Help & support through my BRAIN injury journey

Hi there, my name is Cheryl, I'm 44 single mama of 3 boys and 3 cats and here's a little of my story..

After randomly feeling extremely unwell early hours of sat 14th June (my sight had gone, was experiencing an extreme vertigo , violently sick and I curled up until the docs opened Monday, aswel as my head now feeling litterally like it was away to break open with a horrible pressure I could feel building more second by second, I was sent home with dioralite drinks a d told it will just be a viral ( the answer to everything these days) everything got UNBEARABLE , felt like smashing my own skull open just to ease the pressure, my dad took me to a&e the hospital were saying the same about a viral, kept me over night I literally begged to check my head,they kept giving me codeine and oromorph which I told them was making it 100x worse, I was sent home the next day, still couldn't see and in extreme pain, even though ALL the blood tests returned clear for virus etc they still said it was just a viral, the next morning my little brother and partner mentioned doing an Oct at Specsavers, I'd never heard of it but luckily an appointment was available, the lady knew straight away from first calling on my name something was wrong, after a few tests but mainly the field of view one she called the hospital and I was told to go straight away, they said symptoms of a stroke,so eventually another 2 days later I got a CT scan , mix up of appointments and things not booked in, i was told withing 15 mins after my first CT I had bad bleed on the back right hand side of the brain which was affecting my sight badly in different ways, within another 15 mins the Dr came and said I'm so sorry to tell you this but it's not good news you have an abnormal mass and you have a brain tumour... (this was now 8 days after I initially became unwell I had begged all through that time to please scan my brain I KNEW something wasn't right, to be honest iv been telling my Dr for around 2-3 years.

So back to the main part, I was kept in hospital put straight on strong steroids to help stop the bleed and bring down some swelling, had an MRI brain scan the next day which came back the same as the CT scan, so the next step was another CT to see if it was primeraly the brain or if it had stemmed from elsewhere in my body HURRAH body came back clear so just to concentrate on the brain, i came home that day and was told to wait on a plan which I had a 2 minute call saying the plan was another MRI in 6 weeks , that's it, the mixed and lack of communication has been extremely frustrating, and the consultants are on annual leave , my Dr said it doesn't even mention a tumour in my notes ...like WTAF , she was even confused... (Edit turns out it's the doctor obviously didn't know or understand what she was reading because nothing had changedOMFG)

Now waiting on hospital sending all the findings over so I can go see a private clinic to get some actual answers....

It's been a huge struggle going from perfect sight to only having half my field of vision, left hand side of both eyes are gone, plus general sight, iv been prescribed 2 sets of glasses, , forgetfulness, fog, dizzy spells, tremors and struggling to get my words out is becoming a big frustration....

Thankfully I'm a super positive, laid back kinda girl and doing my very best to just roll with it all, especially for my 3 boys and my family ❤️

We had a flood just previously to this, bathroom ripped out, all flooring bottom landing of house ripped up everythings awful and feels like a HUGE hinder to what I should be concentrating on, it goes without saying my family have been amazing,and friends and s lot of ppl I don't know

❤️

I'm not going to lie setting a go fund me page for myself is way out my nature but to be honest I was FREAKING THE F OUT, especially when I was told they were gonna leave me 6 weeks for another MRI, obviously my first thought was I NEED to try a private consultation, iv been left in limbo, can't work, can't drive, literally half blind ( left hemianopia,left hand side of both eyes gone) plus lense in general effected so have 2 sets of glasses so can read a little better, my sight was perfect before this, sometimes it's easier just having my eyes closed a lot to be honest, I have zero clue if any of this will go back to normal because the doctors never spoke about it with me, we have tried to get in contact for clarification on a few things but consultants are on annual leave, I'm needing help navigating my house etc can't use cooker , Im a single mama & have my 2 youngest boys to look after,I'm hoping my new care worker has some ideas because although mymy family have been utterly AMAZING my parents take care of my 86 year old granny who has dementia full time at theyr home and I worry about them as it is, I feel so fucking stuck not been able to help now ,

Sorry for a little rant and f iv been a bit repetitive and again thankyou so so much for your support and kindness so far, it truly does mean the world ❤️ hopefully and hopeful of making somewhat of a full recovery, and really want to dedicate a good portion of my time helping other people some way, some how , I was supposed to be starting college but that's another little thing I can't do , not that it's a huge deal right now haha , just so many things we don't realise we take for granted ✨

Apologies for any typos I'm strictly relying on predictive text with shaky hands

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