by Yessenia Guglielmi | Apr 14, 2025 | article
I admit, I am very late at appreciating Bad Bunny. About 5 years too late. I’m also about 3 months late in offering my review of his new album, Debí Tomar Más Fotos, which was released this January 2025.
For those who don’t know, Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is a Puerto Rican artist known for blending reggaetón, Latin trap, and emotional lyricism. He’s become one of the most influential global artists of the last decade—pushing boundaries in music, fashion, and culture.
Hearing about Bad Bunny several years ago, I just wasn’t interested in Reggaeton. It wasn’t the kind of music I liked, I’m old school. Raised on the classics from my parents’ generation. El Gran Combo, Juan Gabriel, Rocio Durcal, Jerry Rivera, Tono Rosario, Marc Anthony, Elvis Crespo, etc. So why was I going to listen to this booty grinding, club music. The only club I go to these days is Costco.
Yet, I happened to catch **Bad Bunny’s recent performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk**.
📺 [Watch it here] https://youtu.be/ouuPSxE1hK4?feature=shared
🎧 [Listen to the full album on Spotify] https://open.spotify.com/album/5diBZ3L7jv3Sx1w7ybKcyt
I loved it! I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. His voice was soulful, his heartbreak was beautiful. It reminded me of those rhythms I had grown up with and my dad playing his **güiro**, listening to salsa from a big boom box. Way back, when salsa records had images of women in tiny bikinis and body parts.
It’s the mix of old and new—the fusion—that I really enjoy. The longing he invokes and the feeling of missing out. I think the album cover is also well done, just two empty plastic chairs in front of a palm tree. The title, *Debí Tomar Más Fotos* (*I should have taken more pictures*), is perfect. It relates so well to our current time.
It’s been a while since an album transported me through the past, present, and future. It leaves me with a feeling of the importance to enjoy, to capture these moments despite the hardships. There are photos we keep in our phone and there are ones we keep deep in our hearts.
Some of my favorites songs are:
**Perfumito Nuevo**,
**El Club**,
**Nuevayol**,
**KETU TeCre**—really the entire album is great.
I love that in his NPR performance Benito shares that his song *Lo Que Pasó en Hawaii* came to him in a dream. A kind of download, if you will—he had to wake up and write the whole song out before he could sleep again. Perhaps inspired by other forces to share with us all a powerful message.
The message is about **Puerto Rico** and **loss**. Loss of its people, loss of itself. Corruption. There’s a lot to heal. The risk of losing more. It’s sad, especially when you read about what’s happening there, the conditions people are coping with. An island still dealing with ongoing crisis.
by Yessenia Guglielmi | Apr 5, 2025 | article
The Dismissal of Women’s Symptoms in Healthcare
So, something that bothers me about our medical system is the amount of dismissiveness there is towards women. Especially if they have a mental health diagnosis or have had an episode of a panic attack. If you’ve had stress, if you’ve been through a change in your life, if you’re lactose intolerant, anything at all that can be disregarded generally is. I have the luxury as a therapist to actually listen to my patients. To spend an hour with them. So when my patients are brushed off by other providers, it stings. Especially when my work with them has been about listening to their bodies and attuning to themselves.
Perimenopause, Hormones, and Misdiagnosis
With more frequency I am working with women in perimenopause. I myself am in that transition and understand the varied symptoms that one contends with. Recently, Oprah did a special on menopause. While it was a great start to the conversation about this decade in our lives that affects us so profoundly, more is needed. In my solo practice alone, I have at least three patients who have, as part of their perimenopause journey, experienced seizures. Have all been dismissed multiple times by every single provider they shared their symptoms with and have gone undiagnosed for longer than they needed to. Have had to question their own reality over and over to fit what the medical provider tells them vs their own bodies.
Catamenial Epilepsy: A Real, Underdiagnosed Condition
We know that hormone fluctuations affect the brain. So why is the idea of a seizure so out of the realm of possibility for providers? Estrogen literally stimulates activity in the brain. According to EpsyHealth.com, one in twenty six people will develop epilepsy in their lifetime. Catamenial Epilepsy is real. This is a form of epilepsy that is affected by a woman’s menstrual cycle. This does not mean you are crazy or making up symptoms. If you are having any of these general symptoms, please find a provider that will listen to you.
What Seizures Can Look Like in Women
Seizure symptoms vary so please write down what you are experiencing. Mostly, people imagine falling to the floor and convulsing. While this can happen for many people, it can also be much more subtle. Triggers or signs ahead of time that a seizure is coming are also different for people. Many times I hear, after the fact from a patient, that a few hours before they had a seizure they were having sensory changes. It could be their vision, sense of smell, ringing in the ears, taste, other sounds. Some may have nausea or stomach discomfort, tingling or numbness in their body. Shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, headache, jittery or nervous feeling — the list can be extensive.
How to Document Symptoms and Advocate for Care
I urge patients to write down their experience. It takes time to help patients feel confident enough to share this with their neurologist or medical provider. I share this so that if a medical provider is reading this they will know how hard it is for a patient to come in with their list of symptoms and finally feel ready to share it. Please don’t dismiss them. Sometimes it’s taken months for a patient to acknowledge what’s happening to them and to have the courage to share it. If you can’t help them, then please refer to them rather than dismissing them.
Helpful Resources on Seizures and Hormones
Please see the links below to help you better identify symptoms and continue to share resources with one another on this important topic:
Understanding Your Hormones and Seizures – Epsy Health https://www.epsyhealth.com/seizure-epilepsy-blog/understanding-your-hormones-and-seizures
Epilepsy Foundation – Seizure & Epilepsy Information: https://www.epilepsy.com/
