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Summer Camp

7/27/2013

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I hadn't been able to go to summer camp for several years for a couple of reasons - we moved several times and I was having lots of seizures. It has seemed over the years that anything that makes me more tired (such as heat) would active my simple partial seizures. This summer was different.

My 2 boys went to scout camp with their troop. I volunteered to go along so the 11-year old could spend the whole week. It's the policy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that 11-year olds can't spend more than a couple days camping with the scouts unless accompanied by one of their parents. Since they belong to an LDS troop, I volunteered to go so that he could go to summer camp.

We had a really good time. I got to help the boys get to merit badge classes and sign up for additional classes as needed. I got to spend some time kyaking with one of my sons. Those things sure do tip over much easier than canoes.

Even though I'm not on any medications for seizures, I had no seizures all week and didn't even feel like I may have one coming along soon. Brain surgery has been a huge success for me. I had a right medial temporal lobectomy 7 months ago and am satisfied with the outcome. I'm looking forward to participating in even more hot summer activities.

Possibly the hardest part was spending a week with 14 boys, more than half of whom I had never met.  There were also leaders I had never met.  Since I had problems with facial recognition, made worse by brain surgery, I wasn't able to learn everybody's name and face.  I can remember names with some effort, but it does no good when I can't recognize the faces they go with.

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Seizure after Brain Surgery

7/10/2013

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Well it's been awhile since my brain surgery.  I had a right medial temporal lobectomy on December 19th 2012.  My last seizure prior to surgery was December 17th.  That all changed last week.

My family was out of town and I wasn't sleeping well at night. I was woken up 2 nights in a row by a thunder storm with rain pounding on my bedroom window. On Friday last week I traveled from Utah to Idaho to be with my family. We went out for Mexican food and I had my favorite drink - orchata! Orchata is great, but it doesn't sit well with me because I don't have a large intestine. I was up 5-6 times during the night. That made for 3 nights in a row with less sleep than normal. That meant 2 things - sleep deprivation and dehydration. Neither of those is good for those of us with a history of seizures. Sleep deprivation has long been a seizure trigger for me. It's not that I require huge amounts of sleep, but rather consistent, uninterrupted sleep.

The next day I took a walk for a couple hours with my kids as the July heat soared. We had been in Rexburg because my wife was running a 5K race (which she did very well in). We were almost back to the in-laws when it hit - the first seizure since brain surgery.

I was driving,  but only going about 30 mph. I slowed down as I looked for my next turn into the housing area. My wife could tell I was having a seizure and wasn't very thrilled about it. I pulled over and let her drive. It started more subtle than many of my other seizures. There was little or no deja vu feeling at the beginning. It wasn't as intense as some of my seizures were at times. As was typical for my seizures, it was a simple partial seizures in which I was aware of everything going on, but felt really funny, was breathing and sweating heavily. It lasted about 5 minutes. By then we were at the house and I was ready for a nap. I took the nap and felt much better.
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Happy 4th of July!

7/4/2013

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Happy 4th of July everyone.  I'm especially grateful to all who have served our great country in the armed services.  Thank-you for your service!

Things are still going great post-surgery.  It's been over 6 months now.  Still no seizures, so I am hopeful that I may never have them again.  The other day I worked in an area of the hospital that required me to wear an OR cap.  For those that don't know what that is, it's the blue cap that looks almost like a hair net.  It's held on by a small elastic band.  Wearing it gave me a headache, even though it's a very small, weak elastic band.  Strange how such a small amount of pressure can affect the area my skull was cut open.  It wasn't the worst headache in the world, so no big deal really.  The occasional small headache is much better than the frequent seizures I was having before brain surgery.
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    Author

    Clip Holverson Jr. began having seizures at the age of 30, and was diagnosed with epilepsy.  Follow this blog to read his story.

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