Wayne Chen
Northwest Asia Weekly
Has anyone written a humorous column about seizures during Covid? Looks like I’m going to try it.
In addition to our shared experiences during the pandemic, I also had to deal with my own personal health scare. During the worst wave of Covid-19, I had several seizures. Thankfully, this has nothing to do with Covid.
I’m doing fine now, taking medication for seizures, and at the time I decided to get back in shape because we were pretty much quarantined anyway.
Before I go any further, I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that the person who suffered the most in my panic was not me, but my wife, Maya. She was someone who had to witness what I went through and someone who had to make quick judgments on my behalf. Seizures can be very severe, and maybe the only benefit of having one is that I’m not really there to experience it.
After a few weeks of recovery and feeling like everything was back to normal, I made a phone appointment with my neurologist. Maya insisted on participating in these calls because that is the nature of our relationship.
After discussing how the drug worked (all was well), we completed one of my questions. Below is a summary of discussions with your doctor.
Me: Doctor, I’m a pretty average tennis player and I haven’t played since this happened. Do you think I can start playing again?
Doctor: Yes! I have no problem with you playing tennis again.
MAYA: (in a very stern voice) Doctor, you don’t understand. The way he plays tennis is ridiculous. He absolutely hates failure, he’ll kill himself there.
me: Doctor, I think she’s a bit editorial here…
Doctor: (laughter)
Maya: He’s just crazy out there. He really hates failure, and when he’s there, he’ll do anything. Are you sure he should play? He thinks he’s Rambo! !
To be honest, she didn’t actually mention Rambo in this conversation, but it felt like she did. But I was thinking, “Well, who likes to lose?”
Let me just say one last word: I love my wife. She is my hero. My only concern is that she won’t involve me in my next phone appointment with the doctor.
So, I got the doctor’s approval to play tennis again. On top of that, I also got Maya’s approval.
As things returned to normal, I gradually noticed that my friends were asking how I was doing. It’s normal, but there are enough questions (and curious eyes coming in my direction) that I wonder if something else is going on. I quickly discovered that Maya has been updating our friends on my current status.
That’s the way it is. Maya is from Taiwan, in fact, although English is her second language, her English is really, really good. It’s amazing how good it is when you talk to her. Her English is great.
Still, even the best of us can overlook some of the language’s nuances, especially if English isn’t your first language.
When I had a seizure, the neurologist had to explain to Maya and the family what was going on. Seizures can be very serious and even life-threatening.
As a result, when Maya told me about some of her conversations with friends, she said she told them because of the seizure, “Wayne has brain damage.”
At this point, I said to Maya, “I don’t think you should tell our friends that I have a brain injury.” She said, “Well, sometimes you’re in a bad mood and you keep forgetting things.”
I said, “Sometimes I’m in a bad mood because we’re stuck at home and we can’t go anywhere because of the coronavirus, and while I sometimes forget people’s names (and I do), that’s what I’ve done before Seizures! That’s not the same as brain damage!”
I don’t know how many people Maya have told me that I have brain damage, but I think I should make a general statement: 1) I’m doing well and in good shape, 2) As far as I know, I don’t have brain damage.
Thank you for your attention.
Seeing that I was offended by Maya’s description of my situation, she decided we needed to talk about it.
She asked, “Well, what do I call it if it’s not a brain injury? Traumatic brain injury?”
I said, “Why do we have to give it any name?”
Wayne can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
