My Experience with Disabilities - Miles Singleton
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<strong>My</strong> <strong>Experience</strong> <strong>with</strong> <strong>Disabilities</strong><br />
<strong>Miles</strong> <strong>Singleton</strong>, <strong>Disabilities</strong> Officer<br />
Following my last GCSE exam, I suddenly felt unbearable pain in my<br />
stomach which I had never experienced before. It felt like a cruel joke,<br />
finally my exams were over but now I had this to worry about. I barely<br />
made it home, as I had symptoms of diarrhoea.<br />
I thought it may have been stress related or possibly a cause of a bad<br />
diet, I was embarrassed about the whole thing. I was going to the<br />
toilet 3,5,6, even12 times a day, but I was too scared to see a doctor. I<br />
suffered through it until I found blood, a large amount, in my stool.<br />
I contacted my GP for an emergency appointment who referred me to<br />
hospital. I had never been an inpatient before, I didn’t even know<br />
what that word meant. It was scary, and I had no idea what was<br />
going on.<br />
After two weeks in hospital, I was told it was most likely Ulcerative<br />
Colitis, which meant that I had ulcers in my large bowel. I was given<br />
some medication and a check-up appointment in seven months. It<br />
got better then worse. This cycle repeated for two years.<br />
Trying to manage my studies at college around my health was a<br />
never-ending nightmare, I was too sick to attend most days. This<br />
made it difficult to make friends as I was never there. I remember<br />
struggling to finish coursework because I was too ill. Once, I collapsed<br />
at my computer while working on coursework because I was so ill.<br />
As time went on, my large bowel became inflamed and I was<br />
diagnosed <strong>with</strong> severe pancolitis. I was told that I would need to have<br />
a stoma bag to control it.<br />
I had just finished by BTEC at College and was forced to delay my<br />
entry to Uni by a year. There were complications during the surgery,<br />
and I went through what I can only explain as the worst pain<br />
imaginable. One month after leaving hospital, I had to return as scar<br />
tissue had closed my small bowel. On the positive side I do have a<br />
wicked cool scar on my stomach.<br />
At Uni there is always that anxiety of meeting new people and having<br />
to explain my stoma bag to them. <strong>My</strong> friends have been super<br />
supportive and the one thing I have learnt about my time at Uni is<br />
that no one cares. Not because it’s not important, but because it<br />
does not affect your character and who you are.