Welcome to our household, ice maker. We love you. I’ve had a handful of nicknames over the years, none of which have really stuck. The latest? Ice Queen. This wasn’t inspired, as might be the natural assumption, by my frigidly cold soul, but rather by something more literal. Before last summer, I wasn’t a lover … Continue reading Ice Queen
One of the neat things about having PSWs visit twice a day is that I get to people-watch from the comfort of my own bed. This usually gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction. I love glimpsing into worlds that aren’t my own, even if—especially if?—that other world is as boring as mine is. Please do … Continue reading Self-Help (Part One)
It’s been a week. A good one, in some regards, but also a very challenging one. I’ve had a few health blips and a couple of appointments that’ve forced me to stop evading uncomfortable realities. Facing the future—particularly when aspects of it are uncertain—remains a huge stumbling block. Parts of me would rather cruise along … Continue reading Stitches
I’m not someone who’s ever felt comfortable in her own skin. These insecurities have affected me differently at different times in my life. Some of their manifestations have been very damaging; others have been relatively innocuous. A running thread, though, has been my resistance both to the idea of showing my body more than necessary … Continue reading From Prude to Prud(ish)
It’s been just over a month since I got home. The time’s both flown and crawled by. Where’s it gone? Why does it slow to a near-stop when my OCD thoughts and anxiety whirl out of control, as tends to happen when I have a moment alone with my neurologically “special” brain? This past week … Continue reading Counting the Little (and the Not-So-Little) Things
I have very complicated feelings about my G-tube. Understandably so, I think. Its insertion, after all, was what led to the infection that led to the septic shock that led to much of what’s happened this past year. I agreed to get the G-tube in the first place because some part of me realized that … Continue reading G-Tube Troubles and Tantrums (a Ramble)
(I wrote this yesterday and forgot to post it, but the sentiments remain!) Yup. It’s Purple Day (for epilepsy awareness), and, despite having had a seizure last night, I woke up beaming this morning with what can only be described as … wait, is this what unsullied happiness feels like? I’m in a very different … Continue reading Purple Day Is Here, and I’m Super Happy
The fact that I’m home, in a new home I’d never stepped foot in (rolled into?) before last Sunday, is almost surreal. Sleeping in the same room as my husband? Eating at the same table? What is this? A beautiful, deeply satisfying, work in progress. As you likely anticipated, there’s a catch, for with the … Continue reading Home New Home
Well, that was a week. From last Tuesday to last Friday, I received difficult news or experienced something difficult, or both, every day. In this post, I’ll write about what was/is, in many ways, the easiest to process and one of the most time-sensitive. (“Time-sensitive” probably isn’t the right word choice here, but I don’t … Continue reading Read the Room, Vanessa
I have a new body part. (That’s what you call an ankle-foot orthotic, right?) Acquiring it took time (of which I have near-endless amounts) and patience (of which I have almost none). Since the orthotic is custom made, the orthopedist had to come to take a plaster mould of my foot and leg and carefully … Continue reading AFO
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 