(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
I’m so thankful that millions and millions of voters peacefully and forthrightly made their voices heard in the United States midterm elctions, making clear that we stand for democracy, decency, and neighborliness.
This post is part of One-Liner Wednesday, brought to you be Linda Hill, a Canadian blogger-friend. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/11/04/one-liner-wednesday-procrastination-hurts/
For the first time since my surgery for Chiari malformation on Monday, I actually slept through the night last night, which felt amazing. Here in the US, we also ended Daily Saving Time last night, so, even though it looked like I was up early, I had to add an hour to account for the clock change.
I do still owe you a surgery post but, right now, I wanted to share what has already improved since my surgery.
By the time I left the hospital on Wednesday, my balance was much improved, so that I could reliably walk without having someone nearby to help steady me if I got light-headed. I could also walk in a straight line, if that was what I intended. Balance problems have been a constant for over two years now, so having it already improve so much feels like a miracle.
The other thing that I noticed while still in the hospital is that the blurring in my left eye is much better. I can see for long stretches without any blurring but can still have trouble when I’m most tired.
The exciting thing this morning was that it seems that my breath control is improving, too. I was participating in All Saints’ Day mass via a recording and was happy that I could sustain the phrases in the opening hymn, “For All the Saints.” It’s been frustrating to have to breathe way more often than a singer should need to – and there is certainly much room for further improvement – but to have a noticeable improvement already feels great.
All these things are most likely due to the restored cerebrospinal fluid flow. I had a lot of testing to rule out physical problems with my eye, inner ear, lungs, etc., so we knew there was not a problem with the organs themselves. Rather, there was a problem with them getting proper signals from my brain.
Improved breathing is particularly important for me. I had been getting out of breath easily, for example, from walking up a flight of stairs or from lying on my stomach. It seemed that it was likely due to dysautonomia, which is common in people with hEDS and/or Chiari malformation. One of the fun features of my surgery had been difficulty keeping me breathing because I needed to be prone so Dr. Klinge could access the back of my head and neck, but they had modify the body position they usually use because I would unceremoniously stop breathing, even though I was intubated.
Obviously, we are still in early days of a recovery that is expected to last 3-6+ months, but I’m stunned at how much has improved already. I have to remind myself that symptoms that haven’t changed at all yet may well improve over these coming months, just more gradually as my brain heals after 2 1/2 years of not enough cerbrospinal fluid circulation.
I am so grateful to Dr. Klinge and her whole team; to Lauren Eadline, my wonderful NP who specializes in patients with hard-to-diagnose-and-treat disorders; and to all my family, friends, and readers who have been so supportive throughout all of this and continue to uphold me.
Onward (but with still a lot of rest breaks)!
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consiousness Saturday this week is “costume.”
My Halloween costume this year is woman recovering from brain surgery.
Okay, not really a costume, just reality.
From the front, I actually look pretty normal, other than tired.
My long, silver hair covers up my incision and the 1″x3″ strip of hair shaved off the back of my head.
I only look scary if you see the five-day old incision. I will post a picture at the very end of the post, so don’t scroll all the way down if that sort of thing is upsetting to you.
The surgery was to correct a Chiari malformation, which is when the brain tonsils slip down into the top of the spinal column and disrupt the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. When I manage to get a proper post done about it, I’ll come back and link it here.
I must say that Dr. Petra Klinge of Brown University Health in Providence, RI and her whole team were amazing in my care. I was only in the hospital for two nights and am now resting at an Airbnb in Providence until I can have my post-op visit on 11/6. Spouse B is taking very good care of me!
Sometimes, when people want to belittle someone’s accomplishments, they say, “Well, it’s not brain surgery.”
Today, I am actually having brain surgery for Chiari malformation. It only involves the brain tonsils, though, and cutting off a bit of the skull to make room for the tonsils to have a place to be that is not pushing down into the spinal column. They will put in a patch in the dura, the membrane around the brain, to make room.
The photo is of a stuffed and smily brain that daughter T gave me. It is very cute!
I’ve scheduled this to post and am not sure when I will post next. Rest assured, though, that my neurosurgeon specializes in this type of surgery so I am in the best possible hands.
Update on Oct. 29: I was only in the hospital for two nights and am now resting and recuperating at our AirBnB. My follow-up is on Nov. 6 and then home on the 6th or 7th depending on my tolerance for long car rides. Thanks, Everyone, for thinking of me at this time.
