After what might seem to be a silly accident involving a trampoline and a 41-year-old woman, KC Martin-Stone ended up with a brain injury. She knew something was wrong, but did the doctors listen? ‘Migraine,’ one said. ‘Try taking it easy,’ another said. Too often this is the case with women seeking medical treatment, but in this instance, the much-overused ‘It’s all in your head’ was dangerously spot-on. A much-needed inclusion to the Fringe guide, Have You Tried Brain Surgery is a light-hearted, humorous look at the history of medicine and the problem with our health system today, where the balance between knowledge and power is difficult to get right when we too easily view doctors as gods. Martin-Stone, a forensic osteo-archaeologist, recounts fascinating tales related to her profession and current condition, and questions whether people were treated better a hundred, even four-thousand years ago. Making the most of what you’ve got is usually a good rule, perhaps why the housekeeping section of the show was particularly affective: this might happen, and if this happens then this will happen because this is what my disability does to me and this is what you might see – it’s getting the basics out of the way while ensuring the audience is up for being included in the accessibility plans, and as needed as the intro was, it was also an excellent starting point for her story. But the two large Rubik’s cubes that donned the stage remained a mystery, and the bed there, in case she needed it, also sat unused, which is wonderful for health reasons, but questionable for presentation. Both seemed like props that could’ve heightened the puzzle and drama of diagnosis or cognitivity or the way life changes when one acquires a serious medical condition. Martin-Stone relied only on her monologue, and judging by the intimate crowd in Gluttony’s Piglet, who laughed in the right places and shouted out words of recognition, it might have been enough. After the show, as Martin-Stone stood outside the venue and greeted her audience, there were plenty of thanks and shared stories, because this is a show about being seen. For anyone who lives with chronic illness, be it as lived experience or as a family member or carer of someone with lived experience, this one’s for you.