Peter's Place

This is the 3rd update to my blog about my niece, Jennal, and what she's been going through. Here's a link back to the 2nd update on her condition . If you haven't been following this story, please read the original blog post . My sister, her fiancé (Jennal's father), and I were there all morning right up to the point where she was taken into surgery. She was sleeping on and off. Jennal wanted her mother right next to her and me by her side. Her father came over but she actually pushed him away. She was extremely grouchy and cranky, as she knew what was coming. She kept begging us to take her home, and not let her go back. She kept saying that she didn't want another trip. Whenever the nurses would come over and and say something medical, she would use that word -- no matter what it was -- and say that she didn't want it, repeating it over and over. For example, one of the nurses said that they needed to take an oxygen tank with the bed when they transported...

See Update #1 for previous information as to Jennal's condition and also read the original post about why Jennal is undergoing this rare surgery (approximately one-hundred hemispherectomies are performed world-wide each year). OK, so the fever has come down to a normal level now. Jennal's heart rate is still elevated, however; when she's sleeping it's around 120-130 and when awake it's around 140-150. That's about double to 2.5 times what it should be, but it's better than triple and quadruple, which is what it had been running. So far, she hasn't had any more seizures. The seizure-like activity that I had reported in Update 1 were firings from her brain that caused the muscle contractions throughout her body. I had stated that this was the beginning of her seizure, and that's not entirely accurate. This physical reaction (her muscles jumping all throughout her body) is in response to firings from the neurons in her brain, in response to the ...

This is the first update on my niece, Jennal. It is being made after her partial hemispherectomy, which I described in this blog post . I just came back from the hospital. I got there around 4am, after having drinks with a friend I haven't seen in over a year. It was really good to see her -- took my mind off things for a while. I actually had two amaretto sours, and I almost never have two drinks in a night. But I think I needed it tonight, plus we were eating so it wasn't all that bad. Anyway, I got back to the hospital around 4:30am and broke all the rules. Scooted past security (just look like you know where you're going and no one pays you any mind). Went up and got myself into pediatric ICU. Jennal's father was sleeping in a chair next to her bed; I didn't see my sister anywhere so I had assumed she went back to the hotel to sleep. Jennal was WIDE awake. I bent down next to her and asked if she was OK. She told me no. I asked what was wrong, she said she...

In a few short hours, my niece, Jennal Leann Intira Brooks, will begin procedures to undergo a partial Hemispherectomy . As can be seen from the definition, Hemispherectomy is a surgical treatment for epilepsy in which one of the two cerebral hemispheres, which together make up the majority of the brain, is removed. Jennal was stricken with TBI when, at only a very short two days old, she suffered from a stroke. Jennal was soon thereafter diagnosed with having Epilepsy , severe astigmatism, and impaired motor, intellectual, speech, and other bodily functions as a result from the stroke and TBI. You may wish to read about some of the previous difficulties my sister has had in getting appropriate care for Jennal. On 29 May 2009 (two months ago), Jennal turned five years old. It's a miracle that she's still alive. Whenever she sees me, her eyes light up, and my insides turn outward and it takes all of the strength and energy I have stored up to not fall apart like a bawlin...

I came across some really great, inspirational, soulful, and wise quotes from the great American writer, lecturer, and creative self-promoter: "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." "If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done." "If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive." "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." "Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed." "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. " " Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think. " "The successful man will profit from his mistakes an...

“When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” ~~ Bayard Rustin , Black Civil Rights activist who happens to be gay.

So, this has been my summer so far, with my Depression rearing its ugly head full-on: During the past two weeks, I've become completely discombobulated as I had no power for around three days due to a supercell thunderstorm that hit the immediate area I live in, and then it took another 3-4 days for the Internet/cable/phone to come back up. I took some pictures, and a video during the storm itself (although it's hard to see much in the video as it was taken at night in pitch-black conditions). A day after I got the Internet back, the f'n cord from the AC adaptor to my laptop (computer) severed to the point where the wires were no longer making contact. I was just able to log into eBay and order a replacement (for $11--thankfully) before the battery died on me, and I just received that yesterday. So now I'm playing catch-up to nearly two weeks of being disconnected from the grid. I feel so lost. Not to mention, over 18,000 unread e-mails (not spam, actual e-mails that...

[EDIT 29 June 2009] I've been thinking about this after finishing the blog post below, and there are a bunch of different ways I could have titled this other than "40 Years After Stonewall, Where Do We Stand?" Another title could be "Small Strides Made 85 Years Into the LGBT Civil Rights Movement" and yet another could be "We're still being killed millennia later, although it may no longer be legal in some jurisdictions." Still, another title could be "LGBT folk can't legally be killed in the USA, which is great progress, but what about places where Sharia is the rule of law?" So with that in mind, continue on to the article that I wrote yesterday and just remember that while it's against the law to murder a person of LGBT origin in the United States of America, that isn't necessarily the case around the world. [/EDIT] Forty years ago today, 28 June 1969, a firecracker was lit under the seats of gay (and when I say gay, I'...

Today is #samesexsunday on Twitter . In a nutshell, this is the day when Twitter users recommend other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) users to follow. It was started by The Bilerico Project : "Same Sex Sunday is an idea hatched by me and Bil to build a stronger sense of LGBT community on Twitter. The concept is pretty simple. Its #followfriday gone gay, gay, gay." My list has grown a bit, so instead of tweeting it, I'm going to tweet this post, and then link to the people I recommend on here. I can also add comments about users here, as well, as that pesky 140-character limit won't get in the way. All of the following Twitter users are LGBT people I recommend because they're personable, knowledgeable, helpful, insightful, and good folk. Send them an @ (a directed message on Twitter) and you'll most likely get a response. Additionally, I've also tagged certain people with other twitter hashtags, to denote whether they're, say, a #wome...