Hospital Food and Ticking Boxes (Highlights of My Current Existence)

Nine days in to my current hospital stay, I feel well enough to waste some of my limited computer time blogging when I could be, oh, e-mailing my mother (sorry, Mom) or taking care of business (sorry, business). I don't, however, want to burden my brain or readership by blogging about anything serious, so instead, I will focus on something happier: … Continue reading Hospital Food and Ticking Boxes (Highlights of My Current Existence) →

Curveballs

Sometimes, despite your months-long effort to responsibly follow your treatment plan, life throws you a curve ball. That's what happened last Friday night: life threw us a curve ball. A big, serious, scary, overwhelming curve ball. The brain, I'm learning, is the strangest of organs. Just when I think I've figured mine out, it reminds me … Continue reading Curveballs →

EMU: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Long and Unpleasant Hospital Stay!

It looks like I have a tentative date—or date range, anyway—for an admission to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at a hospital here in Toronto. Yay! Yay. Yay? Ugh. I have, as I’ve probably made evident, conflicted emotions about this. On the one hand, it has to happen eventually, and I’ve waited a long time for … Continue reading EMU: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Long and Unpleasant Hospital Stay! →

Stretches: Unreasonable Expectations and Consolation Prizes

So, as many of my Facebook friends (hey guys!) among my readership know, I'm now entering day five of a seizure-free stretch. I at first attributed this amazing development to the annual kickoff of my almost-daily trips to Menchies, but yesterday I got my froyo elsewhere, so there might be—shocker—some actual medical explanation for it. … Continue reading Stretches: Unreasonable Expectations and Consolation Prizes →

Crash Course

So, I hit my head last Monday in the usual mid-seizure way, which resulted in a “mild” concussion (“mild” in quotation marks because I wasn’t told that it’s mild but just assume/decided it is to make myself feel better). I know, I know: it’s like every time I knock my brains around, they miraculously get … Continue reading Crash Course →

Happy Purple Day! (And an Ill-Conceived Children’s Book Idea)

When my brothers and I were kids, we tried to convince my parents that there should be mythical gift-bearing creatures associated with non-gift holidays: the Thanksgiving Rat, for example. With this history of attempting to cheat my way into extra toys, I casually suggested to my husband this morning that there should be a Purple … Continue reading Happy Purple Day! (And an Ill-Conceived Children’s Book Idea) →

Special Skill(s): Reflections on Worst-Case-Scenario Thinking and How Teaching Is Taking Over My Life and Brain

It’s Reading Week, the toned-down, much-colder, Canadian version of Spring Break and a much needed few days to focus on things like not obsessively planning lessons and figuring out who I am as a person when I’m not making PowerPoint presentations. I’ve settled into a bit of a groove now and started to remember why … Continue reading Special Skill(s): Reflections on Worst-Case-Scenario Thinking and How Teaching Is Taking Over My Life and Brain →

“Frazzled University Instructor with Epilepsy” and PowerPoint: A Love Story

Until three weeks ago, I was adamant that I'd never use PowerPoint as a classroom tool. As are many things I pretentiously reject, it was perfectly acceptable for other people, but I was happy with chalk and, you know, my voice. More to the point, I hate change and am technologically inept. And then I … Continue reading “Frazzled University Instructor with Epilepsy” and PowerPoint: A Love Story →

Seizures and the Search for Silver Linings

This'll come as a shock to you, especially delivered by someone as "eternally positive" (hahahahahahaha) as I am, but life's full of disappointments. I've found, since developing epilepsy, that this is particularly true when one has a chronic illness that involves unpredictable brain malfunctions. So in an effort to combat how letdowns of all varieties affect my … Continue reading Seizures and the Search for Silver Linings →

Muffins: A Post about Nothing and Everything, but Mostly about Nothing

I realize that nobody cares about my food obsessions, but since this is my blog and, as a result, my little egotistical corner of the universe, I can write about whatever I want, whether related to epilepsy, OCD, depression, academia, etc. or not. Today I'm tired of my problems, so I will focus my energies … Continue reading Muffins: A Post about Nothing and Everything, but Mostly about Nothing →