Written 29/01/2016

In December, lying in my hospital bed in the Acute Stroke Unit Ward of Charing Cross Hospital, I wrote about my fears regarding how my multiple strokes and kidney failure would impact my life – or perhaps, end it – so near my 21st birthday. The relief of coming out of intense hospitalization, terrifying-looking MRIs, dozens of shots a day, blotched blood transfusions, sepsis and pulmonary edema was just enough to keep me going through the most physically painful and trying weeks of my life. I was on high doses of the strongest painkillers out there and yet I cried myself to sleep every night. My husband, amazing throughout, did everything for me. I was a ghost of a human, capable only of feeling the daggers pinning my foot down and dragging myself, zombie-like, to the doctor fo...

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