Traveling with brain cancer and epilepsy
I just returned from a trip to Rome! (Hence the lack of posts.) Yay! It was my first time out of the country, except for a day trip I took to Tijuana when I was seven. But that doesn’t count. And like any responsible person with a significant medical condition who will be traveling out of...
Each moment is bittersweet
It has been almost three years since I experienced the first significant symptom that I had brain cancer. It was one week after my 29th birthday that I lost consciousness at work, suffered a grand mal seizure, convulsed uncontrollably for five minutes, then peed my pants in front of the boss. I had no history...
Over-thinking everything
Yesterday evening I was overwhelmed with a significant feeling of déjà vu. According to Wikipedia, déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined. What creeps me out about the déjà vu is that I...
Continuing challenges
Woah! Now that I’m done with Temodar it seems like my cancer experience is over–but it’s not because I still have cancerous tumor in my brain. WTH! The weird thing (and all you brain tumor peeps know this) is that unless you have an extractable, hard tumor with defined borders, we will have brain tumors...
Laughing in the face of the “worst-case scenario”
Hey, everyone. I have a new $5 word for you: nystagmus. Now, before you run off to look it up on Wikipedia, give me a chance to tell my story. Over the past six weeks I have been experiencing a weird sensation when I look at something up close, including my cell phone, books and,...
Mystery solved
Well, well, well. It turns out that the shaking/tremor sensation I was experiencing was neither tumor or seizure-related. My neurologist and Super Awesome Nurse were able to deduce this because the tremors were in both hands, as opposed to materializing in just the right hand (as would be normal for my seizures). The tremor was traced...
A minor partial seizure
I could tell something was lingering at the borders of my senses. I felt it in my face and my thoughts ricocheted between confusion and absolute clarity. Brett and I were playing Trivial Pursuit and it was my turn to read him a question. I read the words but I couldn’t tell what the words...
Brothers in disease
Brett and I happened to get seats at a River Cats game in a row designated for the disabled. We struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to us who was using a mobility scooter. Brett’s dad has muscular dystrophy and also uses a scooter and we asked him about the accessibility of...
