It’s a new year. Welcome 2011!. I not really sad to bid farewell to 2010. I hope and trust that 2011 will be a better year than 2010. My one resolution for the new year is to work to make that so.
This year is starting out very differently than the way 2010 started. I spent January 1, 2010, the same way I spent December 30 and 31, 2010, as well January 2 and 3, 2011, in a hospital bed unconscious due to 4 grand mal seizures within a 30 minute time span on December 30.
I spent much of 2010 learning how to live with epilepsy, sometimes more successfully than other times. Although I didn’t have any more major seizures during 2010, I did battle balance issues and auras most of the year. By the beginning of December, my neurologist seemed to have found the right combination of seizure medications to take care of the auras. I have not had any since Thanksgiving.
The biggest problems that I seem to have now are increasing memory problems and tremors. My doctors are not sure whether these are a direct result of the TBI from March, 2009, or side effects of medications. SInce the auras are under control and I have had no major seizures, the doctors are somewhat hesitant to make more changes to my medications. I can live with the tremors. I am doing exercises to try to improve my memory. I have also learned to keep a notebook pad and writing instrument with me at all times.
This is not what I envisioned 2010 and 2011 would be. However, this is where I am and what I have to deal with. So I must make the most of it. A friend recently sent me an email with a couple of jokes in it. The first was that it had been snowing at this house for three days. His wife was doing nothing but staring through the window. He said if it didn’t stop snowing tomorrow, he would have to let her in. THe second joke was “Life may not be the party we had hoped for, but while we’re here, we might as well dance.” Even though I must also deal with Afib and the arrhythmia behavior of my heart, as well as the epilepsy and aphasia, I will just have to dance more in 2011. Will you dance with me?
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