Search

Good News! My Sister Doesn't Have Brain Disease.

little sister
Oct 23, 2017
4 min read

We have been on this incredible health journey the past few years, my sister and I, (mental and otherwise) and we are going to share some of these adventures with you, (you lucky devils)! One of the things I think we need to talk about, as women, sisters, friends, grandmas, moms...all of us women, should be talking about STRESS and how it manifests in our bodies. It's killing us, one little disease at a time.

I, personally, don't think we talk about it enough. We talk about how much our neck hurts, we talk about our mammogram coming up next week, how much a jug of milk cost now, along with everything else. We talk about the 10 pounds we lost or gained and about our "God damned" ex-boyfriends or husbands or boss or government leaders, and how all of that stuff is wrecking our lives and how "stressed out" we are!

I hear that from women all of the time, how stressed out they are. I hear it from my own daughter and she's 20! She's 20. My sister is so stressed out at the age of 59, we thought she had Alzheimer's Disease, for heaven's sake! We just got back from

Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, MN and good news: the doctor said my sister "does not have disease of the brain," meaning

Alzheimer's.

She had an MRI at this visit and we have to go back in December for more tests and a diagnosis.

Talk about being "stressed-out," waiting to find out if you have "disease of the brain" or not! Good grief!

So what are we doing about it...,this being "stressed-out" all of the time business? We have to stop it, and we have to teach our daughters and granddaughters to stop it. Stress manifests so much disease and strife in our bodies, it's unbelievable and it's scary! At this rate, our mortal life span as women will be dwindled down to 35-40 years like the Neanderthals. I think about that when my 20 year old daughter talks about how stressed she is. And the thing is, I know she is; I see her life and the lives of other young women, and I think, "Good Lord! I'm glad I don't have to grow up in this day and age." (It's funny how I remember my dad saying that when I was young.)

They were stressed out too you know - the Neanderthals, always on the defense and in survival mode...that's what we are, sisters, always in survival mode, always in fight and flight mode.

I feel like I have been in that mode for the last 20 years. I feel like for me, personally, this is the reason that I developed breast cancer at the age of 38. I know now, that I have the BRCA gene mutation, so I know that chances are cancer would have happened to me at some point, however, I believe it showed up at 38 because of the "stress," in my life during that time and possibly, the 38 years proceeding it!

So, my sister, does not have "brain disease," that is one less thing that we have to worry about. We know now, from a week long

trip to The University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor (U of M) that she has "non-epileptic stress-induced seizures" and that 40% of the people who go to U of M to find out why they are having seizures, are like my sister and do not have epilepsy at all. Did you catch that? We are so stressed out and have been in fight & flight mode for so long, that our brains are protecting our other organs by manifesting a seizure, for crying out loud!

In my sister's case, in a "stressful situation," her blood pressure spikes to an unbelievably high rate and in return, basically, her brain says, "shut everything down before we stroke out,"... and then she has a seizure.

One of the reasons we decided to share some of our stories is because, learning that she was in such a large percentage of people who have this type of seizure, was huge for her. Until this year, she had no idea why this was happening; no one in our family has ever had a seizure. (we got a lot of stuff, but no seizure history) she couldn't drive for six months after every time she had one; the medicines the doctors gave her were not working; basically she was told to just learn to deal with it.

This is where I step in and do some "sister magic"

because no one should have to live like that in this day and age, for goodness sake, and because by this point in our story we are living next door to each other, I see and feel her pain everyday, and on top of that, my life has turned into "Driving Miss Daisy," every where she has to go! {sister sarcasm} :)

Read to find out how we got from there to here.