It’s me! It’s been (practically) forever! Don’t get too excited: I’m just dropping in to wish you a happy end to 2018 and beginning to 2019. Since I keep meaning to compose a long catch-up/excuse post and then collapsing under the pressure of having so much to catch up on and not knowing how much … Continue reading It’s Almost 2019! Time for a Disjointed Post.
Due to excuses mostly unrelated to epilepsy, I haven't been posting on this blog as frequently as I once did—I'll try to be better, but no promises. I had an appointment with my epilepsy specialist on Thursday, though, so I figured that I'd make the effort to write a shortish entry with a (kind of … Continue reading Boring Update
After reviewing his records of such things, my husband informed me a few days ago that my tonic-clonic seizures have almost disappeared. In fact, over the past two months, I’ve only experienced one. One. I knew, or at least suspected, that I wasn't having very many of them, but it hadn't occurred to me to check … Continue reading Bye(?), Convulsive Seizures
I've been going to see my epileptologist every two weeks or so to have my VNS adjusted—and for other epilepsy stuff—since, um, December? (Maybe since sometime in November. Please excuse my imprecision; I'm going to go ahead and use the "bad memory for neurological reasons" line, but really I'm just too lazy to scan through … Continue reading Two Weeks to Two Months: A Tangible Sign of Progress (Yay!)
My friend Regan recently agreed to indulge me by allowing me to virtually interview her (i.e., I sent her a document with questions, and she answered them). She even drew a self-portrait to go along with it. You may notice that the quality of her stick-figure picture is much, much, much higher than the "quality" … Continue reading (Virtual) Interview with Regan: A DMS Exclusive!
I was discharged from the neuro ward last Monday evening (appropriately, I guess, the date of my release coincided with Purple Day [for epilepsy awareness]). Except for an appointment a few days ago and a ten-minute walk yesterday afternoon, I've been more or less chilling ever since. I hate chilling. Although I'm super happy to … Continue reading I’m Home, Getting Better, and Really Cranky
I've never consistently tracked my seizures. Here's where, before continuing with this blog post, I make excuses for my shortcomings as a seizure diarist. First, there's the memory thing. If I have a partial seizure before bed, when they usually occur, I sometimes have to be told the next morning that it happened since I'm … Continue reading Above Average
Remember the post—I think it's this one—in which I scoffed at how my epileptologist had warned me that I'd feel a "big jolt" when he programmed my VNS and then the sensation ended up being more of a big ’ol nothing, to the point that I was concerned that there was something wrong with my … Continue reading And Behold, a Jolt!
Well, it's been an interesting year. I knew that 2017 wouldn't be devoid of challenges: it started, after all, with scheduled neurosurgery that had been looming over me for much of 2016. I didn't anticipate, though—I couldn't have anticipated—how many twists and turns I'd navigate from January (intracranial grids implanted, almost the entire month spent … Continue reading 2017 in Review: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking at the VNS Scar on My Neck Every Time I Look in the Mirror
Since the last time I blogged, I've made steady progress in the direction of adjusting to life with a VNS device implanted, cyborg-style, in my chest: I went to my family doctor and found a better solution for my nausea. I've almost completely eliminated ongoing pain by managing it with a combination of ibuprofen and … Continue reading Vanessa
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 