Hey guys,

It’s been a while since I last updated. I’ve written three posts since then, and each one I’ve then forgotten to post. To be honest this probably would have remained unwritten if I hadn’t had quite a few people ask me to update / why I hadn’t updated in the last year. So here we go:

I’m not going to update you on everything that’s happened since last year, no one has time for that! The main highlights as it were are that I got authorised to take part in fencing tournaments (Oh hell yeah! >:D), mum and dad visited me at christmas and we had the most amazing 3 weeks ever exploring the south island of New Zealand (I’ve peppered this post with random pictures from that), I spent Easter with my Australian family (who are the best people ever!) and got to have the first ever easter egg hunt that I organised and ran (I got to buy and then hide all the eggs like a proper grown up, never been so proud) and then end of May I had a bump in the car and gave myself concussion.

Wait … what?

Yup, to those of you who don’t know (which let’s face it, are probably not those of you who are reading the blog 😉 ), I had a bit of a knock. I’ll write it out fully below. Please don’t feel you have to read it but a lot of people have asked me and honestly it’s a bit easier to just write it in one lump for whoever wants to know to read, rather than telling the same story thirty times! 🙂

So, on the day of the accident I went out to tutor a kid in chemistry. When I left the house it was nice and sunny so I took a gamble on a thin jumper and thought that was good. But of course by the time I left after tutoring it was dark, with black skies and spits of rain. The storm didn’t actually hit until I was on the motor way, but then it hit in earnest. It was one of those autumn storms that just suddenly goes for it, all at once. Bit of hail but mostly just the kind of rain that would probably get Noah to bring out his boat building manual again. Lots of thunder, lots of lightning.

Long story short, the dude two cars ahead did an emergency stop, dude in front did one, I did one and then hit a patch of water and aquaplaned into the back of him, making my head snap forwards like a mouse trap. Guy behind me skidded to a stop less than a fingers breadth from my bumper. We then had to drive across three lanes of motorway (because of course this happened in the fourth lane) and then park up on the side of the road to exchange details. Happily no one was hurt and his car was working so he drove off pretty quickly and I was left waiting on the side of the road in my thin jumper and the thunder and rain for two and a half hours (two and a half hours!) for a tow truck. The bit of motorway was right next to the sea and with the storm swell the waves and spray were lashing up to the side of the hard shoulder, perfectly positioned next to me to get any little patches of dryness the rain had missed.

I like to think there were sad violins as I stood there waiting, but it was probably just the ringing in my ears. I always say, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it properly. Let it be dramatic, with thunder and lightning!

That night I slept seventeen hours. O.o Got up for about four then slept for another fourteen. Bit weird but probably just the shock. Kept getting nose bleeds for no reason. Bit weird, but maybe I hit my nose without realising it or something. (I like to think I would have spotted this wasn’t right if I was thinking normally). I had a blinding headache and felt really dizzy for Sunday but it was probably just the stress.

‘Course I’m English. ‘Stiff upper lip’ and all that, so Monday I went to work as normal. By the time I arrived I was exhausted but I just thought I was being a bit lazy. It wasn’t until I went to read something at my desk and realised that I couldn’t that I realised I should probably go to a doctor. They decided that it was a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and then sent me to all the specialists ever.

Unfortunately I’d been chosen to present at the research showcase which was the next week.

Never mind! I thought, Presentations don’t really require reading anyway, I’m sure it will be fine!

Well, my speech was also kind of screwy and I was struggling to concentrate on anything so the first few times I practised it I was truly terrible. It’s very hard to give a presentation on the synthesis of antibiotics when you keep forgetting what the word “bacteria” means. I’m nothing if not stubborn though and I worked out that if I practised the presentation 3 times an hour, eight hours a day for the next ten days I could do it 240 times before the Research Showcase. That would probably bring me up to speed ^^

I’ve since been told that as I was meant to be resting and recovering, practising a presentation 240 times for a week was not the wisest thing I’ve ever done and probably contributed to my sudden influx of migraines 😛  Still, I won a prize and $300 so I guess it was worth it.

After that things only got worse. Apparently I’d strained my half-broken brain (yes, Mum, yes Dad, yes everyone who told me I was overdoing it, you were right! 😉 ) and so it had a wee bit of a dip. I won’t go too into it because nothing is more boring than hearing about other peoples illnesses but suffice to say that most of the things I was used to doing as a normal part of life (walking down the street, holding conversations, watching TV) became a bit of an uphill struggle.

Most of who I am, what I like or dislike, my hobbies, my friends, my work, how I deal with people and situations, is all controlled by my brain. It’s kind of a weird feeling to have a large portion of who you are suddenly broken. I was told it would take months to a year to come back (But it will be coming back which is the main thing! 😀 ) and so I had to kind of get used to living with not quite being myself for a while.

That went about as well as you might expect 😉

I kinda figured if I acted like I didn’t have a brain injury (or at least that it wasn’t that bad) that it would eventually just give up and go away. Turns out that’s not the case and it took me a good two months to admit that that strategy was not going to work xD

So I suspended my PhD for a few months and went home. Since I’ve started the whole rest and recuperation and stopping when my brain reaches it’s limits, things are waaaaaay better. I was at home for a month in August which was amazing, spending time with family and being able to do whatever I like without having to pay rent 😉 (shame PhD students don’t get sick pay).

Now, I’ve just come back to NZ, just in time for spring. It’ll be a good few months before I’m fully back to normal but god damn I’m so much better than I was! 😀 I’m reading and writing again, and a good deal happier ^^ I’m not going to pretend everything is perfect, but until I am able to return to work I’m going to be making the most of the beautiful country I’m living in! Expect lots of pictures of flowers and out-of-focus birds coming up!

I’ll be making more of an effort to update the blog weekly, so you guys back home can see what I’ve been doing (if anything 😉 ), and those who are wondering how my recovery is going but don’t want to ask can keep up to date if they wish.

So until next time, look after yourselves and remember to check your breaks! 😉

Love, Annabelle