Historical Treatment of Epilepsy

Jorydn, thanks for hosting me today!

I’d love to give away a paperback copy and an electronic copy of The Homesteader's Sweetheart to two of the people who comment. Jordyn will draw names Friday the 4th at midnight and announce the winner Satuday, April 5th!

Also, in honor of my birthday this month, I’m doing a special promotion for the book release. Check it out at www.megamaybirthdaybash.com. Jordyn here: I am happy to say I am part of the Mega May Birthday Bash as well so if you're interested in a couple of free chapters of Proof and a chance to win the novel-- I'll be there!!

What would you be willing to do, how far would you be willing to go to get your child the medical treatment they need?

That was the question I started with when writing The Homesteader's Sweetheart.

I knew that the hero’s daughter would have some kind of health issue. Her health would be a pivotal part of the book for the hero, who needs money to get her the treatment she needs. Based on the research I did, I gave her a childhood form of epilepsy.

In 1890, there was really only one accepted drug to treat epilepsy: bromide. The side-effects of this drug are described as “considerable” and are listed as sedation, depression, skin rashes, and gastro-intestinal distress. So basically your choices were to suffer the seizures or live in a state of half-awareness. Thankfully, it seems that seizure-controlling drugs have come a long way since then and are able to help a lot of people.

Another suggestion for managing epilepsy in 1890 was to lead a more sedentary life—a lot of resting and relaxing. But for Jonas’s five-year-old, a precocious little girl who wants to follow her older brothers around, that’s not an option either.

And so the hero of my story has a desperate need to raise funds for a (fictional) experimental treatment for his daughter. And he will do anything to get that money, to get his daughter the treatment.

Having kids of my own, I have a lot of empathy toward my hero. I hate it when my kids even get a little sniffle, so I know that dealing with something like this can definitely make you feel powerless and desperate to do anything to help.

Here’s a short excerpt from The Homesteader's Sweetheart. This is a scene where Breanna (the daughter) is suffering a seizure and the heroine, Penny, realizes that the hero has a lot more on his plate than she thought.

An hour passed without a word spoken between them. Breanna woke up. She seemed quieter, more reserved, and this seemed to worry Jonas, if the crease on his brow was any indication. He insisted they stop awhile under a clump of trees. Sam roused, too, though he remained taciturn and kept to himself. They ate a small picnic in the limited shade from the wagon before continuing on their way.

Breanna did not chatter this time. Penny idly wondered if the trip was a mistake—she already missed conversing with her friends from town.

The summer sun made her drowsy, and she was half-dreaming about her father forcing her down the aisle to meet Mr. Abbott when a startled exclamation from Jonas roused her.

"Breanna? Do you feel ill?"

Breanna did not answer, but Penny turned in time to see the little girl collapse into the wagon.

Suddenly, the placid, quiet man next to Penny leapt into action.

"Whoa!" He pulled back on the reins and set the brake as the wagon rolled to a stop. Instantly, he scooped Breanna into his arms from her prone position in the wagon and maneuvered himself off the bench seat.

Breanna appeared to be shaking. She hadn't seemed sick at all this morning…

Alarmed by the girl's pallor, Penny blurted, "What can I do to help?"

Sam jumped from the back of the wagon, shaking his head as if he'd been drowsing, too. "What's wrong?"

"Jonas?" Penny questioned again, forgoing propriety.

Jonas ignored Sam as he settled the girl in the small patch of shade cast by the wagon itself. He spoke to Penny instead. "Can you get the canteen? It's under the bench there. And find a piece of fabric to wet her face?"

She reached for the canteen tucked under the bench seat and hiked up her skirts before stepping down on top of the wagon wheel to dismount. As she pulled her other leg from the wagon, her boot slipped on the smooth wheel and she tumbled to the ground, knocking her chin on the way down. She ended up sprawled inelegantly on her backside, the canteen rolling away.

And face-to-face—albeit across the wagon—with Jonas. He was gentleman enough not to laugh at her. He only grunted, "You all right?"

She chose not to reply, instead reaching underneath her gown and ripping off a piece of her petticoat. She stood and rushed around the wagon to join Jonas kneeling near Breanna in the soft spring grasses.

The girl lay on her side, her entire body convulsing.

"Will she be all right?" Penny asked, voice breathless from her fall and the suddenness of Breanna's episode.

"Yes, in a bit." Jonas did not look away from Breanna's face. He'd loosened the neck of her dress and Penny caught sight of the girl's undergarment, so worn it appeared gray.


