I'm now in Cambridge seeing a friend whom I consider an aunt/second mother. Cambridge is my happy place; I feel uncharacteristically relaxed here. On the plane from Reykjavik to Heathrow, I was trying to figure our how many times I've visited. I estimated ten. Kinda crazy to think that this is my eleventh. And now … Continue reading A “Person with Epilepsy” Abroad: First Update You Don’t Care About
I had an appointment with my epileptologist last Wednesday. I make this weird assumption that specialists are going to be angry about something that I did or didn't do or about the fact that I haven't made better "progress," even if the lack thereof isn't my fault. And so I was incredibly anxious on Tuesday … Continue reading Six-Month Checkup: Ugh (Positivity!)
Featured Questionnaire #4 comes from a fellow PhDer and one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering. Although we’re enough years apart in our program that I haven’t spent a lot of time with her (I’ve also been pitifully absent from my department since my epilepsy diagnosis … I … Continue reading Thinking about Epilepsy: Featured Questionnaire #4 (The “You Never Know What Other People Are Going Through, so Always Be Nice to Them/Flattery Totally Works—I’m Blushing and Feel So Good about Myself” Edition)
Unlike me, subject #3 works in a science-related field, so we should take everything she says extra seriously. She's also one of the coolest, most caring people I know. How much did you know about epilepsy before meeting me/before I was diagnosed with epilepsy/before reading my blog/before frantically Googling “epilepsy” three minutes ago? … Continue reading Thinking about Epilepsy: Featured Questionnaire #3 (The “I’m Successfully Inspiring/Shaming People into Learning More about Epilepsy” Edition)
The author of the second featured questionnaire and I go back to when we were child hippies unschooling on the West Coast. Now we've both moved east and are both in academia. Life's so weird. How much did you know about epilepsy before meeting me/before I was diagnosed with epilepsy/before reading my blog/before … Continue reading Thinking about Epilepsy: Featured Questionnaire #2 (The “Child Hippie to Adult Academic” Edition)
If you know me in real life/are Facebook friends with me, I probably bugged you a few weeks ago to fill out a questionnaire about epilepsy. While I finish analyzing the resulting data (i.e., while I procrastinate and let the files fester somewhere in the depths of my computer), every few days I'll post excerpts … Continue reading Thinking about Epilepsy: Featured Questionnaire #1!
I went for my first acupuncture appointment last Monday armed with a healthy degree of skepticism. A well-meaning but ill-informed acquaintance once suggested that acupuncture could "cure" my seizures. Medical science isn't on her side (Google it). However, I have bad nausea from the medications I take and almost-daily headaches due to my messed-up brain. … Continue reading Voluntarily Jabbed with Needles
A few people have recently asked me to describe what it's like to have a seizure. I sat down to do so but quickly hit a massive and obvious roadblock: though I've discussed my auras and the postictal phase in previous posts, I'm unable to write in detail about what happens during the main event … Continue reading Interview with My Husband: A De Morbo Sacro Exclusive!
I came to an interesting realization this morning: I’m becoming exceptionally and uncharacteristically good at "wasting" time. Indeed, it’s Friday, and I have almost nothing to show for the week. Sure, I’ve had several appointments, seen friends, knit a hat, and kept myself alive, but I’ve accomplished very little else. Six months ago, I’d have … Continue reading Doing (Almost) Nothing
I'm sure all y'all have been eagerly awaiting an update on what's been happening with Topamax, the antiepileptic medication that caused me to function at the level of a second-grader drugged on sleeping pills when I started taking it in May. Well, you'll be pleased to know that tremendous progress has been made: I now … Continue reading Topamax: Five and a Half Months Later
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 