Change in Perspective to Change Life

LOG 11: Food all the way!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”- Charles Dickens  It truly had begun to feel like that.  Worst of times? Clearly understood. Best of times? Metaphorically speaking of course. I mean who would like to lie down and sleep all day with horrible hospital food to eat, only white walls to stare at  and minimal exercise. Definitely not what I signed up for when I entered the world .  The lying down part was already being taken care of by my highly conscientious physiotherapy.  I’m pretty sure all of you remember the extremely hilarious way…

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LOG 12: Seizures seizing

Let me begin this log by giving everybody some clarity on the topic of seizures. A seizure is quite literally, in its very essence, like having your body possessed. And most definitely it is worse than A Nightmare out of Elm Street (for the afflicted and the viewer). My first seizure was what can be termed medically as a GTCS - Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizure. It was a pretty serious one and from eyewitness reports I had my eyes rolled upwards, such that you could see their whites, my teeth clenched and my tongue bit. There was also some not-so-pretty frothing.…

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LOG 13: Rehab Robotics

It was just before the seizure happened that we had decided to start with “Rehab Robotics”. This meant that now, apart from conventional rehab, robots were going to help me in my recovery process. Exciting, right? So, here is what was going to happen - I was to be hung from a harness while my legs were to be strapped on to robotic legs. The machine would move my legs for the action of walking while me being on a treadmill. This was mainly to get movement and coordination back in my lower limbs. While doing so it would measure…

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LOG 14: Lumbar Puncture

My, my, my, that last week was completely enthralling and extremely emotional for me (kind-of like a rollercoaster ride, crazy adrenaline rush you know?). Everything seemed to be going perfect. You know, gifts, birthday coming up. Just when everything seemed to be falling in place, a few days before my birthday, my doctors noticed something strange about my recovery.  It wasn’t going as expected. They decided to try out a procedure, which I like to term as a medieval torture technique, which they hoped might set it on track. To get some improvement, they informed my family that they would…

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LOG 15: Music therapy

OOPS, oops, oops! I think, I might just have had a tiny lapse of memory (again, hehe). Before my birthday and after the lumbar puncture, I may just have forgotten to mention some key events that took place. Until now, I was having normal therapies for my body, but it was around this time that we ventured into trying 2 new therapies. We started something different called music therapy. They started this as my parents happened to mention to my recovery and rehab doctor, that I was (and still quite am) an ardent music lover. This therapy aimed at using…

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LOG 16: Happy Birthday

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… “Lift-off” … After a wonderful and gripping countdown to my birthday, the day had finally come. My 17th birthday. I have to admit I was excited. I mean so what if I’m in a hospital, or have my left side paralyzed, or am stuck in a wheelchair? I was excited because despite knowing that all of these things were true, I also knew that I wouldn’t remain like this for long. I also knew that this “birthday” and in fact this year was going to be like a complete rebirth for me. It was going to almost be the…

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LOG 17: Code Blue

*Whoaw*, that last log really gave me the positivity boost I needed. Why do I say so? Because right after my birthday, everything seemed to be falling back into place. My therapies were slowly beginning to show results and my recovery graph was slowly but steadily showing the direction that we wanted - upwards, and for a moment we were all getting happy. Everyone believed that “operation: birthday” was working its wonders. All my therapies had resumed at their regular (if not more intensive) rate. Everything seemed to be going perfect and this “state of wellbeing” stayed for about a…

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LOG 18: Seizures

AND we had hit yet another crazy loop on our roller-coaster ride. The first seizure had already given us a demo of what a seizure actually looks and feels like. So, when the second one graced us with its presence, we were better prepared to recognize it. And yet again, the second one, just like the first one, did set my recovery back. I was kept in the emergency ward for a few hours under observation and as soon as my vitals were normal, and I was stabilized, I was shifted back to the “normal” neuro ward. It cost us…

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LOG 19: Lumbar Puncture – well again!

Well, November was quite an electrifying month (you know, full of short circuiting and stuff) but that was not the only highlight of the month. During this seizure-ridden period, the CSF pressure in my brain was increasing due to my ventricles (the internal CSF flow regulating machines) going on strike. The ensuing hydrocephalus was causing some undesirable effects on my recovery, which the doctors believed could be cured by another lumbar puncture (see log 14 if you’ve forgotten what that is). So, before November ended, I had my second lumbar puncture. This lumbar puncture was the final test to see…

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