The Bear
Papa Jim emailed this video. I think it's from a movie (The Bear? - I never saw it - are those animals trained? I've got to look this up). He said that he thought of the baby bear as Lincoln, the mountain lion as epilepsy, and the mama bear as Andy and I. After seeing it it made me think of how people with epilepsy fight daily to have a normal life. Whether you have one seizure a month or 100 a day, epilepsy is a disease of anticipation, and in some cases it's life threatening (status epilepticus - Lincoln). You never know when the other shoe is going to drop, or when the mountain lion will pounce, but you always know it's stalking you.
I've often thought of Lincoln's seizures as the Dementors from the Harry Potter books. They come without warning and suck the life out of you. They left their victims weakened, disoriented, despondent and sometimes close to death.
A few nights ago Lincoln and I talked a little about his former seizures. I asked what he remembered of them. He said he remembered being terrified, not knowing where he was, or who he was with. His seizures would last anywhere from thirteen minutes to beyond two hours (stopping only in the er). Imagine that. I can't. I have to believe he went somewhere during those times where he wasn't afraid. We passed the eleven month mark of seizure freedom - yesterday. Tomorrow will be eleven months since the surgery.
We're not done. There are still so many who suffer from epilepsy. I hope that this blog helps someone, somewhere. So far the surgery has worked for us, I really hope that we can get the word out there to other families that brain surgery, despite being very frightening, might work for them like it's worked for us. So for now, I'll just keep joining letters into words, forming words into sentences and putting it all out there with the hope that this blog will help someone.
I've often thought of Lincoln's seizures as the Dementors from the Harry Potter books. They come without warning and suck the life out of you. They left their victims weakened, disoriented, despondent and sometimes close to death.
A few nights ago Lincoln and I talked a little about his former seizures. I asked what he remembered of them. He said he remembered being terrified, not knowing where he was, or who he was with. His seizures would last anywhere from thirteen minutes to beyond two hours (stopping only in the er). Imagine that. I can't. I have to believe he went somewhere during those times where he wasn't afraid. We passed the eleven month mark of seizure freedom - yesterday. Tomorrow will be eleven months since the surgery.
We're not done. There are still so many who suffer from epilepsy. I hope that this blog helps someone, somewhere. So far the surgery has worked for us, I really hope that we can get the word out there to other families that brain surgery, despite being very frightening, might work for them like it's worked for us. So for now, I'll just keep joining letters into words, forming words into sentences and putting it all out there with the hope that this blog will help someone.
Wonderful analogy Jim, your theory is so "right on". Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete