces are you going to remember? The woman who made you laugh, the man who made you feel embarrassed, and your new boss -- the ones who had an emotional impact.

So perhaps you would not be surprised to learn that the a portion of the emotion system of the brain (the "limbic system") is in charge of transferring information into memory. From years of experiments and surgical experience, we now know that the main location for this transfer is a portion of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus.

You won't particularly impressed by its appearance. The hippocampus is included here because it is always cited as part of the "limbic system", and because there is striking new "news" about:

  • how it works;
  • its vulnerability to stress; and
  • its rich supply of estrogen and progesterone receptors.

We'll consider each of those in turn, after we look at just what and where it is.

Here's Harry. Harry's looking to your left. His left ear would be right in the middle of this picture. Notice the green portion of the brain: this is called the temporal lobe. It lies right under your temple. Memories of names live in this left temporal lobe: particularly people's names, names of animals, and names of tools. If you would like two paragraphs on "why these names?", click here.

The portion of the brain that helps those names get into memory in the first place, this hippocampus thing we are talking about, is also part of this temporal lobe. But you can't see it here, because it's an inside fold, not these outside folds you see above. To see the hippocampus, we'll have to use x-ray vision. Imagine you could just squint and see right through the temporal lobe to what's underneath. Using some beautiful images from a great medical illustrator, here's what you'd see:

Can you see the temporal lobe, there on the outside, just as before? We're here to look at the purple part at the bottom: that's the hippocampus. For the moment you can ignore all the other limbic system elements shown here; we'll be back to learn more of them in other Tours.

So, there's that purple thing, part of the innermost fold of the temporal lobe. How "inner" is that? To see that, imagine you could look straight down from the top of Harry's head, and use your x-ray vision to see the hippocampus, outlined in purple -- you could see how far toward the middle it sits:

Ignore the lines, they're for the poor medical students who have to memorize all the latin names of the structures shown. You can see it on the left side, outlined; the right one is also shown -- see it over there on the right, in shadow a bit? A few more structures have been deleted on the right so you can really see the entire "body" of the hippocampus there, and the "head" with its bulging folds.

Why should you care where this thing is? Here are three reasons. First, this part of the brain appears to be absolutely necessary for making new memories. If you didn't have it, you couldn't live in the present: you'd be stuck in the past of old memories. And this is common: Alzheimer's disease affects the hippocampus first and severely, before other parts of the cortex (later, the frontal lobes too). So memory is usually the first thing to start to falter in Alzheimer's -- the ability to make new ones, that is. Who visited yesterday? Where did I put the car keys? Why isn't there any mail today (when you brought it in 3 hours ago)?

Secondly, the hippocampus seems to be involved in severe mental illnesses. In both schizophrenia and some severe depressions, the hippocampus appears to shrink. However, there is recent evidence that this shrinkage can be reversed and perhaps prevented in people with depression and bipolar disorder, with effective treatment. You'll find a summary of this research in Part Two of the essay on the Brain Chemistry of Depression. One of the mini-chapters there includes this story about neurogenesis, the birth of brand new brain cells, which occurs in the hippocampus and frontal lobes.

Third, the hippocampus is known to be directly affected by estrogen. Look at these slides from the important work of Catherine Woolley and colleagues at Northwestern University:

The slide on the left (a) shows the arms and branches of a hippocampus nerve cell. The bumps are places where connections to other cells occur ("synapses" -- for a diagram of what synapses look like and how they work, read the section on how antidepressants work inside cells). The slide on the right (b) shows the same thing -- except this cell was exposed to estrogen. If you look closely you'll notice that there are more bumps, and the bumps are bigger. The whole thing is "spinier" (which one would you rather brush against if they were rose bushes, for example?) So, estrogen increases "synaptic density" -- the number of connections to other nerve cells -- in the hippocampus especially.

There is research on the role of estrogen in preventing Alzheimer's; on its role in causing seizures, perhaps through this increase in synaptic connection; and on the relationship to "trophic" molecules that are now thought to potentially be the basis of depression and protection against depression (for more on that subject, read the "how antidepressants work inside cells" section). Since some of the work on estrogen focuses on the hippocampus, I thought you might want to know where it is.

For those of you who are really interested in the hippocampus, read on for more pictures and details. The rest of you can Tour elsewhere if you wish.

More Details of Hippocampus Shape and Location

Here we'll see how it looks:

On MRI Scans

Ok, so Harry is fortunate to have a fairy godmother and she's going to take him to dinner now -- well, 2/3 of him anyway. The last third will stay behind for us to look at, and it's Harry's right "third". So where Cindy got split down the middle, Harry will divide along a line back from his right eye. His nose and left eye and left ear and everything all went for dinner. You can see the other half of his right eye and his (maroon) right temporal lobe, below. If you've got the geometry of this picture, you'll understand that you're looking at the inside of his temporal lobe, instead of the outside of the left one you saw at the start of this Tour. If you're lost, check out the next photo below.

