As almost everyone with access to media of any kind knows by now, Robin Williams committed suicide yesterday morning. While he was relatively open about his battle with mental illness, a cross-section of the many, many reactions to his death on my Facebook feed—mostly sadness and shock—suggests that few people were aware that he faced … Continue reading Why It’s Important, and Will Be Important, to Think about Robin Williams’ Death
Facebook Page
Mildly exciting news! On the advice of a friend who's much tech-savvier than I am, I finally decided to create a De Morbo Sacro Facebook page. Thrilling, right?? Here's the link. (There's also a widget—I think that's the technical term?—in the footer of this blog. I'm learning.) If you feel like helping me spread epilepsy awareness via a … Continue reading Facebook Page
Watch Your Language
(First off, a disclaimer: what follows is by no means intended to make you feel bad if you haven’t been using "ideal" language to describe people with epilepsy, unless you’ve been purposefully going around disparagingly shrieking “epileptic”/teasing kids with epilepsy on the playground/wreaking general havoc on the epilepsy universe, in which case I have many, … Continue reading Watch Your Language
Back to the ER
We were at the ER until 3 a.m. on Tuesday night. I woke up the next morning with a vague feeling that something had happened, a suspicion confirmed by the bling (hospital bracelet) still adorning my wrist. Following a chat with my husband, the filler-in-of-seizure-gaps, I still have only spotty first-hand recollections of our latest … Continue reading Back to the ER
Get Your Fingers Outta My Mouth
If that sounded dirty, it was, but only because the culprit (i.e., the well-meaning but misinformed stranger trying to help) almost definitely hadn't washed his/her fingers before using them to try to stop me from dying from the oldest of epilepsy perils: tongue-swallowing. And on the off chance you're wondering why I'm upset that this … Continue reading Get Your Fingers Outta My Mouth
Breakthrough
Remember how Topamax was working miracles, eliminating my convulsive seizures and transforming my days into a series of peaceful, anxiety-free, productive moments? (Slight—okay, major—hyperbole.) Well, the tonic-clonic seizure that I had last night reminded me that nothing lasts forever. Not true, actually: even the eponymous and moderately annoying Maroon 5 song is still around. But … Continue reading Breakthrough
Cost of Control
I complain so much about the side effects of the anticonvulsants that I’ve been prescribed—the infamous Topamax, not Lamictal, which I also take but tolerate very well—that I forget how lucky I am to be able to afford these meds in the first place. When I go to the pharmacy to pick up a monthly … Continue reading Cost of Control
Cutting It Out
I’m currently on the waiting list to go back to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at a hospital in my city so that my epileptologist can capture more data about my seizure activity. The prospect of a week or two of hospital time isn’t exactly thrilling, but at least there’s potential for productive information gathering and … Continue reading Cutting It Out
Summertime
Summertime living traditionally hasn’t been especially easy for me. I attribute this to the fact that there isn’t one of my favourite things—school—to give me structure and keep me intellectually engaged. In contrast with most of my peers in undergrad, who for whatever reason looked forward to the last day of classes (what??), I dreaded … Continue reading Summertime
OCD Redux
Since writing about OCD a few weeks ago, I’ve had time to think more about some issues that I maybe should have addressed in that original post and others that have come up since then. Cue oversharing. Without getting into too many details, many of my OCD behaviours involve numbers; I have, for example, three–four … Continue reading OCD Redux
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 