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
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
Just when I thought I’d broken up with Topamax, it’s weaseled its way back into my life. For good reason, I guess: seems that it was making more of a difference than I thought it was. Turns out that when your baseline is “seizures all the time,” it’s possible for a drug to lower this … Continue reading Why Hello There, Old Frenemy: Topamax Returns
I had an appointment with my epileptologist yesterday that was significant in two regards. In fact, I left feeling much better than I had walking in, which isn't always the case. (Please note that the fact that I often sit in the streetcar dejected and downtrodden after discussing the misworkings of my brain is not … Continue reading It’s Like Saying Goodbye to a Horrible, Clingy Friend: I’m Finally Breaking Up with Topamax
While having coffee with a friend yesterday morning, I missed a call from an unlisted number, which often, as I commented to said friend when I looked down at my phone, means a hospital. No voicemail. Grrrrrr. Coffee Friend and I had just been discussing how I've been eagerly—well, maybe "with a complicated mix of … Continue reading Cutting It Out(!): An Important Update
An e-mail from a regular reader (hi, K!) after my last post, an entry that had nothing to do with the dysfunctional world of my neurons, reminded me that an update on the epilepsy front was long overdue. I blame my silence in this regard on a few factors: perhaps most importantly, "epilepsy fatigue" has … Continue reading My Brain Today
Well, this is it: my fourth, and final, weekend in the epilepsy monitoring unit. One of the best parts about being here has been having a medication holiday. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know that I'm really not a fan of Topamax, one of the anticonvulsants that I take. Since … Continue reading Oh Hey There, Old Friend
There was a new epileptologist doctor on duty today, and she suggested that I try sleep deprivation to get the seizure train rolling. This means staying up until four in the morning, sleeping until nine, then making it through the day without naps—which, to be honest, is an only slightly shifted and shortened version of … Continue reading Sleep Deprivation for a Cause
So, I hit my head last Monday in the usual mid-seizure way, which resulted in a “mild” concussion (“mild” in quotation marks because I wasn’t told that it’s mild but just assume/decided it is to make myself feel better). I know, I know: it’s like every time I knock my brains around, they miraculously get … Continue reading Crash Course
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 