My dad changed a digit in his age today. He’s a respectable, respected, hilarious, intelligent, curious, loving, creative, and charming gentleman of both the East Coast and the West Coast, and I’m immensely grateful that he was born. Dad, or Pops, as I’m wont to call him, is spending his birthday convalescing from a surgery … Continue reading It’s a Good Day to Celebrate a Pops
Yesterday marked another important milestone in my slow journey back to life: I made a trip to a large craft store for the first time in recent memory. It was pretty great. My husband and I had decided to break up the normal tedium with a date day, our version of which entailed a streetcar … Continue reading Home Is Where the Floss Is
All hail Alanis. (With that out of my system, I can now proceed.) I’ve been finding it really hard lately to accept help from PSWs. There are several reasons for this, chief among them that support workers represent, to me, what I’ve lost in terms of independence. As I’ve become increasingly capable, I’ve also become … Continue reading All I Really Want
Yes, the title of this post is a little misleading. I had to draw you in somehow, though, and I’m weirdly excited to share news that it’s kind of weird to be excited to share (and also kind of weird in general). My big toe—the one on my right foot, to be specific—had its second … Continue reading Spa Day for Toe(s)
My parents called this morning to remind me that it’s an important anniversary, one I honestly would’ve forgotten had they not remembered. Exactly a year ago, I regained the ability to speak. Though I hadn’t known the precise date, I do remember the moment. There had been some buildup to to it, and my anticipation, … Continue reading The Gift of Gab
At very long last, my new wheelchair arrived on Thursday. It’s a thing of beauty. More importantly, it’s mine. Not on loan from the medical supply company. Fitted for me, with everything tightened up where it ought to be. Smooth and shiny (for now, anyway). Ready for the accessories I’ll inevitably buy to make it … Continue reading New Wheels, Gotta Roll
I like to tell myself that everyone has those “yeah right, medical professionals, quit the hyperbole and lemme do what I’m gonna do” moments. Aren’t I, after all, the expert on my own body? (History would suggest otherwise, in my case, but I’ll conveniently brush over that part.) Don’t hold me back! I’m regrowing a … Continue reading The Flip Side of a Flop
As soon as I heard myself say it, I burst into the kind of self-aware laughter that’s been coming to me frequently and spontaneously as of late. I’d been obsessing about something I did a little compulsively (all of this in a very OCD manner, of course), and, as I am wont to do, I … Continue reading “Should I Be …”
My body and brain must miss the recreational swimming I enjoyed before I had epilepsy. Three of the last four nights, I’ve woken up in the wee hours drenched in sweat. I mean, drenched. Through-the-sheets, through-the-duvet-cover-and-the-duvet, stringy-hair drenched. Gross and uncomfortable? Yes. Disconcerting? Also a yes. I’m not particularly worried that these four-in-the-morning swimfests are … Continue reading Sleep or Swim?
After an up-and-down spring and a spotty early summer, Toronto’s now in full-blown heat mode. Weather-warning, too-hot-to-be-outside-without-feeling-a-little-nauseated heat. I used to love luxuriating under the sun. Being uncomfortably warm was my preferred state: I felt a certain affinity toward camels, salamanders, and, of course, the mighty kangaroo rat. I inwardly rolled my eyes when people … Continue reading Heat
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 