Brain On Fire My Month Of Madness Summary

I noticed that Mrs. Lewis who was quiet when we entered her room upon seeing me approach her bed started to groan loudly and turn her head from side to side (this made me feel worried as it was obvious to me that she didn’t like me). The patient was also licking her lips and coughing up mucus and she appeared to me as if she were choking. My mentor informed me that this was normal for Mrs. Lewis but it added to my anxiety as I had not seen a patient in Mrs. Lewis’ condition before and it alarmed me.

Bed Number 10 is about a woman by the name of Sue Baier and how she was treated during her extended stay at the hospital. Sue Baier was your average soccer mom who one day became terribly ill and was later diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. The disease left her immobile and unable to speak. Due to her disease, some nurses and respiratory therapists did not treat her well. For instance, when she was transferred to the ICU, a therapist by the name of Bruce stuck a suctioning tube down her throat without explaining the purpose of it. As Sue started to gagged on the device, he proceeded to remove the object. Startled by the experience, she asked what was the purpose of the tube. His response was “nothing yet”. “Get used to that because you’re going to have a lot of that while you’re here” (Baier pg 16).

Melvin Fuller is a patient on the medical-surgical unit who was admitted during the previous evening for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is an 83-year-old widower with two children who both live an hour away. He lives in a small house and is independent in his care. He has a housekeeper who comes in once a week to clean and fix some meals for him. He was brought to the hospital by his son who was visiting. His children visit him at least once a month. Mr. Fuller has COPD and type 2 diabetes. Alicia Brown is a 19-year-old nursing student in her first clinical rotation. She has been assigned to Mr. Fuller for morning care. Alicia enters Mr. Fuller’s room and notices that coffee has been spilled on his bed and

health began to decline and she soon discovers that she has multiple conditions that “impact her

Susannah Cahalan, a 24 year old, healthy and successful journalist for the New York post, experienced an acute onset of psychosis. Symptoms ranged from paranoia to seizures, which eventually led to a catatonic state. The onset of the female’s symptoms occurred when she became paranoid of a bed bug infestation in her home, yet after having her home exterminated there was no indication of bedbugs. Concern arose from her nonexistent appetite and severe insomniac behaviors. She began noticing her own erratic behaviors and shortly after experienced her first seizure episode. In search of an answer to reoccurring seizures she went to a physician who put her on Keppra (an antiseizure medication) and warned her the symptoms were due to stress and heavy drinking. The increasing paranoia developed into hallucinations, people plotting against her or speaking poorly of her. EEG and MRI results exhibited normal results; further indicating stress and alcohol withdraw. After being admitted to the NYU medical school EEG monitoring floor, examination showed tangential, disorganized, and temperamental behaviors. Several escape attempts later, placed Susannah in the more difficult patients category. Doctors suggested conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and cancer. She exhibited abnormally high blood pressure pointing to extreme concern.

My insanity case is People v. Wilbur, 226 Ill. App. 3d 733 (3rd Dist. 1992). In this case, the defendant was a 14-year-old being charged as an adult for a murder that happened in 1988. It was said that child showed that he didn’t regret what he had done. The child admitted to the crime. The defendant’s expert witness said that the child suffered from schizophrenia and that he has heard “voices” in his head. The jury came to the verdict of guilty but mentally ill. The 14-year-old was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The trial court case was appealed is now in the hands of the Appellate Court of Illinois. Two expert witnesses disagreed on the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the murder. One saying that he was able to conform his acts to the law. The other saying, he was not. (pg. 736). The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court’s decision.

If you went through a month of madness, in which it took over twelve doctors to diagnose a disease for, how would you view American Healthcare? Susannah Cahalan, author of the book Brain on Fire, went through a month of madness fighting Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. This diagnosis was not reached for over a month after her first visit to a doctor. In this time, she saw over twelve doctors and received many misdiagnoses for her disease, such as mono. Due to her poor experience with American Healthcare, Susannah Cahalan portrays the state of American Healthcare as negative in her book, Brain on Fire.

On page 248 the text says, “ “Y’all what’s going on?” Deena asked at length. “I mean, what the f*** is going on?” I was startled Deena hardly ever swears.” You can tell that things are changing and mysterious things, not just the illness are having an effect on them.

