Blink and You’ll Miss It – 13/3/2020

Blink and You’ll Miss It – 13/3/2020

It’s Friday 13^th March 2020.

I’m a Survivor of Physical, Mental and Sexual Abuse. I didn’t sleep very well last night due to vivid flashbacks to the abusive past. I slept with the night light on and the bedroom door open in a bid to help me sleep. I experienced a seizure in the course of the night and daybreak arrived. I love the sound of the birds singing first thing in the morning. The birds singing to welcome in a new start to the day.

I sustained a fall in the bathroom before Support Worker Claire arrived and I had difficulty dressing myself (some of the many daily challenges I experience living with a brain injury disability). Support Worker Claire and I did some admin and did some preparation work for payroll next week. There’s more to do this time of year due to the fast-approaching financial year end.

Claire and I attended the gym although I had a lot of difficulty with my balance and coordination. Claire keeps me in line, telling me off when I do too much and ensures that I remain safe. I’m happy that Claire keeps me in line. Claire is brilliant in respect of motivation and keeping me as safe as possible. The staff at the Braunstone Leisure Centre (Leicester) are aware of my health situation and are supportive. They have had to search the building for me on a previous occasion when I became very unwell and went missing. Thankfully I wear a GPS Tracker around my neck, through which the Police are able to track me and assist me when the need arises.

After Claire left for the day, I had another seizure and I spent time studying the papers for the forthcoming meeting of Full Council at Braunstone Town  Council & Leicester Forest East Parish Council of which I am an elected member (he says with an enormous amount of pride.)

The week has passed by so quickly – blink and you miss it.

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 Expressing the personal views of David Di Palma unless stated otherwise.

Book Extract (1) – Contains scenes some may find distressing. Read with Caution!

Book Extract (1)  – Contains scenes some may find distressing. 

Read with caution.  Please seek support if effected by any of the issues raised. 

I’m a young boy and I live in a council house at 2, Brook Court, Countesthorpe. 

I live with my Mum, Dad, Maria and Tracey.  

Apart from a small glimmer of light coming through the pane of glass at the top of the bedroom door  It is dark and I am afraid. I can hear footsteps coming up the stairs, the footsteps are heavy, belonging to neither my sisters,  mother nor father but a babysitter. 

I want to escape but there’s nowhere to escape to. There’s nowhere to run and screaming or shouting will only make matters worse. The man hurts me more if I make a noise. The man said that I must never tell, I must never tell anyone what the man does to me. The man drinks cough medicine but the man never has a cough. That doesn’t make sense to me.  Why take cough medicine if you don’t have a cough? He always smells of cough medicine. He does bad things to me. He says that it’s all my fault, he says it’s my fault that these things happen to me. He says I must never tell anyone otherwise bad things will happen to Maria and Tracey (my sisters) if I tell. But I can’t allow that to happen. I must protect them at all costs. He pins me down and does very bad things to me, he makes me do things which are bad.  

I just hope it’s over quickly. 

The footsteps are now louder and heavier. 

It’s too late to run, or hide, I try to scream but nothing comes out.

The man will be in here in seconds.

The handle on the bedroom door is moving downwards. 

Dear god please let me die or let this be over quickly. 

David Di Palma, 2, Brook Court, Countesthorpe, Leicestershire.

Reproduced from original transcripts and diary entries.

David J. Di Palma - Survivor.

for further details visit our website This blog is representative of the personal views of David Di Palma. 

Night Time - Flashbacks & Seizures

David Di Palma, Brain Injury Survivor, Surviving One Day at a Time - Flashbacks 

Sunday 16th February 2020

It is Sunday 16th February 2020 and the time is 00:18

Nights are the worse time for me. I experience flashbacks to the historical abuse more at night than at any other time of the day. More often than not I sleep with a Night Light on to make me feel safer. 

Nights are also a challenging time because my brain has difficulty in ‘switching off’. As a consequence of my brain injury the day’s events go around and around my mind, the events unable to take residence in a memory cell because I have difficulty with short term memory. I record the day’s events by keeping a diary, a written record of events, this blog is one such record. Don’t misunderstand what I’ve just said. I’m not making a conscious decision to refrain from ‘switching off’, I’m trying to ‘switch off’ but I can’t. I’m certainly tired enough to ‘switch off’ and to go to sleep but my health circumstances prevent this happening. 

Night time I frequently experience seizures. The episodes cause me to lose feeling down the left side of my body. During and after the episode my speech becomes slurred, I’m unable to move and I have been known to lose control of my bladder, without knowing it. Of course seizures occur during the daytime too, but, at night more often than not the outcomes and symptoms are worse because of exhaustion and lack of care and support staff to help me at night.

As I write this I have a burning sensation located in the right temple. The sensation starts in the right temple and spreads across my forehead. The sensation is like a spreading wildfire. Concentration is becoming more difficult. I’m losing the feeling down my right side of my body, I don’t think I’ll be able to write much more. 

When I type this up from my notebook I’ll type it up as it is. It’s important that my readers and followers understand the situation in an unedited way. I’ve lost track of what I was saying now. I’m trying to speak but the words are slurred. I’m dribbling too. I feel like you would do if you were under the influence of alcohol but I don’t drink alcohol. 

I’ve created a blog template to make uploading content easier but I’m not sure what I was telling you about now. It’s dark but I don’t know what time it is. I’m feeling exhausted and I’m not sure if I’ve wet myself or I’m just perspiring. 

I’m a Brain Injury Survivor and Proud.

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David Di Palma

Expressing the personal views of David Di Palma unless stated otherwise.

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