Thanks Lacy for this great post! Looking forward to participating in your Birthday Bash!


Lacy also did a great series here at Redwood's Medical Edge last July on historical medicine. You can find them here: Part I, Part II, Part III, PartIV.
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As a child, Lacy Williams wanted to become a veterinarian “when she grew up”. However, the sight of blood often made her squeamish so she gave up that dream before her teen years. As a college student, Lacy was a physical therapy major for approximately two weeks—until she found out she’d have to take a cadaver lab to complete that degree plan. As a writer, Lacy has finally found a way she can handle blood and gore—fictionally.

A wife and mom from Oklahoma, Lacy is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and is active in her local chapter, including a mentorship program she helped to start. She writes to give her readers happily-ever-afters guaranteed and mostly reads the end of the book first. You can find out more about Lacy at her website www.lacywilliams.net. She is also active on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lacywilliamsbooks) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/lacy_williams).

How Neuroscience Helps Create Characters

As a big neuroscience fan myself, I'm so excited to have Maree Kimberley posting today about how (being a medical nerd like myself) she used her research into neuroscience to help create her characters.

Welcome, Maree!

My fascination with neuroscience began in 2009 when I read Norman Doidge’s The Brain that Changes Itself. Doidge’s explanation of brain plasticity, and of how the scientific community had discarded the centuries old idea that the brain was fixed, struck a chord with me.

A few months earlier, I’d finished my M.A. in creative writing where I’d explored how characters in young adult fiction showed resilience. One of my key research texts was The Boy who was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry. Perry’s case studies, gathered through his working life as a child psychiatrist, led him to believe that trauma experienced as a child changed that child’s brain, causing sometimes irreparable damage.

After I read Doidge’s book about brain plasticity, the two concepts—brain changes caused by early childhood trauma and the brain’s ability to rewire itself—opened up for me a new way of thinking about how my own teen aged characters acted and behaved. Before I knew it, I’d signed up to do a PhD with neuroscience in young adult fiction as my topic.

I hadn’t studied any science since the middle years of high school. And yet I found myself devouring not only the more generalist/popular books on neuroscience but articles published in scientific journals. I borrowed a copy of Neuroconstructivism:how the brain constructs cognition and made copious notes on the writers’ theories on how every gene, every experience and every aspect of a child’s environment work together to ‘construct’ their brain.

I bought myself a copy of Kolb and Whishaw’s The Fundamentals of HumanNeuropsychology and began working my way through it, chapter by chapter, learning about brain anatomy, how the human brain is organised and trying to familiarise myself with topics such as the principles of neocortical function (I’m still working my way through it—it has 800+ pages!). I became obsessed with not only learning more about how the human brain works (or how we think it works) but what this meant for me as a writer of young adult fiction.

The text books are great as resources when I want to use technical terms in my writing; however, the scientific journal articles have a broader purpose. I’m fascinated by the debates about what a new neuroscientific discovery might mean and discussions about where the discoveries might take humans in the not too distant future.

These debates and discussions are, for me, a treasure trove of ideas. The idea might not come directly from reading the article. Sometimes when I’m writing, something I’ve read from a neuroscientific article will connect with a character’s actions or behaviour, and that will spark further exploration about who that character is and why they do what they do.

For my current work in progress, which I’m writing for my PhD, I have written in-depth character profiles (around 5000 words each) for several of my main characters. Going back to the core theories of neuroconstructivism and my reading in neuropsychology, I delved back into each character’s past: who their parents and grandparents were; how their parents met; what their lives were like growing up; details about significant incidents or experiences they had.

I didn’t need to be a neuroscientist to write these character profiles but having some insight into how the brain might construct who we are and who we might become gave me a different focus. It made me really think about who each character was—about their traits, abilities, aptitudes, flaws, actions and reactions.  It led me to insights about characters I doubt I would have had if I hadn’t taken this approach.

Reading neuroscientific texts isn’t everyone’s idea of fun. However, for me, using medicine in fiction is not just about getting the technical aspects right (like making sure you know adrenaline is injected into the thigh, not the heart!).

Neuroscience gives me another way to view my characters, to analyse them more clinically, perhaps, and to get to know them from a different perspective. Neuroscience helps me look into the brains of my characters, and that brings my characters to life.

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Maree Kimberley lives in Brisbane, Australia where it’s nearly always sunny. She holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries and a Master of Arts, both from Queensland University of Technology. She has published short stories, feature articles and a children’s book and has several novel-length manuscripts hidden away. Apart from neuroscience, her obsessions include the grotesque, bizarre and somewhat strange. She also has a thing for circuses. Maree enjoys combining her obsessions into stories: some work and some fail dismally. She has a sneaking suspicion that it’s the bad stories that make her a better writer. Maree is on Twitter @reebee01

Up and Coming

Hey Redwood's Fans!

