I have been on quite a trip. A medical journey through a brain issue that I now understand is shared by Billy Joel. He’s very lucky to have the funds to get lots of help trekking through this long strange disorder of the mind. Having used LSD in my misspent youth a time or two or maybe twelve, I was not 100% unprepared.
Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus is actually a great diagnosis. Before that, doctors thought I had Alzheimer’s, or a series of mini-strokes, or a brain bleed. They thought I might have Parkinson’s, which is something my great-grandmother had and she was bedridden her entire adult life. Things have changed now, but still. I didn’t want any of those options. So I took the definitive test for NPH, which is a spinal tap. Yes like the fake band in the funny movie. Spinal tap proved that I probably did have NPH and it could be rectified with a simple brain surgery plus an implant through a good portion of my body.
Reader, I had the surgery. Now I have a shunt in my brain and a catheter that winds through the top of my head to the bottom of my abdomen. These two items rid my brain vessels of too much cerebral spinal fluid, which had been pressuring some places in my brain and making me fall. And forget things. And unable to flex my pelvic muscles until I make it to the bathroom. My husband, Saint Allen, helped me through all of this, including driving my car to the many many appointments, doing all the housework, cooking and laundry, and reminding me of why, when and how I needed to do whatever.
I’m lucky in so many ways and I have many people to thank, like my son, thank you Mike, who finally got me back to Word Press during a really busy time. Because I said I needed to write to recover. It was true, but yes, I stooped to Mom Guilt. I’d been posting on Facebook (thank you Meta) but every other form of writing except Morning Pages (thank you Julia Cameron) was taken from me for about a year.
And I was in the middle of writing the third book in my mystery series, Jane in St Pete. So the surgery was about 6-7 weeks ago. And 2-3 weeks ago, the day Dolly Parton died, I decided I had to revise the very bad book draft. Thanks to Eilidah, I had a few ideas ideas about how to do this. Also Jane Cleland and Jan Rydzon. Dolly because a character in my book is named for her and she’s one of the three pov voices. And I thought, damn Dolly died and I have to make sure she lives on in my character. And I had Jane’s road map (crucial for a pantser like me) and Jan’s steady writing friendship.
It’s slow going. But I’m getting there. I signed up for a writing workshop with Lani Diane Rich that starts next year as I will have this manuscript, titled Crooked Nook to Eilidh, my editor, by then. Lani’s course is six months from now. I live in a quiet town in Florida. I’m retired. What could possibly stop me? Certainly not a little thing like brain surgery!
Oh and thank you most of all next to Allen who got her for me, Faye. She’s the kitty at the top of this post and her adoption day is in November. She’s been my constant companion and a great source of wisdom.
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