It's been a crazy few weeks for me since my last post on here! I feel like every time I have a little break from writing I always end up saying that, but I guess my life is just a bit all over the place at the moment.
After Find Your Sense of Tumour I focused almost all of my attention onto two things, my performance of Romeo and Juliet at Stratford on the 7th of December and my Cambridge Interview on the 12th. However, before both of these important dates I was scheduled to have a Lumbar Puncture on Tuesday the 2nd and it was going to be the first time my procedure was administered while under Local, rather than General, Anaesthetic. In the past the idea of being awake while doctors insert a needle into my spine had hardly appealed and yet I felt I was ready to give it a go as it saves time spent in hospital and I wouldn't have the groggy hangover that General Anaesthetic normally gives me. Tuesday came and went and although I was apprehensive, I felt calm and quite pleased with how the procedure had gone and soon I was back at home. However, I did have an ache in my back which didn't go away but I was sure that this was a side effect of the change in Anaesthetic.
The pain in my back didn't subside and yet I found that after some rest I began to feel better, the next few days though gave me real cause for concern. I began to get searing headaches and the discomfort in my back would flare up an hour or so after I had woken up and would leave me unable to move my legs and lower back from the pain. However, I was still forcing myself to go into school even though I would inevitably end up vomiting through lessons when on reflection, I should have just stayed at home and rested, something that doesn't come entirely naturally to me. By Thursday I was struggling to concentrate for more than fifteen minutes and at parents evening I was told by my teachers that the amount of times I'd left their classes in the past week was concerning. However, I was adamant that I would be fighting fit for my performance at Stratford and so on the 6th I naively went to stay overnight for the production the following day.
Well, I didn't make it to one o'clock on that Saturday. Curled up in the faetal position I called my hospital and asked if my symptoms were normal after a procedure under Local Anaesthetic. I was told that this was definitely not the case and I should see a doctor, either in Stratford or back at Gloucester immediately. I felt it better that I return to the hospital where I receive the vast majority of my treatment and so returned to Gloucester as soon as was possible. I spent over 9 hours in the hospital and after being rigorously tested for infections in my blood, I was eventually allowed to leave (admittedly after much persuasion) on the condition that I was to try and get as much rest as possible in the following days. It being the weekend, my normal consultant was unable to contact me so on on the Tuesday afterwards (having sadly missed my performance) I again called the hospital to ascertain the reason for my debilitation.
As it turned out, my back pain and headaches were nothing to do with the type of Anaesthetic I was subject to. Instead, it is thought that during the minor op. too much Cerebrospinal fluid had leaked out of my back creating little air pockets which put pressure on my spine and brain, hence the headaches and backaches. This was caused by over eagerness to leave the hospital when I should have remained horizontal for an hour after the procedure. In conclusion, I have no one to blame but myself!!
Well sadly, the effects of this spinal leakage didn't clear up until the Wednesday before my interview which affected my preparation somewhat before I made the trip up. However, the events that transpired leading up to my interview arguably did help me. After being told on the 6th that potentially I could have a blood clot in my spine or brain, it did give me a little bit of perspective heading into the daunting Cambridge environment of what was really important. What happened because of this is that I really enjoyed my interviews and I felt that I managed to give a good representation of who I am as a person and spoke for the majority of the time about what I am really interested in, which is all I really wanted to do.
Now that Cambridge is out of the way and I'm over the disappointment of not performing at Stratford with the awesome Cotswold Players, I'll be focusing on knuckling down at school and (arguably more importantly) making the most of my friends coming back from University this week and spending time with them over the Christmas period! Speaking of which, I need to get my head together in regards to buying some Christmas presents... Urm, I mean, I will be cracking on with catching up on all the work I missed at school the last two weeks if you're reading this teachers/parents
