This has been a pretty intense week, to put it mildly. From sizeable craniotomy to grid placement to brain swelling to black eye swollen shut to intense pain and nausea necessitating heavy-duty meds to gradual and ongoing recovery, it’s certainly been one to remember. I’m in the EMU now, with the grids implanted. I continue … Continue reading Surgery Update, Week 1
I'm back in Toronto after a few mostly nice weeks in BC with my parents. For suspension-building purposes, I'll start with the good. The trip was pleasant in that it was, on the whole, relaxing, a great opportunity to see friends and family and to take care of myself while recovering from my recent concussion. … Continue reading Christmas CheER and Another Surgery Countdown
Well, here I am again, in an all-too-familiar position, and one that I half-thought that I had left in the past: recovering from a seizure-caused concussion, my third—if my almost-entirely-unreliable memory serves me correctly—of the year. I'm trying not to be annoyed at how preventable this seems; I am, after all, supposed to be in … Continue reading Fireside Reflections on My Latest Concussion, on Making Choices, on Plain Pitas, Etc.
This has been one of the most intensely emotional weeks of my life. And for epilepsy-surgery-related reasons, so you get to hear all about it! We've been busy preparing for my upcoming procedure, which, as regular readers are aware, was very recently scheduled for November 4th. Such little notice means/meant a lot to take care … Continue reading Surgery Delay, Intense Emotions
As has seemed to be the case on several occasions on this epilepsy “journey” of mine, I’ve once again gone from what’s felt like an excruciating, never-ending waiting game to a sudden, overwhelming flurry of activity. I got a call yesterday afternoon from my neurosurgeon’s office. They had a cancellation for next Friday. Could I … Continue reading (Sudden) Countdown to Craniotomy: One Week
I've decided to continue to grant you a brief reprieve from long-winded stories about my hair, but only because I want to talk at too-great length about the almond-shaped collection of neurons in my right temporal lobe that's been at the top, figuratively speaking, of my mind for the past few days. I've always preferred … Continue reading My Amygdala, Myself
In case the title of this post didn't clue you in, I'm about to give a brief history of my hair, inspired by the series of increasingly drastic haircuts I've been getting leading up to pre-surgery head-shaving. It is thus completely understandable, even admirable, if you choose to stop reading. Can't say I didn't warn … Continue reading Hairstory (Part I: Childhood)
I have a few other posts in the works, but in the meantime (i.e, to buy a few days while I finish them), here's a short update on how "things" are going. Short because not much is happening, since I'm currently stuck, not by choice, in a holding pattern as I . . . wait. … Continue reading Holding Pattern
... let them cut into your brain anyway? My attitude towards the procedure I'm supposed to have sometime over the next month or two (I'm still waiting for a date, which is its own kind of stressful) seems to have entered a new phase that I'll call "full-blown fear." Or, I guess, fear mixed with … Continue reading Feel the Fear and …
My husband and I have an ongoing narrative/discussion/negotiation/argument regarding how often I should wear my helmet-toque, the headgear about which I'm sure I've written in a past post (that I won't bother digging up for laziness reasons). His, probably correct, opinion: I should don it almost all the time. My fuelled-by-a-desire-to-preserve-the-last-shreds-of-dignity-in-a-life-currently-coloured-by-loss-of-control one: helmet-toque as protective … Continue reading Helmet-Toque Negotiations and the Search for (the Last Remaining Shreds of) Dignity
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 