I’VE GOT A DIAGNOSIS!

So this is going to be a very short blog post (compared to my last one) but for those who have been worried about my health the last few weeks, there’s a diagnosis.

So the first few weeks that I was ill, it was from the parasite, colitis and a bacterial infection. When these disappeared was around the time I started vomiting and getting the migraines and eye pains etc. So in terms of infections and parasites, I’m better!

(Needed a picture for the blog post and we have like 30 hospital masks)

We took a final trip to hospital today to get my ears checked out as a few months before I came to Cambodia, I had an inner ear infection which travelled to the balance part of my brain and the symptoms were very similar. After visiting the ENT, I was frustrated and about to give up on everything when she said that she couldn’t find anything wrong and that I seemed normal, even though I had a fever along with everything else. She suggested a trip to the neurology department just to be sure that nothing was wrong.

The neurologist was lovely, she really listened to my frustrations and problems. I explained to her that I was really worried as this was affecting my brain (whatever it was) and that if I leave it until I return to England then it might be too late to do anything; on the contrary, I didn’t want to go home just yet as there’s so much more I can do here.

She did two tests on me which made me feel incredibly weird. The first one was a simple ”follow the torch with your eyes”. However, when the torch went to my right eye, I started seeing double vision and there was a lot of strain and pain. I honestly thought she was going to tell me that I just needed glasses! After this test, I did another simple one which proved to be hard. I had to walk on the spot with my arms out in front of me for around a minute. In my head, everything was fine and I was just walking on the spot for a minute. However, when I opened my eyes, I had somehow moved across the other side of the room AND turned my body around towards the right. Once I had opened my eyes, I was shocked at how far I had moved and that I almost walked into the table without realising; I even asked “did you move me?” to the neurologist.

So, long story short, I have a condition called vestibular neuritis which is an inflammation in the vestibulocochlear nerve which sends balance and movement signals to the brain. This has occurred inbertween my right eye and my right ear. When it becomes swollen or inflamed, it affects the way the signals are interpreted by the brain, causing all kinds of disfunction and symptoms In the brain. This was most likely caused by my bacterial infection... let’s hope that this one doesn’t give me anything!

I’ve been given 4 different types of medication for this which should help me get better - although I might not recover completely for a few months.

My first medication is to reduce the activity in my brain, the second is to make my eyes less sensitive to light, the third is a Virtigo tablet and the fourth is to attack the inflammation and help my nerve cells recover.

I‘m super happy that I have a diagnosis FINALLY and there’s no longer anything for me to stress about. I’m having another nights rest in the capital and then returning to work on Wednesday with a follow up appointment at the hospital in a weeks time.

Hopefully this is now my last blog post about being sick and I can finally start blogging about the amazing work we’re doing out here.

Thank you everyone for the support this last week💗