An extraordinary thing happened to me twelve years ago, and it changed my life. I don’t mean this in any sort of fundamental way. My path took no particular twist to the left that would have otherwise been to the right if the event had not occurred, and I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything in particular. But my life did change that day. By “changed” I think I mean that it became more complicated.
At the time, I was working a new job at a restaurant. I didn’t particularly like this job, for a few reasons. The main reason was the fact that I was not the only “Pondificator” there. It wasn’t that I disliked working with my relatives. It had more to do with the fact that I was constantly being compared and contrasted with said relatives. And since I was the new kid (being a youngest and all), and had never done restaurant work before, I felt deeply criticized and looked down upon by the person in charge (who, thankfully, was no relation of mine—in fact, I’m convinced she was from Omicron Persei 8, and was married to a certain ruler there named Lur…). There were some other events that transpired to make said person dislike me to an even greater degree, but those events were neither life changing, nor pertinent to this story, so I will leave them out.
I had been working in this restaurant for about two or three weeks, when the event happened. Someone had called the front desk with a to-go order. I was–for all intents and purposes–a bus boy, had never taken a to-go order before, and didn’t really know what I was supposed to do. So I wrote the order down on a scrap of paper and went hunting for someone who wasn’t preoccupied (which, by the way, is not a realistic goal for someone working in a restaurant).
I headed to the kitchen by way of the lounge, which was a quicker and quieter route during the dinnertime rush. The front desk was maybe twenty restaurant paces from the kitchen (I say restaurant paces because there is a certain meandering, casual speed one is expected to maintain in the eating area, in order to promote a relaxing environment for the patrons). And after about ten of these twenty paces, I started to feel very strange.
My body felt weightless, the floor distant. This induced a profound sense of vertigo and I stopped for a moment to catch my balance before continuing my restaurant paces to the Kitchen. This is when I realized that all the hustle-bustle noises of the restaurant took on a decidedly underwater tone to them. It was not unlike swimming in an abysmal river. The deeper you dive, the darker it seems to get, and while you can still hear what’s going on above the surface, it mostly sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher saying, “Wa-wa-wa-wa…” Then came black bubbles, roiling closer, engulfing my existence, welling across my vision like tar until everything faded away into nothingness.
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Get Technical with Professor Charlie!
My seizures occur in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes of the left hemisphere. When a seizure occurs in only one hemisphere, it’s known as a Partial seizure.
I have experienced two different kinds of Partial seizures. The one that occurred in the restaurant is a Complex Partial seizure, which describes a partial seizure in which one loses consciousness. Although loss of consciousness occurs, often times the person will appear conscious, and continue performing repetative tasks. In my case, I continued walking to the kitchen where I stood around until my middle brother showed up and asked me if I needed help, to which I responded with only nonsensical language until I emerged from the seizure.
I also have Simple Partial seizures, which refer to a Partial seizure in which one remains conscious. There is quite the variety of symptoms for this type of seizure. For me, the seizures effect the sensory part of the brain, and result in intense, indescribable pain. I have also fallen due to seizures a few times. I’m not sure if this is some new seizure development, or if I’m just getting extreme vertigo and falling is a side effect.
Copyright (C) 2009 ThePontificators.com
My seizures are pretty much nothing like this, which is probably a good thing. At worst I have a full-body muscle spasm and drop something, but never any pain or loss of consciousness. Of course, I was diagnosed with We Think You Have Temporal Lobe Epilepsy And It Couldn’t Be Anything Else Thanks For Your Money Bye*, not actual epilepsy.
* Which is being a little rude to my really awesome neuro, but I’m annoyed with being terminally undiagnosable.
Yeah, it took me a while to be diagnosed, but we were persistent. I ended up with three EEGs before anything peculiar showed up. At the time mine were restricted to the Temporal Lobe, but they’ve changed over the years, which has always fascinated me.
I take a fairly detached view of my seizures, partly because my memory of having them is pretty limited. I sat down to write the entire process of my diagnosis and began to realize I had no emotions connected to it. Without any emotional connection, the inspiration just wasn’t there. This was as far as I got, and I gave up. =P
Hey, I don’t have a neuro anymore, having recently moved–feel free to recommend anyone. There’s nothing up here.
Hmm, I would think if motor function is effected, your seizures would be located in the frontal lobe, not the temporal lobe… but not being a neurologist, or even a doctor, naturally I am speculating based on my own reading.
There is very little information on the web about the source of Myoclonic jerks. Just the symptoms.
Err, hope you don’t mind my curiosity. I find brain function incredibly fascinating, and rarely can I help myself.
I haven’t been to a neuro in four years, and the muscle jerks only started about two years ago, so things may have started up in the frontal lobe as well. The best term I have for it is a conscious tonic, as it’s a full-body jerk (like when you drop something really heavy while on the second floor of a building and the vibration in the floor makes you brace yourself) that lasts only about one full second and I completely retain consciousness throughout. Mostly my seizure activity is in the form of just losing bits and pieces of my short-term memory, which is why I completely fill up my notebooks for every class in an attempt not to lose vital pieces of information. I’m ridiculously lucky and I know it.
I went to a Dr Elliot, who I think is with Virginia Mason, but my mom knows better than I do. He was really fantastic and made the top ten list of Seattle physicians in one of the locally-based magazines a year or two ago. :)
I was sorry to hear you lost inspiration and so cut the piece short. So, from a reader’s point of view, it doesn’t come across as uninspired or detached. I loved the “Get Technical with Professor Charlie” thing.
Hehe, yeah, I wanted it to be funnier in the end, but writing humor has never really been my thing and I couldn’t make it work. =P Oh well.
Never been your thing… HA! Also, the title is grand.
Yeah, I’ll admit, I did rather like that one. ;)