And now back to our regular scheduled program ... almost

LOTS OF BRAIN STUFF: GENERAL & MINE

I've been focusing on my mental issues and reposting some of my earlier blogs. Today, I'm going to do spend some time on brains, hence the book cover above, brains in general, and how my brain has reacted to my treatments.

If you were a student of mine before 1983, my teaching on the topic of the human brain was limited to areas and functions of those areas. 

Then I read this book. It was my introduction to learning styles. 

Book: Title  Human Brain Learning 
ISBN:  9780582283794  Publication Year 1983
Type: Textbook
Subject Area:  Education, Medical
Author: Leslie A. Hart
Subject: Neuroscience, Learning Styles

For a very good introduction on how you learn, I recommend being in my classes after 1983. However, since time travel is still science fictions try: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWomJWfNWPM  

I love teaching, and I was disappointed when good students did not to well on certain types of assignments. One day at Monte Vista, one of the doctors that worked with the school's special needs students offered an short after-school introduction to learning styles. At that time there were three:

Visual: Learns through sight.
Auditory: Learns through hearing.
Kinesthetic: Learns through physical experience.
Soon added was
Reading/Writing: Learns through text.

She emphasized that all people learn many ways, but most have one (or two) which is best for them.

I walked away from that meeting dealing with how many of my presentations and assignments were NOT KINESTHETIC.

I worked with Owen Miller at the time, and we decided we needed to get kids moving.

We invented: CRANIAL CREATIONS. 

 

Original cover and resigned cover to match the 2nd book they published.

It's a collection of 45 exercises. Types include: Analysis, The Art Corner, Other Cooperative Learning Exercises, Writing Assignments, and Laboratory Skills. The majority exercises required working in groups, where each student had an assigned task.

That book was the number one seller in the science section of the companies listings for nine years in a row. 

Kids did better, and some "last kid chosen for groups" became first choice for activities where art skills and cooperative learning were emphasized 

A second Cranial Creation followed. My co-author was Candace J. Aguire, a woman I known since Junior high.

The National Science Teacher's Association invited me to sign these books at one of their conventions. 

Owen and I also designed an activity we titled "Walk Around" that was a hit every time I gave a presentation at science teacher conferences.

More on "Walk Around" next time.

BRAIN STUFF

The treatment plan booklet provided by Lilly gave me a place to write thoughts, etc after each infusion. What follows is what I wrote.

June 10: I think I feel better today than I have in a long time.

July 7: When I got home after this infusion, Leanne asked me to sign our names on a birthday card. I reminded her that my writing now looked more like a two-year old with crayons, but I signed the card and the signature was the BEST in at least a year.

July 9: I was dizzy for about four hours. I used a technique I used before. The dizziness ended, but took me five times as long to erase the dizziness than the previous time.

August 4: Monday was fine. On Tuesday I drove to Temecula and spent four hours working with Jen (a teacher I worked with at Great Oak) and helped her "heal" the scrap-book she made for my retirement. It was a great time.

August 7: I was tired, but there were no other issues, BUT, I wish I could more of my memory for words back. 

August 22: Today I can type better (fewer errors) than I have in a least a year!

Thanks for reading to the end.

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

 

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #7 Learn about the coming change

 INFUSION #3

 WEDNESDAY, August 6, 2025, I had my third infusion of Kisunla ON MONDAY. Specifically:

donanemab-azbt (Kisunla) 700 mg in sodium chloride 150 mL IVPB

Last given at 8:50 AM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease.

Stopped at 9:20 AM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) 

Due to Alzheimer's disease sodium chloride 0.9% flush 10 mL 

I FEEL LIKE I HAVE EVEN LESS CONFUSION IN MY BRAIN.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS.

My nurse was 30-years old and had been a nurse for 11 years. She said that, in her early nursing years, many patients requested another nurse because of her age. She and followed up with, "I showed them all." 

Nothing physical to report, except I'm more tired than in the in the last post. I'll take tired over dizzy any day. 

