Danielle’s probably told enough people by now that I can put it up here and let rest of our dear friends know — the “hospital trip” I alluded to in the last post was because Dee suffered a seizure at work one morning. These can have a lot of different reasons and triggers, we found out — stress (she is), pregnancy (we’re not), diet, alcohol, blood-sugar, epilepsy — but spending much of the morning in hospital discounted some and gave more focus to others. It’s unlikely to be epilepsy, for example, since there was no real “trigger” and she wasn’t anywhere she wouldn’t normally be on a weekday. Scary, but all is good.
We went to see the neurologist on Friday, who first asked a lot of questions and performed some “physical challenge” questions — close your eyes, squeeze a fist, touch your nose — before referring us to the cardiology department for an ECG (electrocardiogram!). He reassured us that, of all the people who suffer a seizure (or was that just non-epileptic seizure? I should have asked for his sources!) some 60% don’t ever suffer a second one.
It’s been a month since Danielle has hers, and there has been no sign of another (thankfully!). We’re hoping she’s in that (slight) majority in this case; we have another appointment in a few months for a repeat checkup and possibly the other tests we thought she would get — the EEG (electroenchephalogram) and CT-scan (computed tomography, which means the image is created from a series of 2-dimensional sections). On the other hand, as each month passes the likelihood of another seizure drops right off, so perhaps they won’t even do those tests.
I’d be happy for them not to. I think it’s really been a wake-up call for the both of us — we should spend every moment we can enjoying life together, because you just never know … The train trip into Glasgow for me that morning was one of the longest I’ve ever been on, and not just because I got the wrong train (although looking back, that was definitely a factor — never go to Glasgow Central, always go to Glasgow Queen street!). We both been re-evaluating what we want out of life at the moment, and how best to find (or create!) our own “happy place”. The result, hopefully, will be a healthier, happier and more full life!
To that end, we’re investigating relocating down to London to be closer to the major airport — we have so many places yet unexplored, and travel from Edinburgh or Glasgow is ridiculously more expensive (most flights take a hop down to Heathrow first at any rate). It might be nice to catch up with Hippy and Mal from time to time too — it’s not like we’ve made many ties to people up here (Gregor if you’re reading, two things: you are always welcome to visit us, and who gave you a computer??).
One good thing about living and working in Edinburgh is that it’s inured us against the high rental prices — our current two bedroom flat is lovely (waterfront property after all, old chum) but expensive — so we don’t feel too bad looking at the cost of living in a two bedroom flat in London. In fact, we won’t even have to live out in the middle of nowhere like Grant and Sheila (hi guys!)!
It will be a balancing act, of course — rent vs. travel vs. time vs. work. But zone 2 shouldn’t be too far out, and there are some suburbs a few stops away from the financial district that have decent prices for decent apartments, so it’s looking more and more likely. Dee will start contracting — as a British citizen she can start a company and work through that rather than an existing “umbrella company” — and I will either transfer directly with the bank, or find another job. (In fact, the second option is rather appealing at the moment, as my supposed move to a technology department has been stalled for almost six months now.)