03/12/2023
Hello, I’m Paris! Let me tell you a little bit about me!
I have just published my first ever children’s book “diabetes is a superpower”. I feel strongly about writing children’s books that are informative, accurate and engaging.
My journey hasn’t been easy but it has encouraged me to start writing and I’m so proud of how far I’ve come.
Back in 2019, I suffered a seizure. Until then I was fit and healthy with a completely ‘normal’ life. Little did I know this seizure would change my life forever. I went to hospital, observations were done, blood tests and all the usual, which came back normal. I was sent home, told to come back if I had anymore seizures.
Unfortunately for me, this seizure was the first of many. From monthly seizures, to weekly seizures, to daily seizures, my condition began to worsen and from there my health took a decline.
After many tests, my results came back. I had a tumour in my brain. It was benign but came with a whole load of problems. I was also diagnosed with Chiari Malformation. This meant my brain wasn’t all sitting in my skull, but partly in my spine.
I carried on living life as best I could, waiting for neurologists and neurosurgeons to see me and after a long hospital stay I was diagnosed with epilepsy. The long route began, different medications, horrible side effects and many more ambulance journeys with emergency meds administered to bring me out of these seizures.
At the same time, I was under cardiac specialists, for resting heart rates hitting more than double the normal. Endocrinology were also involved in my care as well as neurology.
My life continued during this process, lockdown hit meaning it was so much harder to access healthcare services, everything was so delayed and I saw A&E wait times up to 16 hours long. I will never forget sitting in the back of the ambulance for 8 hours as there was no room inside the hospital. During this, I started a job in the hospital, helping children just like me and loved every minute of it. Due to my circumstances I wasn’t able to continue to work there.
More seizures continued, medication was working but I was still having seizures at least 1-2 times a month. That’s when more issues started to arise. I was loosing weight, falling asleep during the day, suffering with constant flu like symptoms and didn’t have the energy to do normal tasks. Another long stay at a different hospital confirmed my type one diabetes diagnosis. It broke me. How could going from living life as a happy and healthy teenager change in a matter of years?
I was determined to take this all in my stride and strive to be the best version of myself possible. This became increasing difficult due to the more diagnosises being thrown at me.
My immune system was failing, its currently sitting at less than 20% working. My body can’t fight infections and coughs and colds make me so poorly and therefore cause seizures. On top of this, I suffer from Myalgic encephalomyelitis, more commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This means that even the smallest day to day activities, completely wear me out. I rely on a wheelchair to get around, as walking for more than 20 minutes causes me so much fatigue that I end up having seizures and low blood sugars. This again had a huge impact on not only my physical health but my mental health too. Going from being an active teenager and going to the gym to not being able to even go on a walk anymore.
Today I’m doing a little better, I’m still having seizures a few times a month, there’s still lots of ambulance calls and hospital stays, lots of needles, scratches and pokes and lots of tiredness, tears and tantrums- but I’m adjusting to my new life. I’m on 9 medications, for iron, folic acid, b12, vitamin D, calcium deficiencies (and that’s to name a few) but im coping and learning to be proud of my disabilities instead of being sad about them.
During this whole process, I never found much information online about all of these changes that were happening to my body. The information I did find was hard to understand and unhelpful. I’m grateful that I was 16-20 throughout this process and I felt for young children who didn’t understand what was happening to them. So I decided to change that …
That’s where parisnashbooks came into action! My goal is to write children’s books about all sorts of disabilities and medical conditions to help children feel more involved in their treatment and improve their understanding of their condition.
My first book “diabetes is a superpower” is available to buy on Amazon or directly through me. I hope to bring out many more books soon so keep your eyes peeled.
I understand that these books aren’t for everyone and if you’re lucky enough not to need any of these books then please help show your support by liking, sharing, commenting, tagging your friends and help boost these books!
Thank you so much!
