Well, readers, this has been quite the week. Let me start with the positive: I’m starting to feel significantly better, and I’m not dead. (I guess those two things are connected.) Oh, and I don’t remember most of Monday and Tuesday, which is probably good. Yep, I’m being pretty dramatic. I feel like I deserve … Continue reading A Terrible Week
For complicated reasons that aren't the topic of this post—sorry—I've been trying to stay in bed, sedentary, for much of the day (and night, but that goes without saying) since last Wednesday, when I got some not-great news at a medical appointment. Mandatory bed rest when you're physically very unwell is pretty easy; turns out … Continue reading Compulsively Knitting for Fun, Entertainment, and Distraction
I've been going to see my epileptologist every two weeks or so to have my VNS adjusted—and for other epilepsy stuff—since, um, December? (Maybe since sometime in November. Please excuse my imprecision; I'm going to go ahead and use the "bad memory for neurological reasons" line, but really I'm just too lazy to scan through … Continue reading Two Weeks to Two Months: A Tangible Sign of Progress (Yay!)
As of last Thursday, and after two rounds of treatment, I'm officially finished my neuro day-hospital program. It feels super good. Time to reflect! Given my tendency to worry that I've plateaued or am plateauing in my recovery, I've found it important, especially over the past month or so, to keep reminding myself that I've made … Continue reading Graduation!
Yesterday at neuro rehab, I received the results of a (very long, multi-part) memory test that I completed with my occupational therapist last week. I'll cut right to the chase and reveal that I didn't do incredibly well. My OT was careful to sandwich the news: "You have lots of strengths; this test showed that … Continue reading That Elderly White Dude: Reflections on a Memory Test
Well, it's been an interesting year. I knew that 2017 wouldn't be devoid of challenges: it started, after all, with scheduled neurosurgery that had been looming over me for much of 2016. I didn't anticipate, though—I couldn't have anticipated—how many twists and turns I'd navigate from January (intracranial grids implanted, almost the entire month spent … Continue reading 2017 in Review: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking at the VNS Scar on My Neck Every Time I Look in the Mirror
I started playing the piano when I was a little girl and kept at it throughout my childhood. True to my personality, I (usually) took my lessons seriously, and I got better and better, as is typically the case when one practises—turns out that all those motivational posters are right. By the time I began … Continue reading Keys
You might, but probably don't, recall that in the summer, at the urging of my occupational therapist at the neuro-rehab program that I was attending—and to which I'll return for a second block of treatment in January—I was making an effort to get "back" to the kitchen. In short, my OT was super excited about … Continue reading Back to “Back” to the Kitchen: Cookie Edition
As the self-explanatory title of this blog post makes clear, it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. Though 2017 has been difficult in ways that are sometimes hard for me to articulate, my Year of the Disobedient Brain has, in many respects, allowed me to better recognize my privilege and focus on the things for which … Continue reading Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!
On Monday, a friend sent me an illustration from an Instagram account that I'd never heard of (I'm now hooked). Though the artist's life experience is, of course, different from my own, I was struck by how deeply her sentiment—one that I didn't realize I shared—resonated with me. I'm guessing that a visual would be … Continue reading Inspiration Expectation: Why It’s Not OK to Want Me to “Perform” for You
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 