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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
As April trudges steadily onward, bringing with it the promise of, um, May, warmer days are becoming increasingly frequent (even in Ontario, where eighteen-degree highs continue to alternate with seven-degree ones¹). I usually welcome spring and all that it represents with open arms, eager to be able to more comfortably spend time outdoors racking up … Continue reading Leaving the Neighbourhood and Other Things I’m Still Not Doing Much: Attempts at Gratitude
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 