Another Catatonic Day

April, 2009


Abby had a seizure at midnight. Seizures come on abruptly, are tonic-clonic (what used to be called Grand Mal) and start with a particular gasping type vocalization that we recognize immediately. When I awoke at 6:00 for work, and her light and TV were on, and she was staring blankly at the TV, I knew that this meant her internal body clock was screwed up. She had no idea what time of day it was, or even that this was a school day. It did not surprise me when I got home from work and learned from Sandy that Abby had another seizure at 7:00, and that she had spent the day essentially vocally non-responsive. She moves real slow on days like these. She cannot connect one word to the next in a sentence. She cannot independently follow one-step commands on these days. Sandy made her a bowl of ramen, and it took Abby 3 hours to eat it.
Days like this are why Sandy had to quit her doctoral program. She had finished all the coursework, and just needed to do the dissertation. One of us had to quit academia, and I was in medical school, which would lead to a more lucrative career than Sandy’s higher admin Ed.D. So sandy paints chairs and teaches an occasional class on ethics at Davenport.
We never know on these days if Abby will have more seizures, or how long these partial seizures will last. There is nothing we can do but stay on edge.