It’s my birthday! I’ve never had a particularly hard time accepting that with time comes increased age, perhaps because I’ve always felt as if I occupy a body and brain older than my own. And yes, I’m sitting in a wheelchair, admiring my latest embroidery project, drinking a Boost, digesting some pudding, and planning my … Continue reading Another Year Older, Definitely a Little Wiser
I spent most of Saturday catching up with a friend who lives in Ottawa. It occurred to me while waiting for him to arrive that I’d last seen him more or less exactly a year ago. The circumstances then were quite different: I was in acute care at the time, I heavily relied on help … Continue reading (Re)visiting
Earlier this week, I returned to a volunteer activity that holds immense personal meaning for me. I couldn’t participate last year for reasons that will be obvious to regular readers of this blog, and I was determined to be well enough to get back to it this September. I was careful to commit in a … Continue reading Pushing
Here I am, about to fangirl a fangirl. I had an appointment yesterday morning at the hospital at which I receive most of my epilepsy care. For the past few months, I’ve shuddered at the mere mention of the hospitals that I associate with being really sick, but I approached this visit with a surprisingly … Continue reading Fangirl
Exactly six months ago, I left the hospital and came home to a new apartment and to a life that was full both of possibility and, at the same time, of uncertainty. I remember the excitement; I also remember the nerves. The future was mine to embrace or to mess up. I like to think … Continue reading Six Months!
Sometimes it seems as if my recovery is proceeding at a snail’s pace—three steps forward, two and a half steps back—and then, out of the blue, I notice a cascade of changes. Friends very generously stopped by to hang out with me on Wednesday so that my husband could go to a work function. (Thanks, … Continue reading On My Own Two Feet
My husband and I talked all summer about going to Koreatown, which is within easy, TTC-accessible distance of us and is the site of a few of my favourite stores, one of my favourite parks, and, importantly, a Baskin-Robbins. In other words, a trifecta of happiness. This must’ve been the fourth or fifth Sunday in … Continue reading An Afternoon on the Town
I’ve been working really hard to be less rigid in how I approach, well, everything, including rigidity itself. My attempts to be more adaptable and open are usually ridiculously inflexible. I spend inordinate amounts of time mapping out precisely how I’ll challenge the OCD rules that dominate many aspects of my existence, creating charts and … Continue reading Flexing
Besides a few teasers of reprieve, I had a migraine most of Wednesday and some of Thursday. Just a migraine, yes, but it sucked, as might be expected of a debilitating headache. My reaction to it certainly didn’t help matters at all. My tendency, especially over the last few months, is to jump to unproductive … Continue reading A Headache
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
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 