The results of my MRI from July were: 1. Stable examination. 2. No acute intracranial abnormality identified. 3. No amyloid related imaging abnormality identified. All of those are GOOD terms.

I also found out that the amount of Kisunla will be doubled for the rest of the infusions beginning on September 2.  

CURRENT SCORE:

donanemab-azbt(Kisunla) - 3.5 💥ALZEHIMER DISEASE - 0

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #6 ROUND 2 + MRI info

MRI RESULTS

Below: Amyloid β (Aβ) is a fragment of the APP protein that, when it 
misfolds and clumps together, forms amyloid plaques, 
one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

I had a brain MRI on July 7. What follows is a comparison of the brain MRI on January 23.

MR Brain WO IV Contrast

COMPARISON: 1/23/2025   

FINDINGS:   

·    Cerebrum: Normal signal intensity. No mass effect, midline shift, hemorrhage, or acute infarct.

·        

·    Cerebellum: Normal.

·    Brainstem: Normal.

·    Ventricles: No hydrocephalus.

·    Extraaxial spaces: Normal.

·        

·    Bones: No focal osseous lesion.

·    Visualized sinuses: Partial opacification of the mastoid air cells. Mucous retention cyst in the left maxillary sinus

·    Other: Normal intracranial intravascular flow voids.  

·        

IMPRESSION:

·     Stable examination. No acute intracranial process.

Thanks again for your concern and your prayers. 

I am blessed by your friendships.

CURRENT SCORE:

donanemab-azbt(Kisunla) - 2.5 💥 ALZEHIMER DISEASE - 0

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #6 ROUND 2

ROUND 2 

 Yesterday, July 7, 2025, I had my second infusion of Kisunla. Specifically:

donanemab-azbt (Kisunla) 700 mg in sodium chloride 150 mL IVPB

Last given at 8:50 AM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease.

Stopped at 9:20 AM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) 

Due to Alzheimer's disease sodium chloride 0.9% flush 10 mL 

I FEEL LIKE I HAVE LESS CONFUSION IN MY BRAIN THAN LAST WEEK.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS.

NEXT POST WILL BE WHAT I FIND OUT FROM THE SCHEDULED BRAIN MRI.

Today went well. No glitches. The nurse was pleased to hear that I noticed substantial improvement in some areas.

Now, as I type this, I'm not hitting as many wrong keys as yesterday, so I'm changing the score and giving Kisunla another point. 

Check for an update on this Wednesday. I hope to the results of my MRI from last Monday.  

CURRENT SCORE:

donanemab-azbt (Kisunla) - 2 💥 ALZEHIMER DISEASE - 0

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #8 ROUND 1

ROUND 1 

Yesterday, June 9, 2025, I had my first infusion of Kisunla. Specifically:

donanemab-azbt (Kisunla) 700 mg in sodium chloride 150 mL IVPB

Last given at 4:46 PM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease.

Stopped at 5:15 PM for Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) 

Due to Alzheimer's disease sodium chloride 0.9% flush 10 mL 

I FEEL LIKE I HAVE LESS CONFUSION IN MY BRAIN THAN I HAD YESTERDAY MORNING.

THANS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS.

NEXT POST WILL BE WHAT I FIND OUT FROM THE SCHEDULED BRAIN MRI.

CURRENT SCORE:

donanemab-azbt (Kisunla) - 1 💥 ALZEHIMER DISEASE - 0

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #7 My attack begins

MY ATTACK BEGINS! 

Today I made appointments for my infusions of PR INJ. DONANEMABAZBT, 2MG. I've been using the  name of Kisunla for the drug.

Treatments are once each month and are scheduled through December of 2025. Between each treatment is a brain MRI. If I understand why, the MRI's are to track the effectiveness of the treatment. 

If you want specifics...

https://kisunla.lilly.com/treatment#preparing-for-infusions

https://kisunla.lilly.com/patient-stories

Thank you for your concern and prayers.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

Exploring My Updated Website - Part 3 - My Books (A)

 

https://www.crdowning.com/

Cover Photo by Damian Markutt on Unsplash

The TRAVELER'S HOT L Series

The original TRAVELER'S HOT L book contained eight short stories. It was a USA BEST BOOK AWARDS WINNER from the USABookNews.Com. The book was printed and sold by what the publisher called "CO-PUBLISHING." Since then the most common (and truthful) term is "VANITY PUBLISHING."

