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
My husband and I got back to Ontario a few hours ago after spending the long weekend at my parents' house in BC. We woke up before 5 a.m. We're both incredibly tired and grumpy. Happy Thanksgiving! Every time I leave Victoria (or NC), I'm reminded how hard it is to be so far from … Continue reading Giving Thanks
Last Friday, I flew from Toronto to Seattle to visit two of my favourite people for a few days before visiting more of my favourite people in Victoria. You know that feeling of nervous anticipation when you’re boarding a plane and waiting to see who’ll be your seat mates for the next several hours? Well, … Continue reading Swissair
One night last week, I had just finished brushing my teeth and was heading to bed when I stopped dead in my tracks, paralyzed by fear. “What’s wrong?” my husband asked. “I feel a SENSE OF IMPENDING DOOM,” I replied, in exactly those words. As per my recent explanation/tirade, the period after a tonic-clonic seizure can … Continue reading Sense of Impending Doom
As I write this, it’s 6:20 a.m. I realize that many—most?—members of the workforce are awake now, but being on a leave of absence, I have no incentive to be up at this hour. And hey, this is a medical leave of absence, and my seizure frequency increases when I don’t get enough sleep. (Seriously, … Continue reading Bad Neighbour
A few weeks after I went to the doctor following my first seizure, I got a letter from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation revoking my learner's permit. My expired learner’s permit. Brutal, right? For multiple obvious and valid reasons, the inability to drive is one of the biggest practical and social issues faced by people … Continue reading Drive to Drive
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 