Oh the joys of hospital appointments!

Hello,
On Monday, I had an appointment in Southampton General Hospital with a specialist neurologist! We have been waiting for this appointment since June 2016 so it was kind of a big deal, not only to me but for my entire family and my doctors here in my local town.
I'll just run you through how the day went and what we did! We left our house just before 10am as it takes an hour and a half to get to Southampton from where we live. When we arrived, we did pretty much what we always do when I have an appointment in a city, of course we went to Ikea! I had a hotdog and a milkshake so life was pretty good. Aha. We had a quick look around and met this lovely family, whose daughter Joy, also was a wheelchair user and we had a brief but lovely chat about how Joy plays wheelchair basketball with Team GB and how she went to Rio 2016! Pretty amazing. Anyway, so we got talking and I told her I have played wheelchair basketball in the past but there aren't any clubs near me so it is a bit difficult, but when I used to, I absolutely loved it! We exchanged contact details and hopefully now I can persuade my parents to drive me to a club! If you are reading this Joy, it was lovely meeting you and your family and I hope we can stay in touch! I have now officially met two Paralympian's! Pretty cool.
We then headed for the hospital at around 12:50pm, my appointment was at 2pm, so we would have plenty of time to find where we were supposed to be and to park etc. I hadn't been to Southampton General for about three years so quite a lot had changed, they had refurbished the entrance, a few of the shops had changed but for me I still was really nervous, SGH has always in a way scared me. I think it's because I have had a few bad experiences there and it's so big and isn't familiar.

Me having a previous EEG!

We then found 'Children's Outpatients' and 'checked in' at the reception. I then had to do what you always have to do before appointments, I have got quite bored of this by now, being weighed and measured. I didn't mind this so much when I was little but all teenagers have some level of self-consciousness, including me, therefore even though I shouldn't, I find this slightly awkward and embarrassing. My parents and I then took a seat in the waiting room, which was so hot, I don't know whether any of you have noticed this but aren't hospitals always uncomfortably hot?!Aha. Anyway, we waited and as we waited the nerves grew and grew and grew until we were finally called in by the doctor.
I won't go into loads of detail because to be honest not much came out of it, most of the appointment was going through my medical history and so on because I had never met with this particular neurologist before. We were in the room for just over half an hour and the outcome was that he would up the dose of my anti-epileptics and refer me for yet another urgent EEG, I have had four since about July 2016 and this will be my second video telemetry. Basically, I will stay in hospital for up to five days, they will record my brain waves and heart rate but also video me 24/7 simultaneously. I have had one of these before in November 2016 and it wasn't the best experience, you aren't allowed out of your hospital room for the duration of the test which is VERY claustrophobic. Imagine, 5 days in one room with NO WIFI! How will I survive?! ;) Because the neurologist wants it to be done as soon as possible, I'll be likely to be admitted sometime over the next few weeks. Hopefully, once the results come back from this test, my condition will become clearer and the doctors should be able to give me and my family a  more certain diagnosis and further advice. Which will be great!
In other news, I am now doing four hours in school and three lessons. Every week, this will be upped so next week I'll be doing five hours and so on and so on until I am back full time which is going to be such a great feeling! It should take four weeks but it will be worth it. :)

I realise this post has been very medical but I hope it gives you an idea about what is going to be happening over the next few weeks to a month. I might not be able to post when I am in hospital but I'll try and write an interesting one about a topic which I am passionate about when I am in there as there won't be much else to do. Aha ;) and I'll post it when I come back home and back to civilization where there is wifi and a proper shower!

Thank you for reading,
Evie :) x