In the play, Marianne deals with speech aphasia as a result of the glioblastoma multiforme. To help us understand what speech aphasia looks like to an observer, Prentiss found us this fascinating interview with a young woman battling aphasia after a stoke.
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Yesterday during table work, we had an interesting discussion about how people with terminal illnesses choose to deal with the end of their lives. It reminded me of a touching documentary that Sarah Newhouse told me about during The Waverly Gallery. Given our recent conversation, it feels particularly relevant for Constellations. It's called Being Mortal. Click on the link to watch the full 50 min piece by Frontline.
We are off and running on our first day of rehearsal for Constellations! We already have some fantastic questions from the cast and creative team!
Q: What does having glioblastoma multiforme look like? How would it affect Marianne's physicality? A: Most of the symptoms of glioblastoma multiforme are not necessarily apparent to a casual observer. The most common symptoms include headaches, speech aphasia, trouble concentrating, nausea, drowsiness, and sudden shifts in mood or personality. However, in certain cases, the effects of the tumor can be more visually apparent. For example some patients experiencing visual or sensory impairment may behave in noticeably different ways to cope with their sensory loss. More rarely, some patients experience hemiparisis or weakness on one side of the body (this is more common when the tumor is on the brain stem instead of the frontal lobe). Others losing physical coordination may appear to have trouble walking or exhibit a change in stride. Another less common side effect is spasms in the wrists and ankles. In one case I found, a young woman with GBM was misdiagnosed with Bell's Palsy because the tumor affected her face and the line of her mouth. Q: There is a scene in the play in which Marianne and Roland communicate via sign language. Is the part of the brain a person uses to speak the same area of the brain that would control communication via sign? A. Most likely, yes! Clara Moskowitz's 2010 article for Live Science explains that scientists used a PET scanner to observe the brains of English and native ASL speaker as they were shown an object and then spoke or signed the name of that object. Scans showed no difference in brain activity between the two groups indicating that the parts of the human brain that handle language are the same whether it is spoken or signed. Want to know more about multiverses, check out Fabric of the Cosmos below: Click here to see Choosing to Die, a documentary about end-of-life decisions rare Form of Brain Tumor in NewsGlioblastoma has been in the news recently as Senator John McCain was recently diagnosed with this particularly aggressive form of brain tumor. The condition also received international attention in the case of Carrie DeKlyen, a pregnant 37-year-old Michigan woman who after two surgeries to remove the aggressive tumor chose to forgo chemotherapy in hopes of carrying the infant to term.
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