A "Horizontal Day".

Well today was well and truly a "horizontal day" as I like to call them. No balance whatsoever just wooziness, increased head pain and general yuck feelings as soon as I go to stand. I've also been extremely tired and kept drifting off into really deep sleeps during the day. My housemates are brilliant when I get poorly, they turn into little nurses (despite them training to be doctors!) it's lovely to have such caring people around me, I don't know what I would do without them. I feel a little better this evening though as my balance isn't so bad but I'm definitely not right yet. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

I thought I'd post a photo I took a while ago when I got some new bracelets through the post from Ebay. They're lovely little alternatives to my usual medic aware bracelet. 

Best get some more sleep and hopefully wake up with the ability to stand up properly tomorrow.

Chest infection conquered.

Thanks to some antibiotics I'm rid of my chest infection yaaaaaaaay! I feel SO much better... well back to my normal state of health which isn't exactly brilliant but I have so much energy compared to the last week :) 

My mum's farm has flooded in lots of places due to flash flooding in the area I was supposed to be heading home but the train lines around here are also flooded so I've decided to stay at least another day :). We've been out in the mud and pouring rain this morning moving horses around and re-homing the sheep in different fields, it's hard work in this miserable weather but I'm glad to be able to help properly, I really don't like being the one that can't help out as much!  

I'm sitting now just taking it easy and drying off for a couple of hours with a cat fast asleep on either side and a nice cup of coffee (decaf of course!). The rain has slowed down for a while at the moment but who knows how ling that will last... 

Soaring Temperature

I'm visiting my mum at the moment but unfortunately I'm sitting here whilst unable to sleep going round and round in circles on the internet. I caught a cold from my housemate about 4/5 days ago but now it's turning nasty. I have a temperature nicely bubbling away and my head, on top of the usual pain, is screaming at me every time I cough or sneeze. Last night (so I'm told) my speech was beginning to slur and I was massively struggling to find the right words and stopping altogether along with developing an even deeper shade of pale grey on numerous occasions... not good. 

A trip to a doctor was in order this morning  they confirmed the temperature, told me to keep taking all my usual pain and seizure meds, try to rest as much as possible and prescribed Antibiotics. I can feel it down in my chest now which worries me but hopefully the antibiotics do their trick soon as illness and Epilepsy DO NOT MIX!!! I just have to watch how everything goes with a close eye with the help from my family and rescue meds. 

I'm sitting it out at home for and hopefully that's where I will stay.. I really don't want to see any hospitals for now!! 

Emergency supply of meds/sleep.

Well yesterday was interesting...

Friday night I was busy filling up my tablet reminder box and noticed that I had forgotten to ask for my next supply of 250mg Keppra tablets. I've never had to ask for them before as this was the first time I had run out since the hospital increased my dose last time I was admitted. I only had enough to last until this morning (Sunday) so had to find a pharmacy that would supply my some to tide me over until next Wednesday as I'm off to my mums. Now there were a couple of problems... One being that, because I have never had to ask for them since being in hospital, I didn't have a repeat prescription and Two being that my usual pharmacy doesn't open on a Saturday. This meant that I had to find a pharmacy that would take me on as an emergency patient and without any sort of prescription. IT TOOK FOREVER. All I had was the old box the pills came in from the hospital with my details on. Four pharmacies after my first attempt I fell upon the golden 250mg Keppra tablets, but now I had another problem... It taken me so long and I had had to walk a long way whilst in a lot of stress... so now I was exhausted. It would have seemed like nothing to some people but it just took every ounce of energy away from me. While waiting for the pharmacist to come and see me, which thankfully didn't take long as it was very quite, I felt like all my pills had taken effect all at once and could feel my energy just seeping away. Once we were in the consultation room I explained my situation and to my relief she said she could help me out and knew that they had the tablets in stock. So she left the room to go and prepare my medicine and input my details onto the system etc. The next thing I know I'm being woken up by a strange woman in a room I didn't recognise, my sleepy confusion soon cleared though and I realised it was the pharmacist and I was slumped over the little table in the consultation room! I could not believe I had actually fallen sounds asleep... after I'd properly woken up she explained that she had come back with my meds but found me asleep so left me for another 20 minutes! 

