CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Monday, June 02, 2008

Nothin' funnier than Brain Surgery ...

I have a neurological disorder somewhere in the Trigeminal Neuralgia family (see link on side bar).  I take an anti-convulsive medication which largely keeps my pain at bay.  And what pain there is is quite bearable. 


However, there are some treatments for this class of disorders that I would like to explore to see if they are even options for me.  One of them involves invasive brain surgery.  Neurosurgeons specializing in this are easier to find in Southern California than in Idaho.  Still, I'll be driving out to Irvine for a fine cut MRI.

Of course, I'm doing all of this at a time when I'm already pretty booked up both time-wise and emotionally with moving up north.  It's June 2nd.  Estimated departure date:  August 6th.  Hmm.  2 months.  And no, our house isn't even on the market yet.  We're shooting for June 16th.  And the market is slow.

So what I really feel like I'd like to add to sorting, tossing, donating, organizing, packing, and staging in the next 8 weeks is ... brain surgery.

Did you just laugh?  Even in your head?  You're not alone.  Any time I've tried to confide in people about these major stressors in my life, they've laughed at the mention of ... brain surgery.  I guess it's pretty funny.  And the folks laughing at me are not just random careless jerks.  One was my mom.  Another was my chiropractor who is also my ecclesiastical leader.  I think to myself, "does it sound like I'm doing material, here?"  Maybe I could take a show on the road.  Brain surgery can keep 'em laughing for a while.

And it's not just MY brain surgery that makes people chuckle.  Last Thursday night at Open House, I was discussing sentence diagramming with my daughter's teacher.  I noted that I hadn't learned to do it because my 8th grade teacher was having brain surgery during the time when that was taught in our curriculum and the substitute wasn't comfortable with it.  She laughed the minute I said ... brain surgery.

It's amazing.  I'd love to see some kind of study done.  It'd be perfect for undergrad psych majors.  Anyone?  If you do it, you can take all of the credit for the idea.  Just let me know the results.

4 fishy comments:

saffron said...

whoa, mina, I had no idea. Maybe you should just spend the night out in the OC. The less stress the better for you!

I'm always amazed at how fast people recover from brain surgery, though. If it's a good option for you, maybe you should just go for it, and get it over with. I'll be thinking of you.

The new pix of #2 on the blog is really adorable!

Jenn said...

Maybe it comes from the whole "he's no brain surgeon" thing? Or maybe it's just because something like surgery on your brain should have a cooler name than... you know... brain surgery. It should have some fancy schmancy scientific name. OK, so it probably does. Brain surgery is just easier to say, huh? BTW... my dad is thinking of having... you guessed it... brain surgery. He's suffering from Parkinson's disease right now. Fun times. He still mentions, every once in a while, the time he called our dorm room and demanded to know where you'd been, before realizing it was you, not me. For some reason, he thinks that's hilarious. I'm actually going up to Bako tomorrow night to see him receive his master's on Friday (I finally DID talk him into going back to school, after all those years). OK, that's enough steam of consciousness for now. ;)

Erin said...

So, I'm going to keep reading and I will probably find out the answer, but did you sell your house before you moved?

And I can see that you survived the brain surgery well. Being as how you still post and such. I'm glad you are okay!

Kelly said...

I had to comment on this post. I vividly remember this one from this summer and the whole brain surgery thing came up again with my mom. She ran into Mrs. Gregory, and Mrs. Gregory made the comment, "So what do you think about Mina's brain surgery". You are right, many people can't believe they know someone that has/will/might have actual brain surgery. I hope you are still feeling well with your meds and keep me posted as to your final decision on the whole surgery thing.