Food Lion... now, the YMCA!

“Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

Y - M - C ...hey!

As I told a friend last night, in my Seizures Across Charlotte Tour, I performed at the Johnston YMCA last Tuesday. I had another public seizure and THIS time it was in the Group Power class at the Johnston YMCA. For anyone who might be reading this that was in that class. I am sorry that you missed the last 10 minutes of class due to my involuntary freak out.

Again, like the Food Lion, they had to call first responders for liability. And, when the firefighters came in to ask me if I knew my name and what year it was (trick question so close after the new year!), the one guy said - "Hey, I remember you from the Food Lion!" Not to brag, but I'm becoming a little famous with the NODA fire department.

Body Image

Are we ever happy? Kelsey (my therapist) and I were discussing this last week and I'm just not sure that we are hard-wired to be happy with the body that we have. I'm sure some researcher would suggest that there is a link to our ancient need to survive, thus always striving to stay fit and agile. But, I'm currently reading "Token Black Girl," by Danielle Prescod. Please note: I'm really not trying to virtue signal here. This is a recommendation for all of us looking to better understand our privilege. And frankly, in addition to helping us to understand the crazy lack of representation for black girls in traditional beauty, fashion and media, it is also a powerful narrative about the societal beauty standards that are placed on us from a very young age as women.

I saw this picture a few days ago. I remember when that picture was first taken - I saw so many little nitpicky things I thought about how my body looked, and now, with some perspective, I'm envious of that girl's healthy body. With that, I'm trying to be grateful for where I am and what I can do. The girl in that photo was eating "healthy" only for aesthetics. Now, I eat and workout for long term health. Or, I try to, and succeed most of the time.

Brain Buddies

My original #brainbuddy is having a tough go of it recently. Please send all of your light and love to her family in Grand Rapids as her tumor is growing much more rapidly and she is now being cared for by hospice. She has always been a ray of sunshine. We were an anomaly when we were first working at MSU - both fundraisers, her Kate and me Katie, both married to Daves, at the time. Later, both had worked as fundraisers at MSU, named Kate and Katie, and both with brain tumors. What are the odds?! I was just reading back through some of the texts we had exchanged when I was first diagnosed - she was so positive and supportive, as she was a few months ahead in her journey. She has a different diagnosis, of course, but we both had the same year of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation. Unfortunately, she also had 3 craniotomies (brain surgeries) - 2 at the beginning and one experimental surgery in the past year. All that to say, Kate is an incredible human and does not deserve any of this - not that anyone does but aren't there plenty of crappy people in the world that should get the bad stuff? I know that's terrible to say, but it's how I feel about it right now.

Health Update

Besides the hiccup last week, I feel good. We really think the episode was due to not getting enough rest and some additional stress that we have been experiencing. I had swam the day before, which I hadn't done in a few years and was really tired. I should have taken a rest day, but I always feel like I can keep going. Brad is here to slow me down though. And, as I mentioned last time, I have adjusted my morning meds down by half and we* are now going to add a little of that back, unfortunately. I guess I would rather require a little extra rest in the morning than have a seizure. Isn't that just like life? Always a compromise!

Next MRI is in March and the one that I had right before Christmas was great - no changes!

*Along with the guidance of Dr. Lin, my neurologist

Interviews on Survivorship

Since I've been blogging about and talking to others going through a major medical issue: mostly cancer/stroke/aneurism, I have been very interested in the many iterations of survivorship. For some, it seems to be remission and life back to normal. For others, it's huge amounts of anxiety and feeling like a completely different person. For the rest of us, it's somewhere in the middle. But at the very least, we find a changed perspective on how we view the world and how we operate within it. I hope to explore this topic in the coming year in a series of interviews. If you know someone or are someone who is interested to speak with me about your experience, please shoot me an email: msukatie (at) gmail.com or comment on this post.