How has your week been? Things are getting very exciting around the Redwood household, anxiously anticipating author copies of my debut medical thriller, Proof! When. Is. That. Box. Coming!!

For you this week there are great posts and one contest!

Monday: Maree Kimberly guest blogs on how neuroscience helps create characters. Very interesting stuff.

Wednesday: Historical author Lacy Williams blogs about historical treatment of epilepsy. She's also giving away an e-book and hard copy (two books!) for those that leave comments.

Also, Lacy is running a fabulous Mega May Birthday Bash where she will be giving away lots of free stuff from fellow authors. Personally, I am giving away the first two chapters of my debut medical thriller, Proof, as well as a chance to win a physical copy so be sure to sign up!

Friday: Heidi Creston, OB/RN (how I've missed her!) is back to talk about an obstetrical emergency that could wreck havoc for any delivery scene: a prolapsed umbilical cord.

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Jordyn

Decompression Illness: Dianna T. Benson, EMT

If you ever write a scuba diver character, a deep sea diver, a search/rescue/recovery diver, a Navy submariner, etc., you’ll need to understand Decompression Illness (DCI), a serious illness caused by trapped nitrogen.

There are two mechanisms of DCI:

1)      Decompression Sickness

2)      Arterial Gas Embolism

SCUBA (Self-Contained-Underwater-Breathing-Apparatus) divers breathe a purified air mixture of 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. The longer a diver is breathing this mixture and the deeper he/she descends, the more nitrogen will be absorbed by the body. A slow ascent and a safety stop at about thirty feet for three minutes, allows the diver to efficiently exhale the nitrogen. Dive tables set limits for dive times and depths. Decompression Illness is caused by tiny nitrogen bubbles forming (instead of being exhaled) and becoming trapped in the blood and tissues.

There are two types of Decompression Illness:

1)      Type I

2)      Type II

Type I:

1)      Skin capillaries fill with the nitrogen bubbles, resulting in a red rash.

2)      Musculosketal: Joint and limb pain

Type II:

1)      Neurological decompression sickness: Tingling, numbness, respiratory problems and unconsciousness.

2)      Pulmonary: Bubbles interrupt blood flow to the lungs, causing respiratory distress or arrest.

3)      Cerebral: Bubbles travel to arterial blood stream and enter the brain, causing arterial gas embolism and symptoms of blurred vision, headache, confusion, unconsciousness.

General Decompression sickness symptoms:

Extreme fatigue, joint and limb pain, tingling, numbness, red rash, respiratory and cardiac issues, dizziness, blurred vision, headache, pain with swallowing, confusion, loss of consciousness, ringing in ears, vertigo, nausea, AMS (altered mental status), pain squeeze, SOB (shortness of breath), chest pain, hoarseness, neck fullness, cough. 

Factors that increase the risk of getting decompression illness: Dehydration prior to dive, stressful dive or rapid movements during dive, alcohol intake prior to diving, flying too soon prior or post diving, not following dive tables.

As every patient is different, every diver will have their unique combination of symptoms and reaction to both the illness itself and the treatment.

Decompression illness is treated by hyperbaric recompression chamber therapy. Only certain hospitals in the word have a hyperbaric chamber. The severity of the patient’s condition and his/her symptoms will decide the length of time the patient is treated inside the chamber. 

Nitrogen narcosis is also caused by trapped nitrogen, but this is a simple fix and isn’t serious if resolved. The diver simply ascends to a shallower depth until his/her symptoms clear. Symptoms include: An altered state of awareness and gives the diver an intoxicated state of feeling, incoherent reasoning and confusion.

As always, thank you for reading and for your interest. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

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After majoring in communications and enjoying a successful career as a travel agent, Dianna Torscher Benson left the travel industry to write novels and earn her EMS degree. An EMT and Haz-Mat Operative in Wake County, NC, Dianna loves the adrenaline rush of responding to medical emergencies and helping people in need, often in their darkest time in life. Her suspense novels about characters who are ordinary people thrown into tremendous circumstances, provide readers with a similar kind of rush. Married to her best friend, Leo, she met her husband when they walked down the aisle as a bridesmaid and groomsmen at a wedding when she was eleven and he was thirteen. They live in North Carolina with their three children. Visit her website at http://www.diannatbenson.com