Day 180: Six Months Since My First Seizures

It is hard to believe that 6 months ago today we were at the hospital after I had a grand mal seizure that caused Laura to scream so loudly that 3 of our neighbors came rushing upstairs. 

All I remember is waking up dazed in the back of an ambulance with a paramedic speaking loudly at me and seeing Laura crying and scared. 

I then had another seizure once I got to the hospital.

The violence of that seizure caused me to shatter the humerus and rotator cuffs in both shoulders as well as tearing the upper portion of my left bicep.  

My shoulders had to be repaired using bone graphs, anchors and fiber wire along with 2 screws being inserted into my left shoulder. 

Since those surgeries I have had to push myself hard on a daily basis to help my shoulders to heal properly.  

These days it is a lot easier but in those first couple of months I would start sweating just trying to swing my arms when they were out of the slings. 

A month following my shoulder surgeries I had brain surgery which was the scariest experience that I have ever gone through.  

I didn’t have as much fear about my shoulder surgeries as I did when it came to my brain surgery. That drive to UCSF was the longest drive of my life. 

The first night out of surgery my heart rhythm became irregular setting off every alarm in the neuro-ICU room that I was in.  

I couldn’t stop throwing up and had to be given a shot to help calm my body down.  

Fast forward 6 months later. 

This morning I took the light rail system again since it was easier on Laura and I enjoyed taking it yesterday. The extra mile walk in each direction was good additional exercise. 

Thursdays are a day that I typically have back-to-back meetings with very little down time so once I looked up it was already time to hop on the train back home. 

Since tonight is the last night that my mother-in-law is staying with us we decided to head to Los Gatos for dinner at a cute family Italian restaurant. 

It was a nice opportunity for us to treat her for all of the hard work she has put in this week helping us to get settled far quicker than we could have ever done ourselves. 

Though we didn’t realize it at the time it was also appropriate given that the night that I had my seizures Laura called her parents in the middle of the night and within a few hours her mom had jumped on a plane to fly out to San Francisco. 

My mother-in-law then spent the next 7 weeks with us helping with every task imaginable from making my meals to feeding me to helping me go for walks and everything in between. 

We couldn’t have gotten through those first 7 weeks without her and we couldn’t have moved so efficiently without her help - both of which we’re very thankful for. 

After 4 consecutive days in the office it has been nice to be back in an office consistently after 4 years of nearly exclusively working from home.  

I am, however, looking forward to working from home tomorrow in my new office and getting a chance to hang out with Sasha and Darren for the day.