A turn of events

I thought I had everything under control for a while, but I was wrong, clearly. A couple weekends ago ended up with me being taken to hospital following several tonic clonic seizures that had taken place on the kitchen floor. Thankfully I had no serious injuries, only bruising and a nasty looking blood clot in my arm. 

I know exactly why they occurred on that day. I had received a letter through the post on the Saturday morning in regards to my appeal for PIP (Personal independence payment), I got stressed out straight away as anyone in my situation would have.

I'm so lucky my sister was at home when it happened, she had never seen me have a seizure before so as you can imagine she was in a complete state as I've been told. She rang my mum who was back home within 5 minutes, by which time I was still fitting in my second by this point. My mum rang 999, and ambulance and a paramedic were sent out and were there within 5 minutes. Whilst my mum was on the phone I went into a third seizure. By this point I must have been going for 20 minutes or possibly longer I have no idea. The paramedic and ambulance crew managed to bring me round but I was taken straight off to the hospital for blood tests, tests, checks on my vitals then closely monitored for a while until they were happy for me to go home and fully recover.

Since then I have been to see my GP for a follow up to make sure I was recovering well as well as discussing the likely change with my medication and dosages. My Dr also prescribed me with emergency medication, finally..

For some reason I never knew about emergency medication and none of my doctors had never mentioned them either. Considering I've had some extremely serious occurrences and my tonic clonic seizures have always lasted 10 minutes or more the emergency medication would have be pretty handy. But I guess at least I have it now.

Now it's time to look further into the support, equipment and any resources that may benefit me in the long run. Let's turn my negative experiences into something positive. Instead of dwelling on the past I shall do nothing except looking to the future and keeping positive always.

A downward spiral

A downward spiral//

My experience working with the Deaf community was amazing it was so fulfilling and rewarding knowing that the work we were doing was really being appreciated by all. And what's more I was doing it with some awesome people, not only were they my co-volunteers and counter parts but they were my friends, well most of them were.. But I'm not gonna get into that. 

So with only 3 weeks left of the programme I spent one of those weeks in hospital and the following two back in the UK recovering. Basically I was taken into hospital with a high temperature and excruciating lower back pain, which actually turned out to be some sort of virus that I'd caught out there. So I went through into A&E where I had Valium injected straight into my blood stream for the back pain which helped tremendously. Shortly after I had a seizure and was sedated, that week in hospital was a blur to say the least but overall I had 8 tonic clonic seizures within 5 days? I was so drained it was stupid. I can't even remember how long I was in there for. A couple days after being discharged from the hospital I was flown home accompanied by a lovely Thai doctor in 1st class, all thanks to AXA insurance and I didn't really get the chance to experience 1st class fully due to being asleep the majority of the way.

It was in the Philippines that the doctors increased my medications, put me on sleeping tablets along with a load of other tablets.

I'm not gonna get into the whole friendship deal because like I have always said ''Friends come and go but family is forever''. 

When I had fully recovered, I saw my doctor and was referred back to the hospital to see yet another neurologist, so only time could tell what's was next on the health cards for me. Along with that I started the application process to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and to get a free bus pass as I was and still am unable to drive due to my epilepsy. 

The job hunt began//

For some reason job hunting seemed so much more difficult than it used to, I mean I left Next in November 2014 in preparation for my volunteering adventure so really I had only been unemployed since my return from Cebu which was late March and I had applied for countless jobs including back at Next but in different stores and just kept on being turned down. I had never been turned down for a job until then. It was really starting to take a toll on me and my motivation, so I had no other choice than to sign on with the Job centre..

It was a first experience for me and one that I didn't intend on being in for long. Never in my life had I had to sign on, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I'd not even had my first payment and I had pretty much got a job in the bag! :D Happy Days!! I had an hour trial run on a Wednesday then I whether the job is for me or not.

I swear forms are the bane of my existence, I have lost count how many forms and application forms I've had to fill out. 

Since leaving that job I've had one other employment which ended March 2016 due to health reasons and the company. I won't name the company but it was an energy company, not a place I would ever go back to. Since then I moved back in with my mum and siblings and have been signed off from working until my epilepsy and depression are under control.

In my next post I'll be discussing my experience so far with the applications of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Earning support allowance (ESA).

How my story begins

So this is how it all began..

It was 2010, I was in my 2nd year of college studying to gain a national diploma in art & design. Like any 18 year old I went to a house party, for someone who has never been much of a drinker I went anyway to hang out with all my friends and have a good time instead of doing what most of us should have been doing 'Coursework'. 

I was tired anyway so by 11pm and having had only 2 glasses of cider I decided to go upstairs to get some sleep whilst the other stayed up drinking. I woke at about 2am desperately needing a drink of water so carried myself downstairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Next thing I know I felt myself hit the floor, from there I had no recollection of what happened. All I know is that I didn't go to hospital. When I woke up in the morning I was in a lot of pain, sore and achey. My friend was there when I woke with a glass of water, she told me everything that happened.

The obvious thing now was to go to the doctors to get checked out and explain what had happened. Other than my blood pressure being quite high the doctors still wanted to have me the consultant at my local hospital to do a couple of tests. After concluding those test the consultant in a&e told me there was nothing wrong with me and that I had probably just fainted. I wasn't happy with that outcome, they didn't even look into it but there wasn't anything I could say or do so carried on with my college studies as normal.

It wasn't until I had graduated from college and begun university at Bournemouth that I had another seizure, even worse than before. I was in halls of residence at the time luckily my friend was next door and heard what happened and literally came to my rescue, calling the ambulance and getting our uni warden. I was admitted into hospital.. and the rest is self explanatory.

A week or 2 later I went back to the hospital to undergo and EEG, ECG and an MRI.. a few days later I took yet another trip to the hospital to see my neurologist who diagnosed me with epilepsy!  

I started medication almost immediately, 100mg Lamotrigine twice daily.

And that's how it all started for me.