Doing Life in Lavender

Hello again wonderful people! Today I wanted to talk about independence which is something I’ve talked about before. This time though, it will be the sole focus of my ramble. The feeling of not being as independent as I would like to be is something I have struggled with continuously as I have grown up, and as I get older it has only gotten worse. Any young child is pretty much totally dependent on grown-ups to help them through life, whether they have epilepsy or not. This meant that when I was little, I really didn’t notice too much difference between myself and my peers. There was little difference apart from me being the only kid in my swimming class to need 1:1 supervision in the water. As a child I lacked independence anyway, so my epilepsy didn’t change much. This was helped along by the fact that my parents were determined for me to have as “normal” a life as possible. Things only started getting more complicated as I got older and I started sticking out like a sore thumb. Wh...

Hello again! A few days ago I sat down with my amazing mum and had a conversation about what it was like to be the parent of a child with a complex neurological condition. Specifically me. During this interview, we discuss what it was like being my mum during a weird and complicated diagnosis, managing things like school, how my brothers were told I had epilepsy as well as a fair bit more!  This was not a conversation that would normally happen so it was really nice to sit down with her and try and get some of her perspective on certain things as well as her insights, people who have helped her the most and things that she has learned.  My mum decided that she didn't want to be filmed so for the most part this is entirely audio. I hope that's ok! However, because we are muppets, we didn't realise until after recording that we had used lots of people's names when we shouldn't have done. Thus, every now and then, a message will appear on the screen for clarification o...

Hello again! I know this isn't what I usually do, and I might do another 'proper' blog on this topic in the future. However, I decided to do something a bit different and video an interview with my fiancé Michael about what it was like being in a relationship with someone with epilepsy, and how he thought my epilepsy had impacted our relationship.  This was all done in one take and I've never filmed a video like this before so please be gentle! There might be some slightly confusing moments so please let me know if you need any clarification at all on anything that I've said.

Hi again! Today I wanted to share with you just a bit about how my family has managed my epilepsy. I'm really fortunate in that my experience of family and epilepsy has been a really positive one and I know that isn't always the case. With that in mind, I just wanted to give a disclaimer that I am only talking from my own personal experience. I am incredibly blessed that God gave me a really supportive family. Both my parents, my two older brothers and more extended family have been amazing in helping me accomplish anything I choose and encouraging me. This is probably largely due to my parents, deciding when I was diagnosed that my epilepsy would never hold us back from anything we wanted to do as a family and I think this decision shaped me significantly. Helped along by my mum's nursing background and sheer determination, there was always an answer for everything. Things might need to be adjusted along the way, but she can figure out a way to make just about anything saf...