Taking Time

I’ve toyed on and off with the idea of taking a medical leave of absence from my program for a while now, but the prospect's always made me uncomfortable. If I’m honest with myself (and with the entire internet), I’ve always felt that it would represent a personal failure of sorts, though this judgement is … Continue reading Taking Time →

Concussion, Week Three: Progress Minimal, Morale Low

It’s been two and a half weeks since my concussion. I went to the doctor last Thursday, and he did a series of tests to gauge my extremely minimal progress. Here are some facts that I learned during that appointment: I can’t balance with my eyes closed. I can repeat a series of four words … Continue reading Concussion, Week Three: Progress Minimal, Morale Low →

Concussion/Bad Patient/Anxiety

Last Saturday, Andrew found me lying on the floor by my computer. It was pretty clear when I regained consciousness that things weren’t right (I mean, more not right than usual). We’ve learned to separate “normal” postictal symptoms from those of a head injury, and many of the latter were there: a huge goose egg … Continue reading Concussion/Bad Patient/Anxiety →

Purple Day 2014

It’s hard to believe that more than a year’s passed since Purple Day 2013, when I (over)enthusiastically decorated our apartment in everything purple and stretched the limits of what foods and beverages can be rendered an unnatural shade of chemical violet. I didn’t have the energy to do that this time around. Instead, we marked the … Continue reading Purple Day 2014 →

Postictal

Earlier this evening, I had a seizure while taking a shower. Luckily I had already rinsed out the shampoo (small blessings, right?), though conditioner wasn't going to happen, for obvious reasons. Of all possible "injuries," slightly crispy hair ranks pretty low. Indeed, I didn't seriously hurt myself beyond a sore leg and a few bruises. … Continue reading Postictal →

Helen Stephens, Bravery, and Irrational Fears

The recent publication of Helen Stephens’ photo diary in the Guardian affected me in a very personal way. The images, which are juxtaposed with her reflective writings, show Stephens in a variety of post-seizure states. They are impactful, human, and brave, and I commend her for her willingness to be so public about her experience with … Continue reading Helen Stephens, Bravery, and Irrational Fears →

Wrong Side of the Bed

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Wednesday morning. Literally. It’s funny how disconcerting it was to have my husband snoring to my right rather than to my left, but I figured that I must’ve had a seizure then immediately fallen asleep the night before. Andrew confirmed that this was the … Continue reading Wrong Side of the Bed →

Non-Chronic Illness

I’ve got a backlog of things to blog about. I’ve also got a serious backlog of real work to do, so there you go. One thing at a time, as someone once said. We got back from a just-about-perfect trip to NYC/NJ on Sunday afternoon. My husband got the stomach flu on Monday; I got … Continue reading Non-Chronic Illness →

Love Languages

My husband and I have very different ideas of romance and attitudes towards PDAs (mine on the effusive side of things, his more reserved). I'm right, obviously, and incidentally resist ever conceding that I'm in the wrong, but I respect his objectively superior approach to relationships. I recently took a quiz based on a somewhat … Continue reading Love Languages →

Academic Update

Just in case you were wondering, I didn't meet my self-imposed end-of-January thesis goal. Not that I'm surprised, really. I used to be the kind of person who never missed deadlines, but things are, of course, different now, and that's OK. Really. I've spent from the middle of January up to now scraping by instead of … Continue reading Academic Update →