Ellie -- no guilt -- you really didn't "sway" me against a VEEG. I was listing in that direction, and at a strong tilt, anyway.

A brief history, if I can keep it brief. My first event was in the spring of 2003. I was on a plane to Ireland, 3:30 am Irish time, and then I was in Shannon airport at 11:30 am, with no memory of anything in between. I somehow got off the plane, through immigration, baggage carousel, etc. with no knowledge of it. When I came to I was trying to buy a ticket to NY. The agent asked me my name and I said I didn't know (nor did I know I already had a return ticket or that I could have looked up my name on my passport or driver's license). Nor did I know that my whole face was covered in blood; I apparently fell at some point but I don't remember that either.

Was I freaked out? Oh, just a tad! Back in NY, I got sent to a neurologist whom I thought was eccentric, to say the least. He hears the airport story and says, "CPS" for sure. I have an inconclusive MRI & EEG and get put on 300 mg of Neurontin, which made me sleep all day. Quit drug, go to new doc, Orrin Devinsky at NYU (a celeb in epitology, it seems); he hears the story and says "CPS" for sure. Writes a script for Dapakote (which I never fill).

Then in researching this new ailment I discover BrainTalk. What a fabulous site that was for me. CPS? Seizure lasts 2 - 4 minutes. Nothing even remotely close to 8 hours. Don't have a clue who you are or what your name is after the episode? Nope, that doesn't happen. From everything I read on Braintalk, and all the links, you don't remember the E event but you do know that your name is Peggy Sue and that you're in Graceland, for example, when you come out of the seizure.

So I gave up on the epilepsy route. Everything was fine until this past year. In Nov I wake up to find I have peed all over everything in my sleep one night. That was a first for me, and ugh! In Feb I wake up with excruciating pain; I have somehow managed to break a rib in my sleep. I am not a sleep walker and nothing in the apartment was overturned or out of place.

To humor this new neuro, whom as I said I like, I went for and MRI a few weeks ago. It showed some sort of tangled up jumble of blood vessels in the left temporal lobe, and am going for an MRA tomorrow. We'll see where that leads. Have filled my neuro's script for Keppra, but haven't started it yet.

Sorry, I seem not to have kept this short. But I must ask you one question, Ellie. How in god's name to you manage to look so gorgeous when wearing a beehive on your head?

Heather