The total publicity I got from the publisher was to send me 10 copies of a very professional description of the book. That's all.

The author's name was wrong on the website, and no mention was made of the award.
Lesson learned: DO NOT SELF-(VANITY)- publish!  There are good independent publishers. There are also bad independent publishers.

I opted for KDP Publishing, part of the amazon mega family. Their service used to be more personal, but it still isn't bad. The have a strict policy on quality of writing. They also offer help with that. 

Amazon offers promotion packages. I have no experience with those.

Reality is, if you self/vanity/amazon publish, you won't get rich. There are many authors who make lots of money with amazon. But, there are more that don't.

Since I submitted TRAVELER'S HOT L, I've invested OVER TWENTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS in publishing. I've received a little over $1500 in royalties.

BUT I'M GOING TO KEEP WRITING.

A LOOK AT THE TRAVELER'S HOT L SERIES BOOKS ONE BY-BY-ONE.

THE TIME TRAVELER'S RESORT

TRAVELER'S HOT L - VOLUME 2

I can't type TRAVELER'S HOT L - VOLUME 3's title. You'll see why below.

This book is written the spirit of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but with a twist by an evil entity known by many names. 

Talking, directions, and time all backwards in this antiparallel world.

Tempus, one of the keepers of life-strings in, is trapped in that space and must return to her real time and must convince those trapped there must "look now to the heavens." 

In the end, the name of the entity holding the group in the is revealed, and is not happy by that. 

 

 

Next Website Post: My Books (B)

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

Exploring My Updated Website - Part 2

 

https://www.crdowning.com/

Cover Photo by Damian Markutt on Unsplash

Part 1 of this series was an overview of the new website. 

This week I'll focus on ME. 😇

• About - the first section

Dr. Downing received several awards for his teaching. He was a "San Diego County Teacher of the Year," won the CIBA-GEIGY Award for Excellence in Science Teaching from NSTA, was a Christa McAuliffe Fellow in 1992.

In 1993, he won the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching.

Outside the classroom,Dr. Downing is a developer of curricula with six lab/activities marketed by Science Kit and Ward's Biological Supply. He's also authored three books of laboratory and creative activities that promote critical thinking and authored and edited a four-volume set of textbooks (Making Connections: Integrating the Science of 1) Water; 2) The Atmosphere; 3) The Human Body; 4) Energy) for a thematic-integrated science program. Each text was one semester of coursework.

• Betrayal in Blue  -  several short pre-publication reviews
• Book Reviews  - Betrayal in Blue's booklife review and Paul Wandson Blog: Time-To-Time-Travel's 5-star review of Pattern's on Pages.

From here on is not in the Website. 

Publisher's Weekly's review below is another review of Betrayal in Blue, by far the longest book I've written. It's thorough and said it was 

"Great for fans of JOSEPH WAMBAUGH and ED MCBAIN."

Next Website Post: My Books (A)

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

Exploring My Updated Website - Part 1

https://www.crdowning.com/

Cover Photo by Damian Markutt on Unsplash

My website was designed to showcase my writing. 

It worked out that way, but had too much "clever" pieces of writing and too few showcase pieces.

I think I've fixed it.

This first week of the exploration is an overview of the fixes. 

The photograph at the top of each post in the series was FREE on Unsplash. They ask that you give credit to the photographer. Although that's not mandatory, I always do it.

It all started in June of 2012 . . .

I retired from full-time teaching and decided to become a writer.

