Friday, August 12, 2022

Oxcarbazepine

 01/28/18-08/04/22 - No seizures. 

08//06/22 - I woke up in the ER at Yale-New Haven Hospital (thinking that it was actually a dream for a while) after I was previously and unknowingly taken to Middlesex Hospital due to my first seizure since having brain surgery.

This isn't a very exciting post...

I have now been prescribed 600mg of Oxcarbazepine per day (300mg every 12 hours) to treat the further potential of seizures.


Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Turn, Turn, Turn...



To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

For me, my Journey to Wellness is about to take another turn...

Today, May 12, 2020, I received a call from my ID doctor re: my blood count from Thursday's (05/07) recent test shows that my white blood cell count is dropping. Being that this is the potential issue from the Linezolid that I am taking, I am being switched (again) to a different antibiotic. Tomorrow, I get to go to New Haven for a 3+ hour infusion with a vancomycin-related drug - Oritavancin.
The overall plan is to do this IV tomorrow and Wednesday of next week. Of course, the weekly blood tests on Thursday will continue to happen in order to monitor the future progress of my WBC.
After we (I) am done with the IV next week AND the results from the following blood test, I'll be going back on the Linezolid for another week to finish off the 6-week antibiotic plan...

As it stands, we'll see how things go with this turn...

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Wow! (Round 2)

About a year ago, I posted Wow! ...or, Should I Say, "OWWW!"... Today, I m adding to the Wow! of my life experiences.

What I have done all of my life was/is to wake up (at some point of my day), eat my breakfast, and then brush my teeth and other morning routines like shower, shave, etc.


Well, today, my current routine has changed for various reasons.



  1. I have a test planned for Covid-19 to makes sure that I am "clean" for tomorrow's surgery.
  2. Given my 'planned' surgery for tomorrow, I need to stop eating before 8 pm, tonight.
  3. I have stopped taking my supplements due to the surgery (supposed to be clean for 7 days, prior to surgery).
As I type this, we are in the car and heading to the location for the virus test.
Prior to this, I brushed my teeth. Moments after brushing my teeth, I thought about the fact that if I didn't eat breakfast, that would effect my hunger through the rest of the day and tomorrow due to the necessary fasting for surgery.

...excuse my absence for a bit... It's pretty difficult to type this out while on the road (using my phone) to the test...

Well, I'm back home and back on the laptop and running Conan the Barbarian in the background...

Now, according to the note they handed me, the test results will show up on MyChart is 5 days... 

From my personal experience, without the ability to confirm or deny any viral infection, I can only compare my physical condition to those that may appear if I am infected. According to CDC:

So far, I have been clear of all of those symptoms! As well, with my experience this morning, I am even more sure of it. 
Over the last couple of months, I have been intermittently fasting through the day(s). Generally, my intake of food has happened between noon and 8 pm. As a result, waking up and brushing my teeth/mouthwash happened 4-5 hours before eating anything.
Today, with my upcoming fasting due to surgery, I decided to shift my intermittent fasting from 12 pm-8 pm to 8 am-4 pm. Of course, I decided to make the shift after I brushed my teeth. That meant that I made and ate my breakfast with a relatively clean mouth. Let me tell ya... while I grew up with the mindset that it made more sense to clean my teeth/mouth after eating my breakfast (as opposed to going through the day with the remnants of the crumbs from my breakfast) and going through the rest of the day with a clean(er) mouth, I'm turning to the idea of brushing my teeth first.
Not a big factor in the survival with life, but..
At any rate, there has been NO loss of taste or smell!