I woke up yesterday morning to two missed calls and a voicemail from an "unknown" number. I've been doing this chronic-illness thing long enough to know that 95% of the time, if you're a heavy user of the health-care system, an unknown caller means a medical office, usually one in a hospital. Sure enough, it … Continue reading Same-Day Appointment with My Epileptologist: Success/the Beginning of a Multi-Month Pregabalin Breakup
Tag: epilepsy
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
Back to 5B
Well, what was likely the inevitable happened: I landed myself back in hospital, in the same unit in which I spent most of the first two months of 2017. Let's hope that I’ve gotten it out of my system now. On Tuesday evening, I had a series of five tonic-clonic seizures at home in the … Continue reading Back to 5B
Wheel-Trans: How to Trans-form Your Life Using Public Transportation Alone
Wheel-Trans is the door-to-door accessible option of Toronto's public transportation system for those who qualify for the service. While it used to be only for people with physical disabilities, it recently "open[ed] up [its] eligibility criteria to include any person with a disability that prevents a person from taking conventional transit for all or part … Continue reading Wheel-Trans: How to Trans-form Your Life Using Public Transportation Alone
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
Sunday Night in the ER
I'll start with a disclaimer: for obvious reasons, my memories of the event that's the topic of this post are kind of spotty, so I'm relying on witnesses (i.e., my husband) for much of what makes up the following. We're going to have to go ahead and assume that I wasn't being trolled when the … Continue reading Sunday Night in the ER
Checkup
Yesterday morning, I had a routine checkup with my epileptologist. In anticipation of an event that's historically been by and large unremarkable, with a doctor who's never been anything but kind to me, I naturally spent Monday night—OK, most of the last week—obsessing about the various ways in which it might go wrong. I won't … Continue reading Checkup
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









