Let me introduce myself. I am Nicole Caissie. I am the accidental writer of the book sitting in a drawer: My Family’s Crazy ride: Living Despite Illness. Since I haven’t had the time to do everything I need to share it with the world, I decided to write this blog to share a bit of our story and some insights I got along the way.
It all started 36 years ago or so when I met a cute guy with green eyes. Since then, we have built our lives together. We have balanced children, their activities and schooling, two jobs, a few puppies, our home and our respective families. Add to the regular balancing act of a family, we had to learn to incorporate doctors’ appointments, tests, ambulance chases, emergency room and ICU vigils, and 6 brain surgeries.
It seems my cute guy had epilepsy. It seems that his epilepsy was more than just hard to control.
As a wife and mother, my concerns have been to keep my family afloat.
I wanted to be there for my guy as his partner. I am his partner. You see, I meant my wedding vows: in sickness and in health. Though he is never sick, he did have a medical condition that tested that vow again and again and again…
As the mom, I was one of the adults, along with their dad, who had the privileged to guide our chilldren and help them figure out their world when everything was hitting the fan. And it did. Often.
Both my roles of wife and mother are ones that I cherish. That is not all of who I am though. I am also a teacher: one who has been intrigued about people, especially people who do not fit in a particular mold. The teacher in me tried to make sense of things related to what was going on around me.
The curious teacher in me sent me back to school to try to understand my students better. I unexpectantly started to see the things happening to my family with different eyes. It all became quite curious and intriguing.
The teacher in me joined the story-teller in me who joined the wife and mother in me to come up with wishing to share our story and the lessons learned dealing with illness with all the practice we had gotten along the way.
Please feel free to share your story with us or our story with someone who may be starting his or her own crazy medical ride
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