Welcome To My Blog...

This blog follows my journey of 2 different cochlear implants and my condition: Multiple mitochondrial DNA deletions I have started this blog 15 yrs too late but ill try my best to fit it all in! I have packed a lot of medical jargon into my life since I was 8.

There has been happiness and tears but I've come through it all with my family and my friends.I'm profoundly deaf as a result of a condition called Multiple mitochondrial DNA deletions or mitochondrial disease RRM2B as my professor Sir Dough Turnbull calls it! I have had since birth but I didn't find out this til I was 19. I have had 2 cochlear implants (at the age of 8 and then i lost the 1st cochlear implant in my right ear after 7 years due to a bad, accruing ear infection (which I couldnt fight off because of my mitochondrial condition) at the age of 15 and had a 2nd one implanted in my left ear that same year which I have now.

My Story


7 March 2012

mental hospital..

i have done a huge 360 on staying in my room al day with no sleep to sleeping well again i had been awake for a week when they sectioned me to  a mental hospital and they werent particulary nice in there! i was sectioned because of my not coming downstairs and staying in my room all day with no tv on and no cochlear implant on. This is the first time ive talked about this on my blog because it was quite personal. i went through  depressive state because of my conditon and isolation and had no sleep for a month and i started staying in my room with no tv on and no cochlear on. M y mum threatened to sell the laptop or send my cochlear implant back to cochlear centre if i didnt use them!!
i was sectioned by doc and sent to a mental hospital which was a horrible experience. i was supposed to be in 28 days but i was in for a week because it wasnt the right place for me. They had no clue on how to handle my cochlear implant and my peg feed. i had to show them how to use it. My room wasnt so bad it had an elecric bed with en suite which i asked for because of my conditon. My parents brought in a tv to watch not that i watched it, i was too busy asking docs or ppl o in night  shift to do my medication on time which wasnt easy because it was a different person all the time.

It wasnt a nice experience in there  beccause i was treated appallinly. Not only did they know how to sort my feed out they had to bathe me in the shower which was pretty embarrasing and i  had the experience of a lady just not caring about me in the shower and just basically putting me in the shower and drying my hair. She had no bedside manner at all! i was basically thrown around like a rag doll!  When i went for walkabouts i saw people who were much mentally ill than me and i didnt think i should be in that situation.
There was a day where they took me to the play room where there was snooker or arts n crafts and when my cochlear implant low battery beep went off.  I begged the lady who took me there to take me back to my room so i could change my battery but she refused. She eventally took me back to my room after 5 mins of pleading with her. I came out of that mental hospital stronger and glad to see the back of it and back with my parents and brother and back to home comforts. They have since apoligized for the section saying it wasnt the right place for me to get better. instead that place was at home with my family. I have since got better and sleeping through the night and even staying up late using my laptop again and using my phone with gwerty board on it.
i am now helping mito people and cohchlear implant people with their experiences. Everyone of them is different but we suffer in the same way. Im glad to have an outlet to this on facebook where i can talk freely to ppl about my mito conditon and they wont judge me,  I am talking about htis because there might be other people in my situation who are depressed and alone. I;m sitll on anti depressants medicationn but I am in the process of being weaned off it which is a big step forward. I wouldnt have got through it without my parents support and visiting me in that horrible place. It was a familliar face. I hope that no one has to go through this situation and i know how easy it is to be isolated when you have an illness. Tbankfully i have a friend who comes every Thursdays and takes me out to places i want to go to or just stays in with me to watch a movie. Most ofmy friends work or at uni so i dont get to see them often but i talk to them a lot online.

2 comments:

Jennifer Bruno Conde said...

Oh my! I had no idea you were going through this terrible experience, Laura. Sending positive thoughts and love your way!

Www.lozsmedicsljourney.blogspot.co.uk said...

not many people do jenfier this is the first time ive spoke about it since it happened last yr. i was embarrassed and now i feel ready to talk abou it x