Hi everyone,

Just wanted to update you all on the college meeting that I had today.

As some of you already know, I will be starting a course from September in Society, Health and Development at College. I applied for the course earlier this year and it was a nightmare trying to get them to accept me because of my RSD but eventually they did thankfully!

My mum and I had a meeting today to discuss placement options for me. Whilst I am on the course, I will have to do 50 days of placements in 4different sectors, those being health, society, child development and criminal justice.

The tutors wanted to meet up with us to discuss how I would cope with the placements and what risks we thought could be involved. I think they wanted a better understanding of RSD and wanted to try and minimise any risks, which was good!

As my mum and I told them, it's really hard to determine how I will be in the future; I could go into remission or I could get worse - it's just one of those things that no one knows unfortunately which makes it hard to make any decisions. They wanted to make sure they had a general idea of what to do if I went into a flare whilst I was on the course though and what we could do to minimise any risks.

We told them that theres nothing we can really do about my RSD unfortunately but that they should know that I sometimes have to take meds, can miss school, any knocks and falls can make my RSD flare up etc etc. They were pretty understanding and weren't judgemental which I thought was really good!

Thankfully, it looks like i'll be able to do all of the placements I want to do as long as the employees know about my RSD and what to do etc. None of the placements involve that much walking and becuase of our age, they aren't allowed to let us lift and handle any placements so hopefully, I should be able to cope OK. One of the placements that they can't get me on unfortunately is working with people with behaivoral issues as they can be known to lash out and none of them are willing to take that risk as it could seriously harm me which I guess makes sense.

I will start the course on the 9th September and my first placement will be in the end of Novemeber. My first placement will be in a nursing / residental home working with old people. I'll have to keep them company, bring their foods and water, help them clean up etc. I'm really interested in doing Psychology also so the tutors are trying to get me a psychology placement - i'm hoping that will come off as it will be really good !!

I'm REALLY excited about starting college now! I know it will be hard work but it's something I want to do and hopefully it will be worth it! We were also told today at the meeting that if I felt I couldn't cope with the placements, that was OK and i'd just have to tell them and they'd try and help me so thats good.

I just wish that my school would start understanding now. They are being really awkward saying that I have to go to school to do science and citizenship lessons otherwise I will fail all of my classes so from September, i'll have to go back for those lessons which i'm really not looking forward to! None of my so-called 'friends' have been in touch for 2 years and when they do, they often make rude comments about my RSD. Everytime I have tried going back, I have ended up in some kind of flare as my body cannot cope with the walking and extra stress that is involved. I just wish that I could stay at the school centre full time - i'll still be going but it wont be the same. All of my friends are really understanding there so thats great - I guess it's easier for them to understand as they all have some kind of problems.

My mums currently trying to get me onto an online Science course. It would cost a lot of money but would probably be better than having to deal with some of the additional stresses of school.

I hope you're all doing well and i'll keep you posted!

Alison