Two Women in History with Epilepsy

Today was all planned.

An easy plan - get up, start your day with routine, go to work, come home and write tonight’s blog.  

Easy - right?

Well, things didn’t go as planned: lousy sleep, seriously sore throat, constant sneezing, mounds of kleenex and infinitesimal bits of energy.

So between hot lemon water with honey, soup, scrambled eggs or getting up to creep about and fold laundry (it took me all day) left from yesterday, I did a bit of research.  

It is still as important to me to write this blog regardless of how I am feeling. Epilepsy doesn’t get put on hold because of some other kind of sickness. Being sick with something else means I have to be more vigilant about the rest that I get.

So I roamed around Facebook today. Something besides Epilepsy Awareness month caught my eye. It is also Women’s History Month and thank you to my sister Janet for this tidbit. The post was backed with the colour purple which, in my congested condition, seemed like it should be significant. Oh yes! Purple is also the colour of Epilepsy Awareness day!

So I googled famous women with epilepsy. Did you know that there are more men in history with epilepsy than women? But I won’t go there........... My research was very cursory, however two women in history with epilepsy caught my attention:

Dame Agatha Christie - a favourite, and famous, author of mysteries.  I've loved her books since childhood, much to my grandpa's chagrin ("There's enough murder in the world without reading about it.") One of Agatha Christies bios reports that little was known about her health except that she had epilepsy. Dame Christie passed away at age eighty five. (post by Charlotte Gerber on About.com)

Harriet Tubman ~ a well known abolitionist, nurse, woman’s rights advocate, spy and scout was the victim of head injury at age ten and suffered seizures and headaches for the rest of her life. (Posts by:  Genevieve Wanucha on Book of Odds;  entries on About.com)

I’ve chosen her words for this blog. She spells out the reason for vigilance in one’s life.

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had 

a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”

~ Harriet Tubman

A Not so Silent Companion?

The first day of March ~ A month of green growth, shamrocks and on March 17, 

surely there will be a leprechaun or two around.

On March 26, it will be Purple Day - for Epilepsy Awareness. So the colour of the month is also purple.

Today, for me, it has been both.

My writer’s group met here at my home today with the topic for this month ~ 'Anything Irish'. I had not a word to write about it - not that I didn’t try. Feeling pressured for a variety of reasons, in the back of my mind was - you guessed it - the epilepsy that I carry.

Now I had to think of a couple of things, besides epilepsy ~

Commitments

Enjoyment

Camaraderie

Employment

Good health

and the balance between all of these things.

When balance is, well, unbalanced, my seizure disorder can come to the fore and disrupt any and all of those things on my list. And I must keep quiet about it. Not to be secretive or ashamed or hiding ~ I just want to be normal. It’s not like having a cold or the flu. Colds and the flu come and then go and ~ then come and go, all depending on the season and the germs that float about.

Epilepsy, inside the brain, is with me all the time (which actually proves that I do have a brain). Seizures have not been with me for quite some time, merely the potential for seizures and for that I am truly, truly grateful.

Today I have been able to enjoy the news of the birth of a new grand nephew baking for and hosting the writer’s group I belong to, writing this blog, paying my bills, preparing for my work day tomorrow and even trying to figure out the electronic world and its foibles.

My good health, and my good life, depends on remembering that epilepsy is with me always and that it can become a not so silent companion.

“It’s all about quality of life and finding a happy 

balance between work and friends and family.”

~ Philip Green

Unexpected Kindness on a Dreary Day

Today has been gray and drippy with heavy clouds leveling the mountain tops and misting trees, sidewalks and laneways. Cold and hungry after completing my morning's errands, I nipped into De’lish, a tiny cafe on St. Patrick’s Street just off of Central Ave here in Victoria.  

Inside this tiny restaurant, they creatively had seating for twelve patrons. Four tables for two, spaced neatly against a lovely padded bench, had chairs facing the bench. Two more tables were tucked on either side of the door. When I walked in I saw that warm seating space was very limited, but warm food was not. I’d had enough of the weather and wanted to be in a cozier spot than right by a drafty door.

I blithely ordered my cream of mushroom soup, a chicken panini and went to my chosen spot with a hot mug of dark coffee. One person at each table along the wall, none of us acknowledged the other. Not especially in a visiting mood, I kept to myself and checked my iPhone for messages.

Two more ladies came in, visiting intently and after looking around for a place to sit, they left, barely interrupting their conversation.  

“Would you mind sharing a table?”

“Not at all.”  

The owner of the question got up from her lunch, followed the ladies out the door, and called to them to let them know of the available space that had been made for them by the two patrons at separate tables next to me.

After three of the women had finished their meals and gone on their way, I asked to join Barbara, clearing more space for a group of five that came in out of the rain. We visited and I told Barbara that what she had done was a very nice thing.  She just shrugged, smiled and said “It just seemed like the right thing to do.”  

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of 

kindness.  Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert

Nurturing Life as It Is

In my many years of nursing, I have taken education days for seminars, workshops and in-services about many areas of health care.

Attending these, sometimes willingly, sometimes not (but don’t tell), they have all been pieces of career development and were often tied to only my current employer.

Some were mandatory, some voluntary.

The workshop I attended this past two days will be useful both

in my career life and in my personal life

in situations that I pray never, ever occur.

However,

I do know that there is potential

as long as people are alive

someone  - a stranger, an acquaintance, a loved one or maybe a close friend -

will wish that they were no longer a part of this earthly community 

will have a plan put in place to relieve whatever emotional turmoil exists within them.

This is suicidal ideation, suicidal thinking.

The word ‘suicide’, not favored by many, is a reality.

World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10.

The practice and information received today begins to develop basic skills enabling assistance every day should they be required.

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst 

into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all 

be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

~ Albert Schweitzer

Established in Calgary, Alberta 

the ASIST program was developed by LivingWorks Education Inc.

Information about the ASIST program (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training)

can be found at www.livingworks.net

The ASIST program has centers in 

Calgary, Alberta  

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Nunawading, Victoria, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

University Hospital of Northern Norway

Life Lessons and Qualities of Epilepsy

Just a few positive lessons learned and qualities gained while living with Epilepsy ~

Expanded

Purpose,

Intelligent

Life skills,

Energetic

Personal

Success and

Yoga

“Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.”

~ Lao-tzu

Remember:  Purple Day - March 26, 2013

BC Epilepsy Society

Contact us via telephone: (604) 875-6704

Contact our Victoria office: (778) 533-0790

No longer active:

Victoria Epilepsy and Parkinson’s Society

813 Darwin Avenue

Victoria, BC V8X 2X7

Email:   help@vepc.bc.ca

Web:     www.vepc.bc.ca

The Editor

Hunched over his desk

brow furrowed

pen chewed

scribbles, arrows and word changes mapped and diagramed

sorting, rearranging a log jam of ideas

noise of the day lost in the puzzle

“An editor is the uncrowned king of an educated democracy

~ William Thomas Stead

Anchors

Few of us are sailors nor do we all live on deep water.

Anchors are among us all.

Over the times of our lives

lessons pass to us

by family and friends

neighbours, even strangers

anchors that hold our center steady

Our anchors ~

little sayings learned

stories told to us

lectures delivered sternly

throughout our childhood.

Keep your anchors 

stowed safely

drop anchor wisely

Anchors are wisdom gained from experience.

“Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor,

nor should life rest on a single hope.”

~ Epictetus