March is International Essential Tremor Awareness Month

I have an essential or more appropriately called familial tremor - I've had it since birth. It was not noticeable at all until puberty and has gotten progressively worse with age. I am currently taking medication to control it and am off to the neurologist at 2pm to get the prescription refilled.

My tremor has been a source of discrimination and embarrassment throughout my life. What happens - is my hands and arms shake. Particularly my right arm and hand. They always shake when I attempt to do an activity. It's not always noticeable. It's pronounced when I get upset, nervous, don't feel well, are am edgy or have had caffeine. By pronounced - I mean I look like I'm trembling and I can't type or write.

Below are definitions regarding what it is and what causes it along with links.
Awareness is key - so the next time you see someone's hands shake? The first question in your head should NOT be are you nervous? But what is causing it?
Do NOT assume you know.

( Wiki definition - which is fairly broad )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_tremor#Cause

And...

Essential tremor is a type of involuntary shaking movement in which no cause can be identified. Involuntary means you shake without trying to do so.

See also:
( famialial tremor a type of essential tremor - medline definition )

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000762.htm

( Difference betwee Parkinson's Disease and Essential Tremor )

http://www.irsa.org/essential_tremor.html

I inherited mine from my mother. Her father shook so badly he couldn't write.
My brother smokes - which has made his less prevalent and more controlled.
Mine is worse than my mother's and brother's - possibly aggravated by the ceilac disease. I'm the only one on meds, because without them...I can't hold a cup in my hand or type. But I have to be careful with the meds or I'll fall into a physical depression - which happened in 2004.

Not flocking because I want to increase awareness of this condition that affects over 10 million people around the world.

(no subject)

1. So...

Me (to coworker): Off to see the doc, will see you tomorrow.
Coworker K: You okay?
Me: Fine, neurologist for the essential tremor, did you know by the way that March is International Essential Tremor Awareness Month?
Coworker: You're kidding? (I shake my head) You should tell your boss that.
Me: That's what I thought...or just put up a sign in my cubicle stating this is national essential tremor month which basically promotes awareness against discrimination of people with essential tremors.
Coworker (who is also former boss from another company) bursts out laughing.

We are discriminated against though. I told my neurologist about it.

Neurologist: I kept looking at you reading in the waiting room to see if I could see a tremor, but I don't. It's stable.
Me: Well today it is. And generally speaking. Just when I pick up anything heavy, or get really nervous or upset. Like when I went to see my boss and he attacked me, and said, why do you shake? No one else shakes?
Neurologist: Well, that would do it. You know what you can do? You can take a slightly higher dosage, maybe half a second pill - before you know you have to go see your boss about something or have a really stressful event.

2. Loving this book that lj user green_mai recommended, entitled The Fault in Our Stars - it's told in the first person narrative voice of a sixteen year old girl with lung cancer. And it's hilarious. Also deeply touching and captures the teenage voice fairly well.

In addition it manages to explain Mark Watches style on his blog. He's going after a teen audience, guys. He wants to write a YA novel - so he is trying to write in the style of a 16 year old boy. Which is basically lots of Caps and OMGs'. I noticed it in this book as well. Although only for a few sentences and only in regards to text messaging.

The novel has a very snarky sense of humor. I'm 20% of the way through - I had to do something in the doctor's office and on the way to the doctor's office. You see the doctor for ten - fifteen minutes tops, but have to wait 45 minutes. It's annoying.
Took me two hours and a half for a 15 minute visit. An hour to the office, an hour waiting, and a half home.

I should give an example? Because John Green rocks at dialogue. Finally, someone who can write dialogue, was beginning to lose hope. Dialogue is apparently harder to writer than I thought.

( vague spoilery sample - gives you an idea of what the book is about and how it is written )

But so far? This is a good read. Really good.

Off to make dinner.

(no subject)

OW! OW! OW! I dropped my laptop on my foot. The lap-top is fine. The foot not so much. I have ice on it. And yes, it is the same foot that had the stress fracture in 2010, and got a sprained ankle in 2009.

Also have the oddest craving for grapefruit juice. One of the things I loved about Buffy is the character preferred grapefruit juice mixed with orange juice - which for years was the only way I could drink oj. OJ is more acidic than grapefruit juice for some reason.

Everytime I read Mark Watches, I find myself thinking: no, yes, no, no, no, yes...to his predictions.

Mark: I like Riley, he'll probably die by the end of the season.
Me: No...he never dies, unfortunately.
Mark: OZ has lived too long, he'll be dead soon...
Me: No, he just leaves like Riley does. But I think he dies in the comics? The jury is still out on that. Riley unfortunately is still alive. But OZ...there's nothing definite either way. [Anyone reading the S9 comics know if OZ is definitely alive?]
Mark: I love Professor Walsh. She's probably dead by mid-season.
Me: True. But you won't love her any more.
Mark: There will bees in S4.
Me: Well not unless you count the magical bees in Fear Itself. But they felt more like evil fireflies to me.