It’s been a long day after a tough night.

I’ve been fighting a cold for the last week or so and my ‘ticcing fits’ have increased as they often do when I’m under the weather. They’d been reasonably manageable until the early hours of this morning but then they suddenly escalated.

I woke up shortly after midnight, fitting and feeling dreadful. After half an hour things calmed down enough for me to get back to sleep. But this didn’t last and I woke an hour later with my whole body shaking. I felt exhausted, I ached and I cried as my body went on thrashing about relentlessly.

Eventually I took my emergency medication. This gave me and my night-time support worker Bunny a bit of respite. But I woke again after about another hour. I felt guilty as I pressed the alarm to call for Bunny yet again. She was amazing, reassuring and supportive. When the fit eventually relented at 6.30am we sat and chatted, had a cup of tea and watched some TV together.

My lack of sleep and relentless fits have made things hard today but I’m starting to feel a bit better now and I’m optimistic that I’ll sleep more restfully tonight.