“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!
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
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
Yet diagnosed symptoms and diseases
Your choice of medication
Sometimes becaons on our effort
The tranquilizing drug of gradualism;
They still need tobe trialed
Having EEG is safe, easy and painless
Can not explain the whole sea
A single spike in a patient
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
Still I Rise
Epilepsy is not a full stop
Why label a future superstar?
I slipped and somebody sees a terrible 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
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
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 retreat and charge again
No matter the nature of the trip
Even when I fall and fail
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
