News Article

How Cave Men Helped Me Think Better

By Harvey Myers

I just recently came to realize that Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) symptoms are part of my life and have been for a long time.  The chronic pain far outweighed TBI symptoms for a long time so I never knew.  There’s an interesting story about how I realized a potential for improvement to specific cognitive symptoms.    I’ve already written about the procedure, NeuroCranial Restructuring, and how that in October 2006 a NeuroCranial Restructuring (NCR) procedure (performed by Dr Lew Arrandt) removed the vast majority of my chronic pain in 4 days, but it was still, after 12 years, a long road to recovery. I just didn’t need pain meds anymore.

Continuing to improve over the next 7-8 months, I began trying to resume my life. I was a top-notch computer programmer and wanted to resume that career, but I ran into a huge mental block in trying to balance the numerous things one has to keep in mind to write computer software.  I would be okay for 3, 4, or 5 things then get huge frustration and simply not be able to get any further.   It felt so physical, like a concrete block in the way of my thinking.  I took on a job that I failed miserably at and kept wondering why my thinking kept hitting such a road block.  It was 6 months after the miracle NCR brought me, but still I couldn’t concentrate on any level of complication.

Then I watched a Discovery Channel story about Cave men. They started at the first human species and profiled each subsequent one. At the end of each block, they would zoom in on a computer map of the skull and brain, and it showed the frontal lobe larger in each new species of caveman. First they just ate termites, and then the next species learned to wear clothes, develop language, deal with fire, build communities and so on. Each evolutionary leap had one thing in common: the frontal lobe was larger.

At about the 5th or 6th human species, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe the problems I had thinking were related to cranial pressure that felt like a stack of encyclopedias on my head. (I’d fallen directly on my head 14 years before).   I took action and scheduled a NCR series, which expands and continues expanding skull structure for at least a month after treatment.  I challenged that doctor (Dr Joe Steffey) with my specific symptoms.

I left Dr. Steffey feeling like the weight of the encyclopedias was gone, replaced by the weight of a paperback novel on my head. I have come to be able to write much more detailed and significant software as I continue to improve.  To me this is the astonishing success that I had hoped for.  This is the 2nd time I’ve had major improvement with NCR and then allowed months to pass, which also brought more improvement at a pace I’d call 5 days forward, 2 days back. However, the better I get, the more I want to resolve what remains.

I’ve reached a level where improvements are agonizingly slow now, and again I’m longing for another NCR series to accelerate my progress. My remaining symptoms, combined with the experience of my having had like symptoms reduced, give me understanding that points right to the frontal lobe.  I’ve learned to listen to my body, and my experience has given me great perspective.   I can feel the pressure still, but it is much less than before.  But I do feel it as a constant anxiety generator.   I feel it impeding my creativity and my ability to plan and execute a plan. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful and blessed to have experienced this much recovery. Finding the Brain Injury Guide (www.tbiguide.com) has helped me understand my remaining symptoms in more detail. It all points to NCR as the answer. Nothing less than my innate creativity, joy, and ability to plan and execute plans are at stake.

It’s just frustrating to know what can improve you and have no family support or financial wherewithal to achieve it.  The ultimate catch-22: I need the improvement to resume my old career, which would provide the finances to afford it.  It’s the classic “Cart before the Horse.” Being the provider for my family, there are at least 6 people who would benefit directly from Dad’s being able to resume life to the extent I believe is only an NCR series away.

NCR can and does reverse damage from pressure on the brain from one’s own skull; I have not the slightest doubt.  I’ve experienced it dramatically and long for the next series. If only someone would take me seriously and understand what’s to gain, perhaps they might help me get there.