Something Old, Something New

 Today I had one of the fiddlehead fern kinds of seizures -- where my arm (almost always the right one) curls up and locks in that position. Nothing new about that...

Except...

It happened while I was going through the dollar DVDs at Cash America. I was holding four treasures that I'd found in my right hand. It curled up around them. I kept shopping, figuring it would loosen up before I was done. No such luck. I got to the counter to buy them, and my left hand could not get at the correct angle to pull the DVDs out of my grip. I had to ask the cashier if she could pull them out, explaining that I was having a seizure and couldn't let go of them. She asked, with huge eyes, if I needed her to call an ambulance. I told her that I was fine, it was a normal occurrence for me, and that no medical assistance was needed. I just couldn't get the cases out of my hand for her to be able to ring them up. She pulled them out, rang up my order, and watched in a bit of awe as I signed the credit card slip (legibly!) by sticking the pen between two fingers and moving my shoulder appropriately. She asked if a bag would help (no thanks), then handed me the DVDs with the receipt neatly wrapped around them. Then, bless her heart, "Is it okay to say have a nice day?" It's just fine.

Holy Crap...

 What a day.

Work was not bad. Weird weather -- rain and snow mixed in the morning, then just snow. In May.

 

Then a followup with the eye doctor, and all the fun light-based tests that go with that. And all the seizures that go with that. Yeah. Somewhere between four and seven of them. At one point I was on the border of a Grand Mal, there in the waiting area between tests. Not amused. But made it through. And the eyes are doing pretty well.

 

Home time was pretty unremarkable. I couldn't do my dog walks thanks to the weather, so I did the treadmill. And then I started to seize on the treadmill. Totally unexpected since I was still moving, not stuck in one position.

 

I'm still recovering, 45 minutes later. Now you understand the title to this entry.

And Now For Something Incompletely Different!

 But it is a new twist for me. Well, yeah, that too.

 

Yesterday I had both kinds of seizure at the same time. My right arm locked up, but then started shaking while still locked up. I have not had both at once. Well, it's pretty painful. And I was at work. One of my best friends there was on his prep period and walked by the door. I asked him if he could cover my class for a few minutes, and he stepped right in. I went to the staff lounge to run my arm under cold water, and the lock unlocked within about 20 seconds. The shaking part of the seizure relaxed soon after that.

 

But here's the kicker. And yes, I think it's funny now. I was shaking hard enough that I managed to sprain my wrist in the process! Only me, right? It's a mild sprain, and really not hindering anything to speak of. And who knew I could do that to myself? I'm a very special guy.

No News Is

 Yeah, whatever.

 

Seizures have been taking over the spotlight, and they are not that fun to blog about. Like today: first day back from Spring Break. Seizures were kind of minimal, both in quantity and strength. Cool. Running an errand on the way home from work. Had one so bad in the store, I almost started crying. Two hours later, my arm still hurts. Not acceptable. 

 

And really not interesting to blog about.

 

I'll try to have something more amusing happen some time soon.

A Mixed Bag

Christmas vs. Boxing Day

Okay, so I had a really nice Christmas. The morning was spent hanging with the dogs. Then late morning through the evening, I went to a friend's house for spaghetti and watching a great Netflix show -- God's Favorite Idiot. Very minimal seizing, minimal pain, a great physical day. Good food, good company all day.

Then came the 26th. Ugh. I woke up with a full migraine. None of my four limbs were obeying commands. Pain levels were high everywhere. Equilibrium was off; I'm not sure how much of that was because the legs weren't working, but it was off even when sitting. It took 25 minutes just to get out of bed, down the stairs, and letting the dogs out. That is usually 5-7 minutes. I gave up after about an hour, and went back to bed. 90 minutes later, I was in a bit better shape, but still what I'd call bad. Now it's 10 at night. The limbs are behaving. The migraine is minimal. The pain levels are within reason almost everywhere. That's all been gradual, throughout the day. 

I guess I'm glad the 25th was the good day. 

Just a Little Something...

Okay, so this is more about Mr. B than Fibro -- whatever.

I had a Grand Mal last night. As you know, that happens. It was a short one, only about 4-5 minutes. I was on the couch in the movie room. All three dogs were there. Buddy slept through it. Linus sat next to me, not budging. Mr. B's normal reaction is to get as far away as possible and look the other direction. For some reason last night, he decided that he should be helping me. He came to the opposite side of me from Linus. He put his paw on my left thigh. Linus and I were both looking at him like, what the heck? But he wouldn't leave. He kept staring at my face with his paw on my leg. As much as my leg tried to jiggle him off, he did not give up. As soon as I started slowing down, Linus would normally climb on top of me overall, but with Mr. B still holding my left thigh, Linus put a paw on my right thigh and rested his head on my chest. Although I don't think it helped as much as if Linus had done his usual, it was still kind of cool that Mr. B tried to help... and that Linus was okay with that.

That's all I got.

My Bad...

Yeah, sorry about that. I've thought about posting many times, but never get further than that.

There have been MANY reasons to post since the last one, but I'll just mention a few.

The weight loss has continued to be good news. Several days have been 191. Generally, I'm at 192. Those numbers have been consistent since late September. I'm perfectly pleased with that range. 

Seizures are probably the biggest news. It's not that they are new, just that they are more frequent and more inconvenient. I had a day at school where I'd already had seven or eight before first period was over. Our periods are 55 minutes long. Three of those were medium strength. That's all way over the norm. The big thing to deal with here was my second period lesson plans -- showing a video of a Carnival parade from Rio. Gee, I wonder if 50 minutes of flashing lights and Latin dance music might be bad for someone with a seizure disorder. No, I don't wonder that at all. Luckily I had the foresight part way through first period to let my Assistant Principal know of my concerns, and she covered my class for about 15 minutes of the film in the middle. I went in to visit with one of my best friends at school (this happened to be her planning period). After about a minute, she informed me that she and I were going for a walk, as the tremors she was witnessing made it clear my body did not want to be still. Lousy day, but I felt so taken care of.

Two weeks ago I was out walking Linus when I realized a major one was coming on. We were at the local shopping center, so we made it to the far corner of the parking lot. I sat down on the curb, and Linus sat right next to me. I started shaking violently enough that I couldn't help but lie down. Linus did not budge. I can only guess it was 6-7 minutes in that I started slowing down. Linus delicately climbed on top of me, all 100+ pounds of him. I managed to get one arm around him, and that was enough to give me purchase. My body began easing out of it, and I was able to sit back up in just a few minutes. We were walking again maybe a minute later. That is incredibly fast for the strength of the main event. Again, I felt so incredibly taken care of.

Moral of the story? I'm not alone. Sometimes I have to reach out; other times I don't even have to do that much. Either way, somebody will have my back, convulsing or not.