Classical Music and Epilepsy (or Happy Birthday, Mozart!)

Today is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 259^th birthday.  Classical music fans in Los Angeles and Orange County, California as well as online on Classical KUSC have been celebrating since Saturday. 

Medication Side Effects—A Good List

The main way that doctors treat us for our epileptic seizures is with medication.  For the 60 million people worldwide with epilepsy, this is a big deal.  Since only 30% achieve complete seizure-freedom, the rest of us are still looking for the magic formula that will get us to zero.

The purpose of medications is to help us get well.  Medications work in a number of

VNS Update

It has been two months since my VNS surgery and six weeks since the device was turned on.  During that six weeks, the stimulation rate was seven seconds for every ten minutes.  That meant that an electrical pulse was sent from the device in my chest up through the vagus nerve in my neck to my brain for 7 seconds.  Then 10 minutes later, another pulse was sent.  This happened every 10 minutes. 

I had my second follow up appointment with my doctor this past Friday and he ramped up the stimulation rate.  Now, I am on 30 seconds for every 5 minutes. When the stimulations come on, I usually feel a small lump in my throat and have to swallow. Sometimes though (when I am eating), I am more sensitive and cough. Overall, it is not too bad.  I have gotten used to the stimulations and they don’t bother me as much as they used to.

I will now have to wait and see how effective it is.  

Airline Preboarding Policies

Flying home from the holidays on Southwest Airlines reminded me that money talks.  I know it’s a cliché, but that’s why this metaphor rings true.

I had gotten authorization to preboard the flight and learned that I would be boarding after the Group A passengers.  For those of you who are not familiar with how Southwest operates, they have open seating and board according to Groups (A, B, and C) and priority numbers (1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60).  The sooner you check in, the better your chances of boarding earlier.  If you pay extra, then you get the privilege

Happy New Year!

A happy 2015 to you all!

I just came back from Christmas holidays at my sister’s and brother-in-law’s place in the San Francisco Bay area this past week.  We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends.  Almost every day was filled with activity. One of the highlights was that we got together three times with my cousin and his family who just moved to Palo Alto.

So now it is a new year, a fresh start.  A time for setting new goals, making resolutions.