My F*ed Up Brain: Part 2

Written by me January 16th, after my first follow-up appointment at the Mayo:

All right, well, pretty much everyone knows the story, but here's the latest news.

Medically: I am doing very well. As was mentioned in my previous note(s), I spent a week in the local hospital, a week in the Mayo, and did 5 days of outpatient IV treatments at home. I am still doing those once a week, and yesterday I had a follow-up appointment at the Mayo, where I was informed that my bloodwork came back totally normal, my EEG (brainwave stuff) seemed normal, but we're still waiting for results. Basically, I have not had any more seizures and my memory has been improving daily since the 30th when I was discharged from the Mayo. So, on that note, I'm doing very well, and very little permanent damage done.I say very little because the more I talk to people and the more I learn, the more I realize how much of my life has been erased. When I said before that I remember nothing between thanksgiving and christmas, I'm beginning to realize that I forgot most of last fall, not just from thanksgiving onward. I don't remember my birthday, or voting, or halloween. I knew and was not surprised that my fiance and I live in a different apartment then we did this summer, but I have no recollection of actually moving stuff in october. I have looked at my school stuff- books and papers- and don't remember any of it, except that I can point out which books I read for which classes and I remember the very first book I read all semester, but I can't tell you what it's about. I recently re-read a book that I remember that I liked, but I continued to be surprised at the end as much as I was the first time I read it. At the very least, october, november, and december are gone. All spring and summer are sketchy. I'm still really emotional, overwhelmed, and stressed.

Bedbug Bullshit:

This summer we had bedbugs in our lovely (note the sarcasm) apartment. I had red itchy welts all summer that we thought were some sort of allergic reaction, but after I left for school, my fiance discovered that we had an infestation of bedbugs in our apartment. We quarantined everything for 6 weeks while it was "treated" only to find more LIVING bugs at the end of that time. We re-quarantined everything for another 6 weeks for another treatment, in the meantime moving into another apartment in the same complex. When I got out of the hospital at the end of December, the 6 weeks were up, and we moved all our stuff from the old apartment to the new one. Then, this past Wednesday, I told my fiance I was feeling itchy, and it was probably just from the freezing winter weather and dry skin, but nonetheless we examined our bedroom.... only to find another bedbug, alive. The whole situation is ridiculous. Clearly, whatever they did, twice before, to "treat" and rid the apartment(s) of bedbugs didn't work. So we approached management, informed them of the problem, and they let us out of our lease. For the past three days and for an unknown period of time to come, we are living with my parents. We are throwing out most of our furniture because it's not worth the risk of bringing bugs with us anywhere else we go, and our clothes and belongings can be treated with heat/cold/and chemicals, depending on the item. Current and Future Plans: Like I said, we're temporarily living with my parents. My fiance and I are both taking this semester off of school in order to re-group and get our lives back in order. He is still working every day, hopefully full-time now that he's not in school. I have officially taken a leave of absence from school, due to medical stuff, and fully intend on heading back in September. He also intends on returning to school in the fall. Various plans for school and living situations are being discussed and considered, both locally and the Cities, but nothing is certain, and for now we're just worried about getting all our stuff out of the buggy apartment by Monday and getting paperwork done.

In short: Life has been pretty rough, but things are looking up *knock on wood* and we appreciate all the support we've gotten from friends and family. Thanks!