Doing Life in Lavender

This is a seasonal one, but this is another tool I carry around with me to help me manage one of my main triggers. I’ve spoken before about triggers & one of them is overheating. Last summer, during a heatwave, I carried this cool towel with me everywhere! Mostly as a hat! It came in very helpful when I was overheating and needed to cool down quickly. Here’s how it works, you simply need to run it under water of any temperature then wring it out and there you go, one towel of freezing cold soggy goodness. The weather at the moment isn’t inspiring me to keep it in my bag for now, but I know it’s there and I’m sure it will be useful when the sun decides to come out.

Hello again! It's nice to be back! Today I thought I'd briefly talk about triggers. I realised I'd ended up talking about my own triggers quite a lot back in my Photo Challenge in November, so I thought I'd expand a bit today.  Probably the most important thing I can say about triggers is that every person has different triggers for their seizures and that sometimes there can be seemingly no trigger. Every person's epilepsy is different and is therefore impacted differently by biological or external factors. Some people might be triggered by fluctuations in blood glucose levels, some people are affected by flashing lights and others are triggered by physical exertion. The list of potential seizure triggers goes on and on. A lot of the time the seizure trigger is unknown but one of the most common triggers for a seizure is stress. Even things that can seem so innocent to one person can be a trigger to another and vice versa.  My own list of triggers goes a little lik...

Hello again! This photo was taken four years ago when I helped out at a Christian-run kids camp in Ukraine. The camp was essentially part camp and part English language school. It was an amazing time, for the most part, but some things happened to make it a little bit more interesting than I was expecting!  For one thing, possibly the thing that had the biggest impact on me all week was that unbeknownst to me, Ukrainian summers are really hot! To this day, "yes" and "hot" are the only words I can remember how to say in Ukrainian. Spending time in that kind of heat, but also playing games and running around in that heat, was a bit of a trigger for me. I had my brother there to look after me but I struggled in that heat (hence the ridiculous headgear!) I managed by finding shade wherever possible and keeping a cold water bottle on me at all times.  Other than the ridonkulous heat though, one day all of us leaders went into town to see the sights. My epilepsy has alway...

Hello again! This was a photo taken in the middle of a heatwave.  Overheating is one of my triggers so a heatwave can be pretty problematic. But part of my life is managing anything that could trigger a seizure, as well as noticing what my triggers are. Some of my other triggers are sleep deprivation, low blood sugars, and stress. But overheating has always been a big one for me. So when we had a heatwave earlier this year one of my colleagues at work suggested a cool towel that has been revolutionary for me. When it was really hot and I started twitching because I was overheating I started wearing it on my head. Even in public! In this photo, I'm out with my fiancé on a lunch date and I started twitching because I was too hot. The result was this look! I might look like a pirate, and I think Michael may have been a bit embarrassed by me looking like that in a restaurant but it helped to manage one of my triggers so I didn't really care! I'd rather look like a pirate in a f...