Sunday, 26 January 2014

Something Random: all I love right now

So you've heard about me and my medical life so I thought I'd give this blog the personal touch and share some of the amazing things I've brought recently :) 

Firstly, is my new despicable me phone case. I love minions :) imported from Hong Kong thanks to amazon :)

My second thing to share with you is more minions. My nan knitted me a minion for Christmas the one on the left and the one on the right is called Dave and was brought for me by someone very special to me after I got my COPD diagnosis and was feeling down in the dumps. Dave goes on lots of adventures with me.

At the moment I am reading this book. I'm studying for a degree in education and feel it is very sad that  things have to get this bad just so girls can go to school. 

This is my favourite thing to wear right now. It goes nicely over a long sleeve top and set me back a whole £8 from Asda. So many people compliment me on it. Not bad for a bargain 

My final share is for a classic that never gets old. I absolutely love Mary Popping and after being take to see Saving Mr Banks as a per hospital appointment treat I realised I didn't have the DVD. So I brought it :)



Xxxx 



Sunday, 19 January 2014

My busy week

Despite my plan to be good and update this blog on a regular basis this week has been very busy. 

This week was exam week at university and I had two assessed group presentations. I am studying for a degree in Education and pick modules in the areas of special educational needs and early years education. One of my presentation was about tackling the issue of NEETS and the second was about including children with special needs in PSHE teaching. 

This week I also had an echocardiogram which is an ultra scan of the heart. It is advertised to be a painless procedure, it is painless just uncomfortable, I was left with some bruising. To have this done you have to lie on your left side for about 30mins. The ultra sound jelly is a freezing though. I was very nervous that something could be wrong with my heart and was disappointed they couldn't tell me anything after especially when my next appointment with my consultant isn't until march. But I guess they would phone me if there is a problem. 

I have also been to work, I work at an inclusive day nursery, a job I absolutely love. It's so reward and i always go home with something to smile about. 

Xxx 



Sunday, 12 January 2014

My Journey to date

I was born in August 1991. A healthy baby weighing 7pound 7. I had a pretty normal childhood despite having epilepsy and dyslexia. I was bright and enjoyed school and playing outside. Growing up I didn't really have any signs of being particularly poorly. I had my first operation when I was 12 to have my tonsils taken out but that was the extent of medical interventions. 

Through out my child hood I was a very active child taking part in dance, netball, taekwondo, ice dancing and enjoyed going to the local swimming pool. At the age of 16 I found my love for ballroom dancing and competed at regional and national level. 

At the age of 18 (2010) I was enjoying my summer break after a long first year of university studying for a degree in social work. A degree which i did not finish. I had booked a holiday with my dancing friends and was very excited. 2 days before this holiday I agreed to meet an old friend from way back in London. 

It was up on arriving in London that I realised something was wrong. I was in so much pain I could hardly concentrate. Pains in my chest so bad I thought I was going to die. I stopped in a hotel to catch my breath but they quickly saw I needed more then a sit down and phoned 999. I was blue lighted to the local hospital where after 4 hours I was diagnosed with air outside my lung on the left side. This was aspirated to relief the pressure. For those you who don't know that this, I had a local anesthetic and a needle was passed between my ribs to syringe the air out. The doctors said that this kind of injury can occur in active people so a fall while Ice skating or a lift while dancing could be the source of my problem and Itwas unlikely to ever happen again. 

However 9 days later it did happen again, I had been resting as advised by the doctor and was actually asleep on the sofa when the pain struck. This time I was blue lighted to my local hospital where they found my right lung was barely visible on the X-ray and my left lung had a small collection of air outside it. Despite this my oxygen was 99%. After a 6 hour precedure a chest drain was put into my right side to slowly ( over 5 days) release the air in my chest allowing my lung to reinflate. This is an uncomfortable process.

A specialist for the heart and lung research centre heard about me and felt there something more to this story then dancer damage and insisted I was sent for a CT scan. This found major irregularities in my lung wall structure and part of my lung was completely exposed. So after 6 weeks healing time, feeling very poorly and sleepy I was sent to Oxford from my home town of Basingstoke to have pironeering surgery to join my lung to the pulural lining (I will leave out the details in case your reading this eating your dinner) to protect the lungs fragile surface. Following this i was told in 6 months it would be like it never happened,

But this wasn't the case. I never returned to normality and in 2012 I began to notice that things were not how they should be, I was struggling a bit and found myself prone to infection. This was passed off as post operation scarring pain and I would improve. I finally got the attention of my GP in sept 2013 when I report coughing up blood and now finding walking and going upstairs very difficult. I Was referred to a local consultant and Lung function tests showed this was because I had lung disease which was impacting on my small airways.

I am currently waiting for a scan of heart to check for damage. I take an inhaler everyday and have been using my blue badge more. I am learning to listen to my body and learn my limits. I'm not perfect but I'm getting there 

Xxx 




Saturday, 11 January 2014

Hello :)

Hello 

Thank you for reading my blog. My name is Marti, I'm 22 and was diagnosed with chronic lung disease or COPD in nov 2013. I also have epilepsy, a high risk of lung collapse, complex migraines and dyslexia. Over the years I have learnt to be proud of my disability and be happy to be different. 

When I was diagnosed with COPD I was shocked and scared. I wanted to know what life is like for a young person with COPD but couldn't find much. I used to be a competitive ballroom and Latin dancer, I lived to dance and was very active before I was poorly so this felt like a death sentence.

This blog aims to show what life is like for me and that life carries on even with this diagnosis. I will share the good, the bad and all in between with some randoms thrown in too

Please feel free to contact me I hope to learn some about this condition and am open to advice and ideas 

Xx