Here's a look at Cindy's brain again: her entire right half.

If you've read the mood Tour , you'll recognize the red and blue areas. Now notice the yellow outline: that's her right temporal lobe, poking out from behind the brainstem. You're seeing the inner surface of the temporal lobe there.

But to find the hippocampus, we have to look farther up the temporal lobe, and Cindy's brainstem is in the way of our view. The yellow outline traces the temporal lobe, if we could see it behind the brainstem, and the green X marks where we should be looking.

To see it, we'll look at Harry's temporal lobe again, outlined in maroon:

TP marks the "temporal pole", the front of the lobe. But within the lobe, right there on its inner surface, is the structure we're after: the hippocampus, outlined in white, and marked HIP. (AMG is the amygdala). Try comparing this view to the artist's view from the same perspective, above.

Cindy's pictures are sections of real brain; Harry's are called MRI's -- in case you wondered.

Diseases of the Hippocampus

The hippocampus can be injured by too little blood flow, Alzheimer's Disease -- and epilepsy, which has some striking similarities to bipolar disorder. Now that you know what it looks like, you may be able to follow a discussion of these disease processes for medical students. The pictures are fantastic, and will increase your understanding of the anatomy even further. Rather than cut up the presentation, I will refer you to the first year medical student course at a major medical school. When you get there, scroll down to section E right away (it's easier, and it has the pictures). If you're really fascinated and not too intimidated, then go back and look at the rest of their page.





Sunday, March 1, 2009

Cosmic Weirdness ...Parallel Universe...?

Two Parallel Universes:

One theory by Michio Kaku, Physicist, and the other in the according, to the Original T.V. Program of Star Trek. I like both theories.











What about you?
http://www.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/michio-kaku.jpg
Michio Kaku, Physicist




Parallel worlds indeed! If you like the idea of cosmic weirdness then this is for you -- parallel universes, wormholes, black holes: the whole bit.

These are not things dreamt up by sci-fi writers in their cups but serious physicists and cosmologists. Not that anything is proven however. It could well be that all this clever surmise turns out to be an ingeniously created structure that encapsulates all we know but is ... wrong. Or it could be correct. Who knows? As time goes on perhaps more and more hypotheses will be able to be checked empirically and we will have more hard answers.

Along the way you get a history of cosmology that is understandable for a non-scientist, and written in a clear and entertaining manner. Certainly there is a lot here to expand the brain including the thought that even resolution of the many questions raised here that relate to the mechanics of the universe still leaves the very biggest question unanswered.


-----------------------

According to The Original T.V. Program of Star Trek

The Synopsis

Caught in the beginnings of an ion storm, Kirk, McCoy and Uhura interrupt their negotiations with the Halkans for dilithium crystals, to return to the U.S.S. Enterprise. Scotty beams the landing party aboard as a burst from the storm hits the starship. The transporter malfunctions, sending Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura into an alternate universe. In this world, they soon discover the "Galactic Empire" is maintained by fear and assassination. Now, aboard the Imperial Starship Enterprise, the four must find a way to remain undetected until they can return to their own universe.

Meanwhile, the parallel versions of Kirk, Scott, McCoy and Uhura have been beamed on board the positive U.S.S. Enterprise. Their behavior is so different from their counterparts that Spock immediately realizes something is wrong. He had the four imprisoned until the transporter could be checked and repaired.

On the I.S.S. Enterprise, the parallel Chekov is foiled in an attempt to assassinate Kirk. When Kirk refuses to give an order to destroy the Halkans, who have refused to give up their dilithium crystals, the parallel Spock becomes suspicious.

The Imperial Fleet sends a secret message to the parallel Spock, telling him to kill Captain Kirk and assume command of the starship. Finding an unexpected ally in the parallel Spock, Kirk continues to stall while his three comrades gather the information needed to send them back to their own universe.

Parallel Spock has no desire to become captain, and therefore a mark for assassination. Along with Lieutenant Marlena Moreau, who wants the parallel Kirk back because she is "the Captain's woman," they help return the four U.S.S. Enterprise officers to their own world. Before he goes, Kirk talks to the bearded Spock, telling him the advantages of a Federation-like system over the anarchy of this universe. Spock seems almost convinced that he should in fact get rid of his Kirk, seize control of the I.S.S. Enterprise, and manipulate the Imperial Starfleet into working toward a more civilized universe.