IONM4Life

IONM4Life

Adventures in Neuromonitoring

Episodes

  1. 25/05/2023

    Bakole Murtala

    “We are Neurodiagnostic professionals We solve problems you don’t know you have With waves you can’t understand.” -Bankole Murtala, R.EEG.T, scientist, poet Bankole Murtala works as a scientist and EEG technologist in Lagos, Nigeria. Bankole recently joined us on the IONM4LIFE: Adventures in Neuromonitoring podcast to talk about his work with epilepsy patients and his outreach initiative, The Epilepsy Ambassadors Initiative. Bankole also read some original works of poetry. “It’s Electrifying!” was originally posted on the ASET Central discussion board in honor of Neurodiagnostic Week 2023. “Still I Rise” is a poem Bankole is still working on, one that captures the spirit of diagnosing, treating, and living with epilepsy. Both are inspiring works. Full text for each work listed below. Please note that Bankole Murtala is the original author and these works were reproduced here with his permission. Its Electrifying! Not Electrocuting Procedural, all gains no pain We don’t need to see you fall To suggest areas of concern Sometimes we do see the epilepsy Not neccessarily the seizure We use our brain to monitor yours Its Electrifying! And physiological, With potentials from cell bodies To axon terminals and dendrites Over billions of neurons on call And foot soldiers, the neurotransmitters Your account with us, an account we give Because your brain matters Its Electrifying! Yet diagnosed symptoms and diseases Your choice of medication Sometimes becaons on our effort Oh! The tranquilizing drug of gradualism; They still need tobe trialed Count on us Having EEG is safe, easy and painless Its Electrifying! In all ramifications The breaking of a wave Can not explain the whole sea Nor does a single robin Herald the spring A single spike in a patient With unusual spells However, can speak a volume More than the most detailed MRI We are Neurodiagnostic Professionals We solve problems you don’t know you have With waves you can’t understand The brain function Is our business Alas, it’s electrifying. Still I Rise In the journey of life Epilepsy is not a full stop But a comma, Why label a future superstar? I slipped and somebody sees a terrible fall That is a fact, no doubt A fall is a fall But what is bad when my kissing the dust allows me an opportunity to feel the soil And understand the terrain I will definitely run faster any other time I shall fear no fall anymore A fall is no fall I am grateful for my little falls For I can now climb the tallest of mountains with ease My seizure, a thing of the past Arrested to halt Antiepileptic drugs to the rescue I was not tutored in the art of self-doubt What a lesson it would have been I was not made to self-reject; What a tormenting experience it would have been I was not impelled to self-hate; What a vehement rejection I would have shown I was not nature to vulnerable failure; What an evil way that would have been I was not nurtured to hold down to the earth; No chain will ever bind me I fail and learn again I fall and rise again I retreat and charge again No matter the nature of the trip I shall not slip No matter the trouble I shall not be troubled Even when I fall and fail My mind is on success I reject the thought of failure and defeat Once the game is still on Epilepsy is the future loser When I leave for eternity Epilepsy is still the loser For dead bodies do not convulse

    23 min

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Adventures in Neuromonitoring