After Andrew had that seizure, I was left with a burning question: Is there any history of epilepsy or seizure disorders in Deadbeat Dad’s family?

So I emailed him the following simple email, the first contact I have initiated with him in 3 years:

subject: Medical History Question

I need to know if there is any history of epilepsy or other seizure disorders in your family. Andrew had a seizure yesterday afternoon and this information will help with diagnosis

Simple right? Wrong!

Response from DD, email #1:

subject re: Medical History Question

If you want to know anything then you have my details.

I said hey what the hell does that mean?

Hence, response from DD, email #2:

subject re: Medical History Question

If that’s unclear, then call me.

What a freakin’ nutcase! So after breathing in a bag, I managed to politely respond:

subject: re: Medical History Question

Of course it’s unclear, you didn’t tell me anything at all.

Please answer the question for me. It is a grave matter that this has occurred. I need the information as soon as possible to assist with diagnosis. Is there any history of seizures in the family?

If there is a valid reason for not writing it down in an email, then you may please call me at your convenience and leave me a voice mail if necessary.

Ok, I know it’s not eloquent but it was better than cussing him out, which is actually what he deserves.

And you know what? He didn’t answer me soon enough. So I called his family in the deep south of the South, in Alabama no less. And that complete richardcranium had not even told his mom & dad that they were grandparents. So I got to spring the good news. My ‘baby’ is 2 years and 9 months old. They didn’t even know.

However his mom was kind and gave the information I needed: No, there’s no history of seizure disorders or epilepsy in the family.

That’s all he had to say, 3 keystrokes: N-O-[SEND]

What a jerk.

Then a day or two later I get this answer, keep in mind that he owes me thousands of dollars and I’m trying to sell my bassoon to make ends meet:

response from DD, email #3

subject: re: Medical History Question

Since I’m broke and I don’t think you are, you can call me at your convenience.

Asshole. Just wait until you call home.

Tossed into

• One big sock pile

@ 10:24 pm

Comments (3)

My little boy will have an EEG tomorrow, if they can successfully get the lines attached to his head. He had a seizure about two weeks ago - supposedly he was tossing his head back and forth, not focused and appearing very disoriented. Then he had a series of jerky arm movements, then his whole body went stiff for about 30 seconds, after that he was just limp. And crying. They called me from the childcare right away. I went to have him checked out, and there was no apparent reason (like medications or fever) for the seizure to have occurred.

Well it’s all been a little scary, but hopefully it won’t happen again. Gotta remember too, that when it happened, I had no idea if Deadbeat Dad’s family has a history of seizure disorders. Wait till you hear about that one!

Tossed into

• One big sock pile
• what really matters

@ 7:53 pm

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I take prednisone for my muscular disease - it is the first line of defense for myositis diseases like polymyositis. I’ve posted many times about the side effects of taking it: moonface, weight gain, sodium hypertension, obsessive/combative behaviors, calcium deficiency, facial hair, the list goes on. However even with all of this it was better to take it than to end up in a wheelchair, unable to lift my own arms over my head.

Reducing the prednisone, now that I have stabilized my muscle degeneration, is very tricky. I went down in dosage 5mg/day every other week from 60 to 15 with no problems. But 15 was hard, and when I got to 10, I was in the bed and couldn’t get out. So sick, sore, angry & weird. So I went back up to 20 and slowed the taper down to 1mg/wk, which has really worked pretty good. This week I got kind of cocky though, and having gotten all the way down to 9mg/day with no significant issues, I went to 8 and it seemed fine. I remembered my neurologist telling me that once you get down under 10 that it should be a piece of cake.

So, why not 5 I said.

What a BAD idea! I was cranky and joint-achy for 2 days, but then the 3rd day happened. Oh dear. It’s like a little man lives in my head, constantly swearing. Phrases like ‘blow me’ and ‘f — you’ were going to pop out any second. So I didn’t go in to work, saving my peers from looking at me with my head spinning ’round with expletives pouring out.

Then I took a nap and when I woke up, I was just weeping. For no reason. At least I have enough sense to know why.

So I went back up to 10 for the day, I’ll do 9 tomorrow and probably about 5 more days.

Someday I’ll get off of this stuff, but I guess it’s going to take a while. At least most of my beard is gone!

Tossed into

• polymyositis

@ 7:43 pm

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