Katherine - Interview 02

Age at Interview: 22

Sex: Female

Age at Diagnosis: 15

Background: Katherine is 22 and a part-time nursery nurse. She is single and lives at home with her parents. Ethnic background / nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Katherine started having seizures at the age of 15 but was conclusively diagnosed with epilepsy at 20. She is on 20ml phenytoin three times and 5 ml Keppra (levetiracetam) twice a day. She has about one seizure a month.

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When you said you'd been in hospital a lot, what are your experiences of hospital, ward treatment?

Uhm, sometimes a lot better than others. There was one time when the doctor refused to see me at all, because he said I was faking it so he refused to see me at all. That was a couple of months ago.

What happened?

He discharged me. Had another one on the way home, so again he refused to see me when I got taken back, discharged again, and then I eventually got an appointment to see the consultant, said it was epilepsy. So then I saw the epilepsy nurse.

And what about other bad experiences in hospital?

Well after I've had a fit, came round, one of the times a nurse was holding me down saying, “Stop doing that.” Can't remember a lot about that.

What about good experiences?

At times they've really looked after me. Made sure I'm okay and everything, one of the nurses even came and sat with me and then talked to me for about half an hour, she had a long chat with me about college.