Saturday, July 4, 2015

Seizure medicine test






     Hello to all my readers.  I'm sorry I've been away for so long.

     No, I haven't died.

     No, I haven't thrown in the towel with my writing.

     As most of you know, I've been struggling with some major health issues.  There are a lot of things going on, but the big one we're dealing with right now is seizures.  I mostly have nocturnal seizures, and I've been able to lessen the severity and frequency of those with medicines, but we haven't been able to find the right combo to get them to stop altogether.

     Well, recently the state revoked my driver's license.  I didn't drive a lot, and never when I felt a seizure coming on (yes, I have precursors to let me know I might have a seizure.  I guess I'm lucky that way.  Most people don't know until it happens, but I feel dizzy and just not right on the days before I have seizures.), but it was a difficult thing to deal with when they took away my license.

     We had kids enrolled in summer activities to keep them from getting bored.  My oldest daughter had a part in a play at an armature theater in our town.  My youngest is in a competitive dance company.  And we have rec center passes to beat the heat.   When we received the notice from the state that my license was revoked, we were going to pull our kids out of everything.  Luckily, we have some angel-like neighbors who found out, and volunteered to be chauffeurs for the summer.  I can never fully express my gratitude for that magnificent show of kindness.  My kids miss out on so much anyway because of my bad health.  I was elated to find that the world still held wonderful people like those around us that are willing to help.

     Now, I'm stuck at home,  we live several miles from the closest... anything, and so I'm trapped here.  Because of my other health issues, mainly nausea and vomiting, my wife thought it might be a good idea to try backing off all medicines to see if we could get the nausea to stop.  It would mean more seizures, but I'd already lost my license, so there wasn't a lot more that could go wrong except dealing with the aftermath of the seizures and the occasional bumps and bruises that accompany them. (I don't have the severe seizures that can cause brain damage, so just having a seizure isn't necessarily harmful... At least we don't think they are.)  So, I tapered off my medicines.

     And that is why I've been absent in my writings and reviews.

     I've had a seizure about every 2-3 days since I've stopped.  I've also had major issues with concentration and memory because of the frequency of the seizures.  I know, I know, why not jump right back on the meds, right?  Well, my wife and kids all noted a significant improvement in my attitude.  It makes sense that a medicine which directly affects the brain my cause mood swings and whatnot, but I guess dealing with all the pain, nausea, dizziness, and stuff I hadn't noticed it.  Plus, I think that the medicines kind of dull your senses.  At any rate, I agreed to a full month to see the full effect of the test, and then when the month was up, I agreed to another month to allow time for the medicines to fully leave my body.  I'm just trying to deal with the stages of alertness and utter confusions in this roller coaster of seizure brain and normal brain.  It's been difficult, to say the least.

     I have a fairly uncommon side-effect after seizures called Todd's Paralysis.  It affects mostly my ability to speak, so I'm mute for about a day after my seizures, then I have a normal day, then I seize again.  It's been a rough couple of months.  I've tried writing, but my fingers don't work that well when I try typing after a seizure, and on days I don't seize, I'm still a stay-at-home daddy with a never-ending list of chores and three kids to take care of.  Playing make-up after a day or two in bed is all I have time for.

     I'm hoping to get in more posts here, and I appreciate everyone's patience, especially those who have sent me books to read and review.  I'm working on them.

     Even if I start the medicines again today it'd be a month or two before I actually got to see any improvement, so I expect to be in and out for the next few months.  Bear with me, and thank you for your continued support.  We're trying to figure out so many problems, sometimes it's hard to decide which is worse, and which we want to address.