Update from Tim
Monday, December 8, 2025
Interdum, mala simpliciter fiunt.
The Latin phrase “Interdum, mala simpliciter fiunt” translates “Sometimes, bad things just happen”. I prefer the vulgar English translation, Shit happens.
This philosophical concept surfaced during our conversation with my neurologist Dr. Ahmed Hassan when he presented a working diagnosis explaining why my entire left side suddenly went numb resulting in bleeding between my brain and my skull.
CT scans and a thoroughly uncomfortable angiogram involving the insertion of a catheter into the groin, up through my body, followed by multiple injections of dye into the brain (causing me literally see lightning bolts that for sure were not actually there) allowing doctors to see what is going on in my skull and/or arteries and ruling out explanations such as a blood clot.
Since I wasn’t recently knocked on the head and showed no sign of a blood clot, a plausible remaining explanation is Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome (RCVS).
Dr. Google explains: “This condition features the unique property that the patient’s cerebral arteries spontaneously constrict and relax back and forth over a period of time without intervention and without clinical findings.
In other words, shit happens.
The good news is that the condition is reversible. Also, most patients affected by RCVS experience splitting headaches. I have thus far been spared this trauma.
And so, we watch and wait as the medical team and time itself reveals no other explanation.
The great philosopher and Theologian Thomas Aquinas points out that some things just are, requiring faith rather than complex philosophical justification. Faith transcends simple explanation.
The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen…”
Let’s light another Advent candle and give thanks for a likely hopeful outcome and the accompaniment of family, friends, professionals and a peace which passes all understanding.
Leave a Reply