Many thanks to the members of the Boiler House Poets Collective ’26 for a wonderful residency at the Studios at MASS MoCA and reading at the North Adams Public Library!
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/10/21/one-liner-wednesday-famous-last-thoughts/
(Joanne Corey reading with the Boiler House Poets Collective at the North Adams (MA) Public Library, October 17, 2026. Photo credit: Deborah Marshall)
Since Thursday, I have been at the Boiler House Poets Collective’s annual residency at the Studios at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).
If you look back through my archive, you will find many, many posts that I made during residencies, in most years, daily, going all the way back to the residency which formed the basis for BHPC in November, 2015. The subsequent resdiencies have been in September or October.
I’m pleased to say that our reading on Saturday at the North Adams Public Library was great. We read in alphabetical order, so I was first, which I like because I then get to relax and enjoy everyone else’s work. With ten poets, we each do a 5-minute sampler of our work, so there is lots of variety for the audience. We had an unusually lively question and answer session after the reading and time for snacks and conversation.
Admittedly, I am low on energy this year, as I await surgery for Chiari malformation later this month. (Link has a lot of good information for Chiari in people with hEDS like me but, please, ignore the pitch for the practice at the end.) My focus had been to get through the reading, and I met that goal. I have tried to do a bit more since, like visiting the Museum, but I pushed a little too hard and am now having to pull back and rest more. I regret missing most of our workshopping sessions this residency but I hope that, next year, I’ll be in better shape to participate more fully.
I’m very grateful to my fellow Boiler House Poets Collective members for supporting me in my current, challenging circumstances and look forward to our future residencies together. Long live BHPC!
Binghamton NY area folks are cordially invited to the opening concert of the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton’s season featuring music by American composers on Sunday, October 18 at 3 PM at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church, Binghamton.
You are also invited to join in with Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/10/14/one-liner-wednesday-leafing/
North Adams, MA folks are cordially invited to the Boiler House Poets Collective reading at the North Adams Public Library on Saturday, October 17 at 11:00 AM with reading first, followed by Q&A, book sales and signing, refreshments, and conversation.
You are also invited to join in with Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/10/14/one-liner-wednesday-leafing/
Vote for Democracy #61
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
There have been so many outrageous horrors from the Trump administration that it has been impossible to chronicle and comment on them all, but one of the latest ones has sparked a lot of public discussion, so I wanted to post about it.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the execution of Nidal Hasan, who was found guilty in the shooting at Fort Hood in 2009 by a military tribunal, would be livestreamed for the public. The plan is that Hasan will be executed by military firing squad at Fort Hood on Dec. 3rd. Adding to the horror is that fact that Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down, a result of the police response to the shooting, and uses a wheelchair.
I have opposed the death penalty since I was a child on moral grounds and my church and many other faith-based and human rights groups also publicly oppose it as an affront to human dignity. It has been shown not to be a deterrent to crime. There is also the fear that, because Hasan was motivated by Muslim radicalization, Islamist extremist groups would use his public execution as a rallying point to recruit more members and carry out attacks.
We also should not look at suffering, pain, and death as entertainment. Part of the reason that there have not been public executions in the United States since the 1930s was that they sometimes turned into public spectacle, echoing history such as the torture and killings in the Roman Coliseum. Nearly all countries in the world have outlawed capital punishment and the few that do allow it usually keep it out of public view. Most videos of people being executed in recent times are of terrorist groups killing their hostages.
I believe that death sentences should be commuted to life in prison. The community is protected and the state does not itself commit murder, interrupting the cycle of violence and recognizing human dignity. There will probably be legal action to block the livestreaming of the execution and also to delay it. It is even more complicated than other death penalty cases because it came through the military rather than civil court system. Perhaps, the administration will listen to the outcry and change their plans.
We can hope.
In honor of Banned Books Week, I’m sharing a poem I wrote that involves banned books. It was originally published by Rat’s Ass Review in their Fall-Winter 2022 issue.
THE BANNED BOOKMOBILE
Do you need a special license to drive
a bus of books? Children
are more fragile; books,
more combustible.
Children’s minds need fire,
need those books to start a blaze.
How else to know that a pair of penguin
dads can raise a chick?
That witches and wizards can be evil
or good or somewhere in the flawed between?
That even the bluest eye cannot
confer beauty and love?
That it’s a sin to kill
a mockingbird?
