Some Positive VNS News in the News

Yes, I mean news news, not news of the personal-and-complainy variety. Yesterday I ran across this article about five-year-old Emma, who's the first patient in Canada to have the most recently released VNS model implanted. When she was seven months old, Emma was diagnosed with the seizure disorder infantile spasms (IS); her parents are hosting an … Continue reading Some Positive VNS News in the News →

Graduation!

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! →

Keys

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 →

Forty-Five Seconds

Forty-five seconds. A blip, and likely an inevitable one, after which I rolled over and went to sleep. I'm making a real effort to convince myself that forty-five seconds mean nothing, but they keep tossing around my head, unwilling to simply be what they were—one complex partial seizure among dozens I've had this calendar year. … Continue reading Forty-Five Seconds →

Inspiration Expectation: Why It’s Not OK to Want Me to “Perform” for You

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 →

First Post-ABI Night Away from Home: Major Anxiety, Major Success

And now, back to a post that I was working on before I was distracted by less-pleasant events. As the title of this post gives away, I recently had my first post–brain injury night away from the security of my husband and apartment in the form of a Saturday–Sunday trip to London, Ontario. I had … Continue reading First Post-ABI Night Away from Home: Major Anxiety, Major Success →

Walker Talk

It's not often that I follow through when I write that my next post will be about a certain topic, but here I am, following through after writing in my previous entry that my next post would be about a certain topic, namely my newest accessory. Last Monday, my physiotherapist suggested that we go outside … Continue reading Walker Talk →

Cane Game: Getting My Mobility On, Feeling Stuff

It's been several months since my second surgery and its ensuing complications, which included some left-sided weakness, and despite my many efforts, I haven't yet managed to convince my medical professionals that I'm ready to completely ditch the cane that I started using while in the hospital. Believe me, I've tried. With impressive persistence, too. … Continue reading Cane Game: Getting My Mobility On, Feeling Stuff →

The “Right Thing” Is Hard to Do: Cancelling Plans, Looking Forward

One of the feelings I hate most is the one that keeps nagging at you when you've made a plan that you know that you shouldn't keep but don't want to cancel given that doing so would entail conceding that you're not as recovered as you'd like to think that you are. As a purely … Continue reading The “Right Thing” Is Hard to Do: Cancelling Plans, Looking Forward →

Leaving the Neighbourhood and Other Things I’m Still Not Doing Much: Attempts at Gratitude

As April trudges steadily onward, bringing with it the promise of, um, May, warmer days are becoming increasingly frequent (even in Ontario, where eighteen-degree highs continue to alternate with seven-degree ones¹). I usually welcome spring and all that it represents with open arms, eager to be able to more comfortably spend time outdoors racking up … Continue reading Leaving the Neighbourhood and Other Things I’m Still Not Doing Much: Attempts at Gratitude →