LIVING ALONE & STARTING YOUTUBE

I feel as though I haven't been very active on social media for a long time. I've been here and there but all in all not really there if you get my drift.

Some of you may be aware that I have had a very busy schedule for the past few months. Not only did I WIN my Personal independence tribunal, OHH and the most exciting news.. I moved into my own house!

Although at first, yes it was daunting thinking that I was going to be living alone whilst trying to control my seizures but I now have my own social worker who has been amazing. Not only has she put my mind at ease by installing a Telecare system into my home but she has made me aware of all of the other help I can get!

I've been living alone now for nearing on 3 months, I love it! Yes somedays I do feel a bit down due to my depression but that's when I take myself out of that situation and go and see my friends or family or even take my camera out on a little photography trip all whilst getting a breath of fresh air. Or I'll take those emotions and go to the gym where I have been able to release all of the bad and sad and really focus my energy on me, on creating a better, healthy and more self confident me.

I started YOUTUBE! yes you read right I uploaded my first video yesterday and I'm over the moon with the responses I've been receiving from family, friends and fellow epileptics. I'm already prepping to film another video which will be a little different but I won't just be posting videos based on epilepsy but I'll be posting haul videos, fitness, lifestyle, cooking etc. I'm open to suggestions :)
For now here is my first video I hope you all like it.

People will soon call me the crazy cat lady

Soon enough people will call me the crazy cat lady. But firstly I'm not crazy and secondly my cats will call me mum. I have had several cats in my lifetime and all were as beautiful as the next, I would never replace any of them. Unfortunately those have passed on and my mum gave in and got another one. 

What's different this time? we got a rescue cat!

Meet Freya! She's a 3 year old short haired domestic cat, ginger in colour. We don't know much about where she came from but what we do know is that she is a beautiful loving cat with a lovely temperament. She loves having lots of cuddles and plenty of attention. She is pretty small considering how old she is and is definitely still a kitten at heart.  

We only brought her home today but I can tell already she is going to light up ours lives and really bring me comfort if I'm feeling low. I mean she has made me feel happier already! She is absolutely gorgeous and she was born in September too! Same month as me! It's like we were meant to be together. AHA. 

Oh and I have just found out that she is just as crazy as I am! She has been running across my keyboard for the past 5 minutes trying to write this blog post for me. 

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.

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.