Doctor A. & My Epilepsy

I got a phone call today from a robot. "You have an appointment this Tuesday at 1pm with the neurological department at the xxx Hospital. Press 1 to confirm. Press 7 if we have the wrong number". I enthusiastically pressed 1. My neuro is one of my faves. She is sweet, sassy and most importantly, she's whip smart.

Dr. A and I had a bit of a break for a while when I moved cities. I saw a few incompetent neurologists in the meantime and let me assure you that "incompetent" is putting it kindly. A year ago I had one of my first proper seizures in 20 years (ish). And then, 3 days later, I got hit again. I was a total shell of a human for a couple months. Before I reconnected with Dr. A, who always says, "if it ain't broke don't fix it", another neurologist told me to "fix it" and try to get off of one of my meds. I was thinking about prepping for a potential pregnancy and so, I listened.

I totally regressed back to my 10 year old self. Afraid of everything. My body felt stiff as a board. I could barely stand to connect with anyone. For a couple of months, Phil and Kirsty from Love it or List it were the only humans I could stand. I needed to increase my meds and quickly.

I started to feel better, but then ended up in hospital approximately four times in three months as a result of Hyponatremia, a fancy way of saying low sodium- a delightful side effect of one of my medications. I'd go in and ask the triage nurses to stick me with some of that fancy bagged salt water. They would always decline until several hours and one blood test later that proved my hypothesis correct. Now I just drink electrolytes instead of wine and call it a day.

After that experience I shelved the idea of bearing children, because my epilepsy is definitely influenced (and not in a good way) by my hormones. I searched high and low on reddit and youtube for women with epilepsy who could share their experiences of pregnancy and what happens after. I found one decent twelveish minute video. Doctors tell you the medical side, but haven't a clue what the experience is like, and Reddit was mostly full of rubbish that felt more confusing than helpful. I had one incompetent neuro tell me that if I were to have children I would "worry which is part of being a mother". That was her medical advice. Fab, no?

Ultimately, it was Dr. A who got me back on track and who restored my faith in doctors. I've been having Deja Vu spells lately so I am excited to touch base with her on Tuesday. It's time to talk to her about the baby Q but then I go back to the question of "to kid or not to kid?". I'm pretty sure that life is not going to get any simpler from here but a girl sure can dream.