what kind of medical research did you do when looking at Violet's condition?
That’s actually a really interesting story. When I was researching comas and head trauma, my strategy was to delve into what I already know from personal experience. A handful of family members of mine have suffered from concussions, at varying levels of severity. When my brother had his, he lost long-term memory of the last 3 months for about a day before it all came back. When my mom had hers, she couldn’t function for I don’t know how long it was, 6 months? My uncle got into a car accident two or three years ago now, and he’s only now becoming stable, having dealt with similar symptoms as my mom had, plus severe mood swings, depression, and a recent bipolar disorder diagnosis. (This is a completely fun-loving, humorous guy who was like, the least-likely person to be bipolar…) When I first plotted out Violet’s abuse, the concussion was as far as I’d planned, because that seemed like the obvious thing. She had her head smashed in. That’s not going to go without some sort of medical repercussion. My family members haven’t gone through that kind of head trauma without dealing with lasting concussion fall-out. So I felt that was important to address with Violet.
Beyond that though, when I sat down to research correlations between coma and concussions, I started seeing things like blood clots and convulsions coming up a lot. Which are two things I’ve also had first-hand experience with. When I was about 12, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. So I know very intimately the whole experience of having seizures, and how to deal with seizures. (And not-so-fun-fact: Sargent did the #1 thing you do not do to someone in the middle of a convulsion. You never move the body unless you’re removing choking hazards. That’s how you potentially break bones… But how would you expect Sarge to know that…?) Thankfully, I grew out of my epilepsy, after many many attempts at finding medication that worked. And I have the knowledge it’s given me to back it up…
And as to strokes… I don’t know how unbelievable strokes in kids and teens are to people, but I know for a fact they’re real. They don’t just happen to old people. My dad was in his early 40s when he had a stroke. No lasting effects or anything afterwards, it was like it didn’t even happen… So of course, deep down, that was at the back of my mind when I was considering Violet’s head trauma. But I was actually informed by something else. I have a cousin, who at 13 years old (this was 2 years ago now?), was sent to the hospital after collapsing in gym class. They found out pretty immediately that she’d had a stroke. They don’t know if the stroke was caused by being clonked in the head or if she collapsed because of the stroke itself, but needless to say, these things definitely happen to the youngin’s too. She had (has?) to go through weekly physiotherapy and psychiatry to manage her symptoms. After the first year or so, she had a genuine fear that she wasn’t going to make it to see her next birthday. This was largely because the clot came back around this time last year and doctors were saying there was little they could do about it but to put her on medication and keep an eye on it. So Violet’s blood clot was very much inspired by that. It’s just one of those horrific experiences, where you face someone’s mortality from so young. Feeling that complete helplessness as a family member, because you can do literally nothing was something I wanted to capture. (As far as I’m aware, she’s doing fine now, for the record. Violet maybe was not so lucky…)
So yeah, Violet’s condition was meticulously researched based on a lot of family experience all amalgamated into one hell-condition. It’s scary, thinking all that could come out of getting your head knocked around, but it happens.
Have questions about Moonage? Come ask! I’m happy to reflect!