Since then I've authored a total of 20 books in five genres:

Science Fiction: The Traveler’s HOT L series - 6 books; INSECTICIDE; We Are The Observers; and Classics Malt Shop

Police Fiction: BETRAYAL IN BLUE - the story takes place 1980's

Miscellaneous Genres: Sir Isaac's Car (humor for all ages); Writing: Idea Farming and Book Creation

Medical Information: NICU - An Insider’s Guide

Christianity: Biblical Fiction: Who Leads the Shepherd?;

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH Bible Studies: Hebrews & Acts

Action/Spy/Thriller: The Antidote Conspiracy - Book 1 of the Glitter & Leroy series

I co-authored a book for teachers of all ages:

TUNE UP YOUR TEACHING & TURN ON STUDENT LEARNING

I was a contributor to three books.

Science Fiction: Drop by Drop in MIND SCAPES UNIMAGINED and What Goes Around in A WORLD UNIMAGINED

Non Fiction: Let "You" Show Through inThe Making of a Presidential Mathematics and Science Educator

If you haven't read any of them, 😟.

If you haven't read all of them, 

You can fix that 😉.

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #6 AN EPIPHANY OF SORTS

AN EPIPHANY OF SORTS  

My eyes still see long words, but my brain does no see the long words as one. When I focus on a long word by itself, my brain usually connects all the pieces I see into the whole word. However, that often requires looking away and focusing on empty space and looking again.

When I'm typing, all too often, my fingers don't go where I send them. This makes typing an ordeal. My fingers have been stiffing slowly or in bursts, too. 

So, Chuck, what's the epiphany?

Frustration is going to continue.
I need to "get over" a situation quicker.

I close on this:

I will be starting a treatment with Kisunla that has proven to be a game changer for people in early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

More on that in my next blog.

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com

My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease #5

 

A TALE OF TWO IMAGES

IMAGAE 1: The opening of Chapter 2 of 
Mexico and Columbia vs. America, 
the book I'm writing.

IMAGAE 1: The opening of Chapter 2 of 
Mexico and Columbia vs. America, 
the book I'm writing AFTER GRAMMALY.

I wrote the first book in this series, "The Antidote Conspiracy," in 2016-17. Early title ideas included "The Drunk Gene." The book is now in print after final editing in 2025. That's TMI, but I want to make a point. 

I never had as many markups from Grammarly in an early draft in a part of that book as in the part of the opening to chapter 2 above from book #2 in the series.

Since the title of this series of blogs is My Travel Through Alzheimer's Disease, I'm using it to illustrate the changes in my ability to write at any speed. 

I pushed myself to get "The Antidote Conspiracy" and "Spotlight: Traveler's HOT L," printed ASAP. Both are now available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/3pb6mssc . 

It will be a long trip to the publishing of Mexico and Columbia vs. America.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Over the last few weeks, I spent at least five hours working on the first segment of Chapter 2 in my next book. I thought this blog post's opening paragraphs were like any of my previous books. But, the number of highlighted items makes it clear that it wasn't as ready to go to Grammarly as I thought it was.

I was SHOCKED at the number of errors I missed, but I probably would have missed some of them in the past. 

Enough rambling on this topic. 

New Topic: My physical status.

I had an ANA (Antinuclear Antibody) Test. I have a list of 7 possible disorders that a positive test like mine might show up as a diagnosis after additional testing. Stay tuned  

I have a doctor's appointment secluded to see if I qualify for treatment with Kisunla for my Alzheimer's.

Kisunla was just cleared for sale.  

After 18 months in a clinical study, people treated with Kisunla showed a significant slowing of decline of 22%, on average, compared with placebo. 

and

In a clinical study, 17% of people were able to stop taking Kisunla at 6 months, 47% at 12 months, and 69% at 18 months if their amyloid plaques were reduced to a predefined level.

That's good news. You can google Kisunla for more positive results. 

I JUST FINISHED RUNNING THIS THROUGH GRAMMALY. I FOUND 12 THINGS I MISSED. BUMMER.

Thanks for reading this far.

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Amazon's Author's Page: http://tinyurl.com/CRD-Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAurhor?ref=hl

My Blogs

Life as I see it: Topics range from general interest to lovers of life: authors, teachers, etc,

http://crdowning-aurhot.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context: Periodic posts on Christianity

http://my christiancontext.bloggspot.com/

Website: www.crdowing.com