Typically, adults would have headaches, confusion, hallucinations, or even, double vision. These symptoms, as readers could imagine, can remarkably change a person’s life. Susannah experienced hallucinations, confusion, headaches, and a few more uncommon symptoms which caused her to get tired and emotional. “Still obsessed with my bites, despite the exterminator’s assurance that I had nothing to worry about, I prepared for him to spray the place and spent that night discarding things that could be harboring bedbugs” (Cahalan 7). Susannah’s encephalitis meant that the left side of her brain was inflamed. The book references that the cause for the paranoia of bedbugs may have been because of the encephalitis. The paranoia resulted in tremendous amounts of stress for Susannah, sending her disease into a downward spiral. “Dr. Najjar saw tear gather at the corners of my eyes….It was another crucial moment in my case….But it was just a blip. After that outpouring, I lay back down and dozed off, exhausted by the brief display of emotion” (Cahalan 134). Susannah had spent hours in the hospital before finding a diagnosis. She was told she had been drinking too much alcohol and was bipolar. Her display of emotion in this particular event caused Susannah to get tired. Susannah had had several displays of emotion towards her father, whom she believed was kidnapping her when she first entered the hospital, as well as, to her co workers before her lengthy hospital stay. Susannah had changed from being outgoing and friendly, to a paranoid, uneasy and unpredictable person; however, she had learned many crucial life lessons from her

On July 14, during a family vacation on Martinique, a small Caribbean island, Jean’s nephew Pierre is bitten by an exotic tropical insect and suffers a severe allergic reaction. From his knowledge as a former pharmacist Jean is aware that Pierre is at

Ron Powers’s book No One Cares About Crazy People and Nassir Ghaemi ’s book First Rate Madness, both describe the backstory of mental health throughout history. Power’s book begins with Bedlam, to the method of moral treatment towards mentally ill patients, to presidents in America undertaking the role in acting health care. Ghaemi’s book focused on world leaders who suffered from mental illness. Those leaders made positive and negative impact on today's society and the treatment of medications that they underwent.

In 2009, Cahalan was hospitalized for quite literally, losing her mind. In addition to the violent seizures, she experienced terrifying hallucinations, intense mood swings, insomnia and extreme paranoia. Cahalan spent a month in the hospital before doctors diagnosed her with a rare autoimmune disorder, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Cahalan’s doctors would talk to her family about what was going on since she was unable to communicate regularly, however one statement stood out more than what others did, "her brain is on fire," her doctor told her family, "Her brain is under attack by her own body." Brain on Fire comes from a place of intense pain and unthinkable isolation from the inside out, but finds redemption in Cahalan's persistent, defiant toughness.

Neurasthenia is the nervous disease the narrator is suffering from. Gilman expresses if the narrator is ill or if the “rest cure” treatment she is on is making her crazy(Wilson). Weir Mitchell was the authors/narrators doctor who prescribed her the “rest cure” treatment, which did not succeed(Gilman). The narrator tells her husband to help her and change the treatment, but he refuses her desires. As a result, the narrator became insane because her husband forced his wife to be in an oppressed situation with her health(MacPike).

According to King Lester (1968 ), a symptom is a subjective term used to describe the manifestations of a disease while, vital signs are objective evidence of a disease. Based off of this definition, Annie’s signs and symptoms include blurred vision, head ache, gasping for air, feeling weak, feeling constant fatigue, and eyestrain. These signs or symptoms can be observed throughout the time Annie spends at the swim meet. Annie leaves the locker room and notices that her blurred vision and eyestrain that she had been experiencing over the past month had returned. She continued to exhibit health issues on her way leaving the building because she had felt the need to gasp for air while walking up the stairs. This abnormal amount fatigue she had felt from walking up the stairs, concerned Annie enough to consider getting her signs and symptoms checked out. Annie continued to exhibit signs and symptoms when she got back to her dorm and had a difficult time keeping her eyes open which indicates that she is exhibiting eyestrains.

After breaking out into the mainstream in 2012 and 2013 with hits like “Tony Montana” and “Turn on the Lights,” 2014 was a rough year for Future. The autotuned, Atlanta rapper saw his second full-length commercial release, “Honest,” perform weakly on the charts and alienate his original fanbase. The Atlanta hip hop scene felt it was too commercialized, the project being loaded with every trending producer and big name feature, and that it drifted too far away from what made Future’s music compelling in the first place. On top of this, his high profile relationship with R&B star, Ciara, saw its end shortly after “Honest” was released. Rumors of infidelity circulated.