Wednesday 29 June 2016

Why I'm going to Breakaspear Hospital

I was sure that I had written a blog post about this before, and kept it safely in my drafts section, but have now realised that I've just thought a lot about talking about this on my blog! I first became aware of Breakspear hospital just under a year ago when a friend of mine announced that she would be going to the hospital. Over the last few months I have seen her health go from partial paralysis, to being able to walk short distances from her car to a building and so on. Since then I have become aware of two other people from the UK who are also being treated for ME at Breakspear! All three of who are experiencing a really encouraging, scientifically sound treatment.

It was 9 years ago now that I came down with glandular fever (or a similar virus) whilst on a school trip to Venice. Although I was not feeling quite myself for a few moths before then, my health began to gradually decline from this trip onwards, in November 2007 I finally became too unwell to attend school on a regular basis. My trip to Venice is the earliest time which I can pinpoint any ME symptoms. So I have been ill for 9 years, all this time I have been given false hope by the NHS that ME can be treated, but note of their treatments have worked.

Since joining the online ME community several years ago, I have learnt that the NHS treatments for ME have not worked on anyone who I know (and that's hundreds of suffers who I've come into contact with over the years). This has lead me, and many others to the assumption that there is no way of treating ME.
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I have always followed the research on ME as closely as possible. Brainfog has made this extremely difficult, which has often meant that I have had to rely on other people to summarise research findings. I became aware at some point in the last two years that there are some doctors in America who have been are able to effectively treat ME using a combination of drugs and supplements specifically put together to meet the needs of each patient. This gave me so much hope and there were times where I thought about how wonderful it would be to travel to America to meet these doctors. I never thought that a similar approach would be available in the UK, especially not for another decade or so!

After receiving treatment on the NHS which has harmed me, and at best, done nothing at all. I cannot simply trust any doctor who says that they will treat me. It has taken a lot of research and talking to other patents for me to reach the decision that this hospital might be a good option for me. There is no guarantee that they will be able to help me, but based on what I know about the treatments which thy offer, I think that there is a very good chance that they may be able to help me. I really believe in the science of what they do at Breakspear, and personally feel that they are many years ahead of the NHS when it comes to treating ME. The way in which they view ME fits with my own view that it is a complex illness with many biological triggers, this is in keeping with recent research!

There is so much that I would like to say about Breakspear, and I know that I will learn so much more about what they do once I begin my treatment there. The aim of this blogpost is just to say that I will be going there and my first appointment is on Monday the 20th*. I will aim to share as much about my experience as I can on this blog, and also on my social media. If it wasn't for the online community, I wouldn't have heard about the hospital at all, so it is only right for me to share my treatment process at Breakspear.

If you would like to find out more, here is a link to Breaspear's website, I also recommend flowing Rhosyn who is about two months ahead of me in her Breakspear treatment, Rhosyn vlogs and blogs about her experiences at Breakspear on her website, I find vlogs to be particularly helpful as they are much easier to follow from a brainfog point of view.

If anyone has any experiences with Breakspear I would love to hear from you, I will also try to answer any questions which people have as I embark on my treatment process.

*This was drafted on the 18th of June! On the day which this is posted I have already been to my first appointment, I was too unwell to edit and post this before my appointment. 

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