I was glad I posted about having a seizure on Jan. 12 because the timeline I established with that has proven useful. The immediate reaction was, of course, to increase the dosage of my antiseizure drug Keppra from 500mg twice a day to 750mg twice daily. The main side effect there with slowing down the neurotransmitters is fatigue. And that’s entered in to any discussion of my overall energy level. Dropping.
At my last appointment with Dr. Tuncer, he asked about my anxiety. When I said I’m not really anxious he joked that may be because of the Keppra. At least, I think he was joking … but the implication that I really should be worried has haunted me. A lot of seizure adjacent experiences have followed the Jan. 12 incident. For example, last Monday I was having a persistent muscle spasm in my left side that was isolated to my left side and just sort of had to wait it out with Grandma there to handle the childcare bit where I have this ten-month-old daughter home with me now that Lili’s gone back to work and Thing One and Thing Two to school. (Let’s just say the singlehanded diaper changes are a wrestling match with one hand tied behind your back).
Alas, today, after the morning blood draw (chemo is hard on white blood cells, as it turns out), I “seized” again. Another unmistakable one. Numbness in my left hand was the first sign. Then that bounced around my left arm, leg, foot, side of my face, neck, shoulder, and all. I swear I even felt a momentary tingle of loss of blood/sensation to the place I shan’t outright say. So, Lili lost her work day. Omi, school. Me, I lost almost all productivity in my haikuing. Forced rest. Listening to my body. Stupid videos on my phone. Sucking the last drops of Netflix before I’m kicked off for password sharing (hey, I pay).
Oh, and I’m back on the insidious steroids for a week: 4mg in the morning. That usually kills my sleep nights.