January 2017 seems longer than 12 months ago. Sara and I have achieved a lot of our goals including buying a house, adding a dog to our home and getting engaged.
However, 2017 was the most challenging for Sara and for me due to the number of hospital admissions and health concerns. Sara normally writes these blogs but I’m sharing this from another view.
Last year started with hope and optimism, like most new years do. Sara and I stepped up the search to find our dream home. It was within a few days that she suffered her first seizure of 2017 and was the first of many hospital stays. Due to her bleeding condition, she had numerous platelet transfusions to help stop the bruising from her swelling eye.
February was by far the toughest month I've ever had to face. Sara spent the entire month in hospital and I struggled to keep myself together and strong. Sara knows I’ll hide behind a front and pretend everything is ok whilst secretly feeling an ever growing weight on my shoulders. But knowing she needed me and to see her smile when I’d walk on the ward gave me enough to keep going. During this time, my great family and friends gave me so much support in a time when I've never felt more alone and, without them knowing, helped me through an incredibly tough period.
However, 2017 was the most challenging for Sara and for me due to the number of hospital admissions and health concerns. Sara normally writes these blogs but I’m sharing this from another view.
Last year started with hope and optimism, like most new years do. Sara and I stepped up the search to find our dream home. It was within a few days that she suffered her first seizure of 2017 and was the first of many hospital stays. Due to her bleeding condition, she had numerous platelet transfusions to help stop the bruising from her swelling eye.
February was by far the toughest month I've ever had to face. Sara spent the entire month in hospital and I struggled to keep myself together and strong. Sara knows I’ll hide behind a front and pretend everything is ok whilst secretly feeling an ever growing weight on my shoulders. But knowing she needed me and to see her smile when I’d walk on the ward gave me enough to keep going. During this time, my great family and friends gave me so much support in a time when I've never felt more alone and, without them knowing, helped me through an incredibly tough period.
Each day seemed like a battle to make sure Sara got the care she needed. There were numerous days were I saw Sara hallucinating, not knowing what day it was or where she was. I can’t explain how hard it was to see. I sat on the sofa and cried. One night I did nothing but cry. I sat in my car, crying and called my mum to give her an update but struggled to keep it together. I noticed how I became more distant and appeared disinterested from people around me including friends at home and at work. It was nothing personal, just a guy struggling to cope.
Sara got out at the end of February and had no idea I was hiding an engagement ring in our flat, waiting the right moment. But I hadn't asked her Dad so after speaking with him, and with his approval, I asked the love of my life to marry me. Sooner than I thought as I asked Sara the same night after asking her Dad. I was a bit excited and wanted to ask her to be my wife. And thankfully she said yes and we began to look ahead to our future together.
But then she had to go back to hospital and spend her birthday in the same ward as she spent a month in February. To be honest, nothing prepares you for how you will act when a loved one is lying in a hospital bed. I like to think I appear to remain calm and do everything I can when in reality I'm putting the situation on hold so I can deal with it in my own time and not the time I'm spending with Sara. Whenever I get a call to say Sara isn't well, it's obvious to anyone around me that my focus has gone. I can't think or do much else until I know she is safe. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me at this time.
2017 has been a mix of an incredible, an eventful and quite simply terrifying year but it ended with us adding an adorable beagle puppy, Baxter, to our family and spending Christmas together for the first time.
I’ve seen how Sara has been affected by everything she has had to go through throughout the last few years. The medication changes, numerous platelet transfusions and giving up netball; the game she grew up loving and playing. I watched Sara play for our university only a few months after we met and couldn’t believe how different it was to what I thought. She has had numerous bruises and broken bones but her willingness not to let this define her and turn it into something that could inspire and motivate others makes me incredibly proud of her. And even after suffering a broken bone from a seizure, nothing stops her as her marathon training is underway!
Sara got out at the end of February and had no idea I was hiding an engagement ring in our flat, waiting the right moment. But I hadn't asked her Dad so after speaking with him, and with his approval, I asked the love of my life to marry me. Sooner than I thought as I asked Sara the same night after asking her Dad. I was a bit excited and wanted to ask her to be my wife. And thankfully she said yes and we began to look ahead to our future together.
But then she had to go back to hospital and spend her birthday in the same ward as she spent a month in February. To be honest, nothing prepares you for how you will act when a loved one is lying in a hospital bed. I like to think I appear to remain calm and do everything I can when in reality I'm putting the situation on hold so I can deal with it in my own time and not the time I'm spending with Sara. Whenever I get a call to say Sara isn't well, it's obvious to anyone around me that my focus has gone. I can't think or do much else until I know she is safe. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me at this time.
2017 has been a mix of an incredible, an eventful and quite simply terrifying year but it ended with us adding an adorable beagle puppy, Baxter, to our family and spending Christmas together for the first time.
I’ve seen how Sara has been affected by everything she has had to go through throughout the last few years. The medication changes, numerous platelet transfusions and giving up netball; the game she grew up loving and playing. I watched Sara play for our university only a few months after we met and couldn’t believe how different it was to what I thought. She has had numerous bruises and broken bones but her willingness not to let this define her and turn it into something that could inspire and motivate others makes me incredibly proud of her. And even after suffering a broken bone from a seizure, nothing stops her as her marathon training is underway!
Now, marathon training begins for me too as we raise awareness of epilepsy and fundraise to support Epilepsy Action who have been a great help to us throughout. Visit our fundraising page for more and we will be sharing more about our training in the weeks and months that follow! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SaraFidler
Jonny