Don't Back Down

As if all the fun we had Sunday morning wasn't enough, it didn't end there. Trying to keep things calm, we figured we'd just hang out and do nothing except sit around and decompress. With any luck, by the time the kids did come home and we had to speak to another human being, it would be late in the day and the events of the morning would just be long gone. Unfortunately, someone out there decided that just wouldn't do.

Around noon we were kicking back and watching an old movie when I was visited by yet another unwelcome visitor. At least, I guess that's what time it was, because I really have no idea. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the back of the ambulance, on my way to the hospital. That's right, I had a seizure. Joy of joys - could the day get any better? At least the ride wasn't a horrible one, but I still had to go through the whole barrage of questions in the back of the bus while they determine if I've come out of my stupor. It took a while, but eventually I came around.

The first seizure I had was in high school. My parents say that it was the day after I had a wreck, but I can't tell you if that's true of not. Oh, the wreck happened, I just don't know if the seizure was the day after. It wasn't much of a wreck, but I could have popped my head on the window or something and that could have caused it. Or it could have just chosen that moment to pop up and say hello. That one was at a friend's house. We were playing Sorry!

The next one was shortly thereafter, while I was working at Little Caesar's Pizza, and I cut my ear open on the oven. That career was over before it even really got started (I'm not complaining here - just recapping).

Then I had a third the following New Year, as we were headed to visit the floats from the Rose Parade. On the way out the door I just stopped and hung out - Seizure While Standing. Cool, huh? I'm just lucky that my arm was caught in the screen door or I would have fallen into the driveway, and then my head would really have problems.

Then that was it. Sure, I took Dilantin for a lot of years. But I didn't have another seizure for something like twenty of them, so it's a small price to pay. But then I caught a nasty head cold while shoveling mulch, and it just never went away. More importantly, I started drinking decongestant like it was going out of style, and it turns out that you shouldn't do that, at least with Dilantin. My blood level was really low. On came another seizure.

A few months later, in late summer 2004, I took a trip to Berkeley (I may have met a few of you there), and on my return I had a really late flight back. I also didn't sleep well while I was there. Upon my return, I collapsed into bed, and later that night I had another seizure. So it looks like decongestant is out and sleep is in. I can deal with that.

I then had one other seizure late in 2005, and this one spelled the end for Dilantin. My Neurologist was convinced that it was ceasing to be effective, and so we switched medications, to Zonegran. Up until now - roughly two years after I started on Zonegran - I have been completely seizure-free, so I guess you would have to call that a success. But what now?

Since I have been doing well, you have to look at what else is going on. You might not want to look at that picture, because let's face it, it's pretty nasty. The good news about it is that my tongue doesn't look as bad as it has in the last couple of seizures - so I'm going to have to say that Zonegran is still probably a good choice. But ultimately, I'd really like to not have any seizures at all. I just don't know if that's a possibility.

To make matters worse, the headaches that I've had for the last couple of weeks or so haven't really gone away, which makes me wonder if they are related - and if they are, it means I'll probably have to buckle down and get another MRI, and I just hate that whole procedure. Ah well. A new appointment with the neurologist beckons. We'll see what he has to say.