Read on Twitter
I was absolutely amazed at the response and support my last tweet got. Thank you 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❤️" title="Rotes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Rotes Herz">
I& #39;ll tell you a bit about me and my disability (a thread) - here we go...
I& #39;m Erin, I& #39;m 21 and I go to medical school in Birmingham. I am a disabled medical student
I& #39;ll tell you a bit about me and my disability (a thread) - here we go...
I& #39;m Erin, I& #39;m 21 and I go to medical school in Birmingham. I am a disabled medical student
I have a condition called Idiopathic Hypersomnia. You may know what Narcolepsy is, and it& #39;s kind of a cousin of that. I also have severe sensory problems to do with touch and hearing.
I find both of these conditions quite hard to deal with, as a person, and as a medical student. With my hypersomnia, I fall asleep a lot. It& #39;s out of my control and I can get a sleep attack at any moment. I won& #39;t totally drop off like narcolepsy but I will need to sleep.
I also can& #39;t tell you the last time I& #39;ve felt I have energy or am awake. Now I know a lot of people get exhausted from jobs and daily life. This is different. This is frequently not being able to walk from the living room to the kitchen to get a drink of water.
I& #39;m thankful for my fiancé. He& #39;s truly wonderful and helps me with lots of things like this. I hallucinate most nights. Usually insects or animals of some kind, but it& #39;s so hard to dissociate it from reality. It wipes out the next day, maybe even more than that.
When I want to do something, I have to weigh up the consequences. A day out will mean probably a few days feeling terrible. I moved house 2 to 3 weeks ago and I& #39;m still struggling from that
I can& #39;t really drive for more than half an hour or I risk falling asleep at the wheel. To be honest I find less than half an hour hard and my fiancé drives me when he can.
With my sensory problems, I can get quite overloaded by lots of noise, different materials etc. It& #39;s just an extra thing I wish would go away!
Next week I& #39;ll be restarting my placement. I& #39;ll have early mornings and long days, and I know I& #39;m going to find it hard. But I know I& #39;ve got to keep going because I know I can use my disabilities in a positive way to help other people as a healthcare professional https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👍" title="Thumbs up" aria-label="Emoji: Thumbs up">