That nap made such a huge difference though as well as the relief I finally had my supply of Keppra up to date. So now I can hop on the train in the morning up to my mums and chill out on the farm for a little while and I even get to one of my rarely seen sisters for a few days too :) 

Volunteering begins.

I started my new volunteering position at an arts centre yesterday evening. To be honest I was really nervous but it turns out I had absolutely no reason to be. Everyone was so lovely and chatty :) I had a tour of the building (most of which I know already because I've been there so many times!) there's a theatre, gallery, dance studio's, two cinema's one 120 seat one and one of a much more intimate size, both are really comfy and presented beautifully not like the big branded places! There's also a big cafe bar area which makes for a brilliant place to socialise. The most fascinating place I got to see though was one of the projection booths!!!! Seriously amazing!! After my little tour I was told what to do and that was that ready to go!

This was the film I was ushering... Berberian Sound Studio

It was brilliant, very intense and mind boggling, as soon as the film finished, while I was waiting at the door for the viewers to leave, other members of staff came over to ask what the film was like because they'd heard so much about it but hadn't had the chance to see it, I couldn't really give them a straight answer because I myself wasn't completely sure what I had just experienced... It was a hardcore film to start my time at Chapter with and so I felt I had to share! 

Officially a Graduate.

It finally happened. Four years after starting university I have dressed in my mortarboard and gown, walked across the stage and doffed my cap.

After being diagnosed with Epilepsy just a couple of weeks after starting my third and final year of my degree I have to be honest and say there were certainly times where I never thought it would happen. This was especially true when I had to suspend my studies over half way through my final year because things got so bad there was no way I could carry on studying. After restarting my final year in September and despite it being VERY hard a lot of the time with an unbelievable amount of support that I am truly thankful for, I can officially say I am a Graduate.  It's the biggest sense of accomplishment I've ever felt and it feels amazing. 

Now excuse the posy photographs it's not my usual thing but I wanted to make the very most of my day!

It really was a lovely day and the best thing was being able to spend it with my friends and family. A friend who I studied with originally and who graduated last year travelled a long way to be there, even brought her mortar board so we could wear them together as originally intended! 

x 

18 pills a day.

Since getting really poorly a few weeks ago and spending time in hospital I've now been put on even more medication. So I'm now taking a lovely 18 tablets a day, luckily this number has dropped from 26 a day as I was taking paracetamol with the concoction but I had to stop taking it because it would soon start to damage my liver. 

This little handful is my morning dose.

First there was a increase in my seizure medicine Keppra from 2000mgs a day to 2500mgs a day in order to stop me seizing so much at the time, these are the large white and small blue tablets. The yellow tablets are Gabapentin a neuropathic painkiller that was once used as an anti-epileptic medicine here in the UK but is no longer used for that reason (I'm pretty sure it's still in use as an anti-epileptic elsewhere though). It has helped with the pain but not entirely. The pink tablet is Ibuprofen to help with the pain and any inflammation that occurs, the small white round tablet is Domperidon an anti-sickness medicine to take away the nausea and sickness (I can't eat without it) and finally the brown tablet is my other seizure med Vimpat. 

I take the painkillers and anti-sickness 3 times a day and seizure meds twice. I'm on close to maximum amounts if not the maximum amount I can take for my weight so I'm pretty dosed up and definitely feeling the effect. Tiredness, lack of physical energy, memory and speech problems being the worst. Of course I have to remember that to some people 18 pills is nothing and hand on heart, I feel for them.

Do they work? Short answer no. BUT the Gabapentin and Ibuprofen have lowered the extreme pain I was in a few weeks ago, just not entirely. I still have seizures (what a surprise). However the anti-sickness is working if I take it away the nausea sweeps right back in and the prospect of eating just goes straight out the window. 

Anywho I just have to carry on life as it is, slowly but surely plodding along...

Yet again life has taken over!!!

Some free time to rest over the weekend should leave me with time to post some exciting life events from recently.

X