BRAIN MISFIRES

For those who keep track of such things, for more than a year I've been having little strokes or TIAs on the top left part of my head, which I presume echoes the brain.  Pinches.  Left side means consequences on the right, and I see the results in my typing.  Mostly wrong words, not based on meaning, but on word size and commonness:  "with" for "when", "to" for "so".  I spell by sight so it's harder to edit than totally different words.  The same problem does not exist when handwriting.  Also in handwriting I don't have to stop to search for words.  I DO when speaking late in the afternoon.  Sometimes Latinate words when typing.

In relation to Porges' notes about the vagus myelinated nerve branch that serves the face and speaking, when I interned in Hartford (1981) and spoke the first time in the church, I had symptoms of "chorea" which is loss of control of those nerves, sometimes paralysis.  L.M. Montgomery, author of "Anne of Green Gables", was afflicted with the paralysis at one point. 

I never was paralyzed, just made faces.  The root of chorea is "face dance."  You know, like choreography.  The same thing happened at a wedding where the bride was exceptionally beautiful -- a Kathryn Hepburn redhead in a fitted ivory satin dress with a million covered buttons down the front.  I thought of it as "stress" but now I think of it more as overload.

These things are warnings of stroke.  One can get very alarmed and make all sorts of lifestyle changes or one can just ignore them except for a strategy if strokes happen.  My father and both of his brothers died of strokes.  One was an airline pilot, so he had the best medical care.  My aunt, the only female sib, was demented for years before death, maybe due to blood supply to the brain.

Blogging daily may be a preventive measure.  Lots of traffic up there.

PS: The kitten called "Beep" is sleeping alongside. A house sparrow has been visiting a rip in the fiberglass window screen to tear loose theads off to weave into a nest.  It's only a few inches from Beep's head. She reacts to the fluttering with lightning speed but doesn't get the bird.  I wonder whether it will stay away. They normally nest in front of the Baptist Church and have the most wonderful song.  Better than the congregation, but don't tell them that.

Just notes.