Colette's Story

Colette was on a hotel break with her husband, Simon, when she collapsed.

She had been feeling unwell for the last 18 months or so, but that morning she felt particularly awful. While crawling to the bathroom to take a shower, she suddenly realised she couldn’t move.

“Come on, get up” she remembers her husband saying to her before he called an ambulance.

When she got the John Radcliffe (JR) she underwent a series of diagnostic tests before a CT scan revealed a very large meningioma, the size of a man’s fist. It had started to swell putting pressure on her brain.

That first night was frightening. Simon was warned that if the steroids they had given her didn’t reduce the swelling Colette could die.

Luckily the swelling did go down, but Colette eventually had to undergo a 9-hour operation with three surgeons involved to remove it.

After the operation, Colette was taken to intensive care. She doesn’t remember waking up, but she does remember suddenly realising she felt like herself again. For months before the operation, she had felt disconnected from herself and had experienced suicidal thoughts that disappeared almost immediately.

She also remembers two other things: “I was alive” and, with a laugh, “I was peeing in a bag”

Determined to regain her independence, she made it her mission to have the catheter removed so she could walk to the toilet herself.

“I just wanted to get out of there.”

Recovery

Recovery was gradual. Colette spent two months and 17 days in hospital before moving to a care centre in Banbury to continue her recovery.

For a time, her vision was affected. “It felt like looking through a sweet wrapper,” she explains, caused by damage to her retina and optic nerve during surgery. The morphine also caused hallucinations, and further swelling developed after the operation. Colette says it felt as though she could hear water swishing inside her head.

It was difficult for her to see her daughters struggle with her appearance, and she avoided looking in the mirror for a long time. She also remembers one particularly difficult moment when she mistook one of her daughters for her niece.

Despite everything, Colette talks about her time in hospital with remarkable warmth and humour. She remembers requesting songs on the hospital radio, singing along, writing poetry for the nurses who cared for her and even trying to help other patients, despite still recovering herself.

Since her surgery in 2016, Colette has continued to undergo regular MRI scans and further radiotherapy. The meningioma, surgery and treatment have left her living with an acquired brain injury, which continues to affect her daily life.

Oxford Head Injury Services

While staying at the centre in Banbury, her occupational therapist and social worker suggested she might benefit from attending Oxford Head Injury Services (then, Headway).

Funding and transport arrangements took around 6 months, which Colette found frustrating. She just wanted to start. Her hair was beginning to grow back, she was still physically weak, but she was ready to begin the next stage in her recovery.

When she eventually began attending in 2017, she says: “I immediately found a community where I belong.”

Rebuilding strength and confidence

Today, Oxford Head Injury Services continues to play a huge part in her life.

“I love it here so much, it is a lifeline.”

She attends personal training sessions in the specialist gym and enjoys walking on the treadmill, using the exercise equipment and practising balance exercises with support from our neuro personal trainers. Her sessions have enabled her to increase her strength and have been particularly important in rebuilding her balance and confidence over the years.

She also enjoys word games and painting. She recalls her first painting, a boat, with Gary who leads our Art Therapy sessions.

She keeps in touch with friends outside Oxford Head Injury Services, but many are busy with work and family life. The friendships she has built through the Centre have become an important part of her recovery. She enjoys chatting and catching up, inspired and interested in other people’s experiences.

“I look forward to coming here each week.”

Living with brain injury

When asked what she would like more people to understand about brain injury she says that one of the biggest challenges is that many of the effects of brain injury cannot be seen.

“People look at me and think there’s nothing wrong. They don’t understand because you can have good days and bad days. They just assume you’re fine.”

She hopes more people will understand that brain injury affects everyone differently and that many of its challenges are invisible.

“Never assume.”

Above all, Colette’s philosophy sees her looking forward:

“There is a reason for everything and everything has a reason in life. You just have to keep going or, as Dory says, ‘Just Keep Swimming.’”

For anyone considering attending Oxford Head Injury Services, Colette says:

“Definitely do it. It will make such a difference and help you.”