“It’s been a rough journey through the storm – but storms don’t last forever”

Hi it’s Gail, to end my day yesterday was one of those headaches where you think your head is going to explode.

It must have been bad because I took painkillers and anyone who knows me knows I do not like to take medication unless I have to.

On a Zoom meeting the other day, we spoke about visiting doctors and hospital appointments when you have a dementia diagnosis which got me thinking how similar we all are in the hurdles that we have to jump over on our dementia journey.

To me it feels like climbing a mountain on a stormy day. I gave up climbing my mountain with the medical profession a couple of months into the process of my diagnosis.

I was talked over, talked through as if I wasn’t in the room and told off like a child for attending one appointment alone. One person upset me so much that I did not want to return. I did write her a letter explaining how she made me feel.

To this day, I hate entering that building and that room. So what is it that makes people immediately change when you’re diagnosed? You don’t walk into a hospital or a clinic and receive your diagnosis and walk out a completely different person.

You are the same person that walked into that room. For me, I had to go through lots of different emotions to get to where I am now. Going through those emotions and the assessment was very rough. It made me angry. It made me sad.

It made me cry.

It made me feel insignificant. It made me scared. It made me anxious. Most of all, you all made me feel completely worthless. It wasn’t just the medics that made me feel that way. It was everywhere I went and the people that knew that I had a dementia diagnosis.

From the job centre to even friends and family.

It’s been a rough journey through this storm but storms don’t last forever and you can find a way through them.

I did.

Thankyou, bye for now.