A NOTTS woman is preparing to have her bladder removed after it was destroyed by her addiction to party drugs.
Danielle Watson is facing the procedure after a habit which started in her teens led to her snorting 100 lines of ketamine and 'meow meow', or mephedrone, a day.
The 23-year-old was told last June the drugs had scarred her bladder so badly it could no longer expand to carry urine – causing excruciating pain and incontinence.
Although she's now clean of drugs, her bladder hasn't recovered and later this month she will have it removed completely.
She then faces having to drain urine from a hole in her stomach for the rest of her life.
Danielle said: "I'm so ashamed, but I want people to know about my condition because they need to realise how dangerous these drugs are.
"I didn't take the risks seriously because meow meow was legal back then and ketamine had only recently been made illegal. I loved the highs."
She added she "fell in with the wrong crowd" as a teenager and began taking drugs.
She first took ketamine after it was offered to her by a friend - deciding to accept because she knew the drug had only been made illegal a year before.
"Within minutes I felt relaxed," she said.
"I wanted another hit straight away. Everyone was doing it – I didn't think it was dangerous."
But she got hooked and two years later was taking 15g a day.
She then turned to taking mephedrone known as 'meow meow' as well, carrying on when it was made illegal in April 2010.
But in January 2012 she noticed blood in her urine.
"I couldn't see my GP about it because I was too embarrassed," she said.
"My stomach hurt when I went to the toilet and I started getting urine infections."
Danielle collapsed last June after a binge at a party and was taken to hospital, where doctors said she was suffering from the effects of not eating enough.
But they also found severe damage to her bladder caused by the drugs.
Ulcers had left scars which had stiffened and stopped the bladder expanding, meaning she needed to urinate more.
In March, tests showed her bladder wasn't recovering and had shrunk even more.
It is causing Danielle so much pain it will now have to be removed.
The operation is set for later this month – a portion of Danielle's bowel will then be made into a makeshift bladder and she'll drain urine from it through a hole smaller than a five-pence piece, next to her belly button.
She said: "I sobbed when they told me."
She added: "The drugs I took should never have been legal – that's what lulled me into a false sense of security.
"People have to realise how much damage they can do."
Danielle has told the story of the impact of her addiction to a national magazine.
The full feature appears in this week's Closer magazine on sale now.
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