Finding HopeA Four Month Detour…
Posted on December 24, 2025
I really didn’t mean to abandon this blog but the last four months have been completely miserable, healthwise.
Less than a week after I last posted, I started experiencing what felt like electric shocks in my lower back. It was so painful that, at times, all I could do was scream. Even when the electric-shock-like spasms weren’t actively happening, I was in – quite possibly – the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. And given my experience with chronic pain, that’s saying something. It was horrendous, especially as the painkillers that usually give me some relief weren’t having any effect. Eventually I managed to get some stronger painkillers from my GP and they were so strong that, for the first few days, I could barely keep my eyes open: I was asleep for around twenty hours each day. Thankfully, that did wear off after a while but I still felt slow and blurry while taking them.
It was a completely new kind of pain for me and while we had a few theories from the network of health professionals I’ve worked with, we still didn’t know what was causing it, how long it would go on for, or if it was a permanent change. The massage therapist I’ve done some work with – who has both personal and professional experience of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and chronic pain – was a godsend and thankfully, my Mum found a new physiotherapist nearby who had professional experience with hEDS and who was able to come to the house to see me. He was fantastic: he was thoughtful and thorough and explained everything with great care (sometimes multiple times); he really listened to me and took my priorities into account when choosing the exercises for me to do; I felt like he actually cared about me as a whole person, which has not been a common experience. He assessed me and felt that I had a pinched nerve in my lumbar spine, which typically heals in about eight to twelve weeks. That felt like an interminably long time but I was relieved to hear that he expected the pain to go away. He gave me some very gentle exercises to do as I felt able to, with the goal of strengthening the muscles in my back to support my especially hypermobile lumbar spine (and hopefully reduce my chronic pain). Between the pills (despite the side effects), the massage, the physiotherapy exercises, and the time that I was forced to take to rest properly, the pain finally started to decrease and I was able to slowly increase my mobility – I’m still working on that.
Unfortunately that was only the first part of the story. In early October, I started to struggle with multiple symptoms that I’ve rarely experienced, including stomach pain, nausea, acid reflux, and difficulty swallowing. It made eating so difficult that I could barely keep any food down and it made sleeping difficult because I felt worse when I was lying down. I felt awful but my Mum had been unwell a week or so earlier and so I assumed that it was the same thing and would pass relatively quickly; I thought I just had to rest and wait it out, like I often do with a seasonal illness or the symptoms of my chronic illnesses. But that didn’t happen. The symptoms got more intense until I wasn’t eating at all – sips of water were all I could manage – and the POTS symptoms I experience everyday had become debilitating. I hate going to the doctor but if there was ever a time, this was it.
I managed to get an appointment with one of the GPs pretty quickly – not my usual GP but that isn’t unusual and I did manage to get an appointment with her for later in the week – but when I explained what was happening, this doctor said that there wasn’t time to explore each of the symptoms so she questioned me about the difficulty swallowing, prescribed me a medication, and sent me on my way. I was deeply unimpressed and had no confidence in her diagnosis or the medication: treating one symptom when several are presenting at the same time… that seemed very unlikely to help whatever was causing the multiple symptoms. I’m passionate about the NHS (and about improving it) but it’s not exactly straightforward when I’ve been repeatedly invalidated and mistreated by medical professionals.
I didn’t have time to even take the medication before the stomach pain got so bad that I couldn’t move. We ended up calling 111 and their recommendation was to call an ambulance and head to A&E. The idea of being in an ambulance – as an already overstimulated autistic person – felt horrific and I almost had a meltdown; I didn’t know what I was supposed to do when I felt like I could barely move. Eventually my Mum had to all but drag me into a cab to go to A&E. For once, being autistic was a help rather than a hindrance because the receptionist moved us straight from the initial waiting room into the actual A&E department where people were being assessed and treated. We still had a considerable wait ahead of us, which felt incredibly long given how much pain I was in. It wasn’t exactly a restful environment either: besides the patients and nurses coming in and out, there were paramedics and police and one young woman who cried the entire time she was there. If I hadn’t been in so much pain and so overstimulated, I might’ve been impressed – and a lot more sympathetic. But I was running on empty and on the edge of sensory overload and all I wanted was some quiet; it was a rough night – for everyone clearly.
After a couple of hours, several different nurses did a series of tests, including taking blood and doing an ECG (during which my cannula from the blood draw was jostled, leading to the bruise pictured below – that hurt for a while). A little while later, another nurse gave me a low dose of morphine that did, thankfully, slowly bring my pain level down. But after that, we were left for several hours; even when we were the only people left in the little waiting area, no one came for us or even gave us an update. I was starting to think we’d been forgotten about.
When a doctor did finally call my name, he didn’t have any real answers for me. He did at least have a reasonable understanding of hEDS and how it can cause strange or skewed test results: a hEDS body does not react to anything the same way a non-hEDS body does, surprise surprise. So there was no obvious explanation for my symptoms but he prescribed antibiotics and recommended getting a referral to the hospital’s Gastroenterology department if the symptoms weren’t resolved by the antibiotics. I don’t love the approach of just throwing medication at a problem and hoping it helps but I was desperate and that was the only option being offered.
(Left: the bruise left by my cannula, having being knocked during A&E tests // Right: me, asleep on the sofa the day after the night spent in A&E with Izzy keeping me company)
We got home around seven and I was asleep the moment I lay down on the sofa. I was just completely exhausted. I took the antibiotics I’d been prescribed but then, when I saw my actual GP, she was surprised by how high the dose was, adjusted it, and prescribed another antibiotic, as well as sending the referral to the Gastroenterology department at the hospital. Again, it wasn’t exactly reassuring since we still didn’t know what the actual problem was and I was starting to spiral a bit about the possibility that this was more than just a passing illness, that it was something much more serious that was getting overlooked (with the potential to lead to an even more debilitating outcome). But I tried not to go down that rabbit hole. I was trying to at least give the various medications a chance to work.
Over the next few weeks, I just lay on the sofa and tried to eat when I felt able to. Between my body trying to fight whatever was going on and the fact that it was trying to function on very little fuel, I was barely able to do anything. I was forced to rest, to literally just rest; I couldn’t even do the most passive of activities. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. My body and my brain were barely functioning: a good day consisted of a shower and watching TV (and eating what I could). But the medications started to work and, very slowly, I started to feel better and the symptoms started to decrease in intensity, even if I was still building back up my capacity after so long with so little fuel in my body. And then, just as I was finishing the courses of medication, I started to feel actually well again and I don’t think describing my mood as “overjoyed” would be an exaggeration. Eating went from being a struggle to being joyful (a word I don’t think I’ve ever used in the context of eating) and I was sleeping well, not only for the first time in weeks but in months: I was feeling so good that it felt more than a little surreal but I wasn’t complaining. It was a huge relief after eight weeks of feeling so terrible.
But less than a week later, the symptoms started to reappear and I started to feel really unwell again. I had bloodwork done (which had been ordered way back when I’d first gone to the doctor) but all of the tests came back fine or inconclusive again. I was wondering if the medications had been treating just the symptoms and not the underlying issue, which made me deeply anxious about what that underlying issue could be. I wasn’t sure what the next step was supposed to be but I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people in my various circles and, long story short, it seems that these digestive issues were a delayed response to the increase of one of my long term medications: some (professionally guided) experimentation has proved as much as is possible that my digestive system can’t handle this medication over a certain dosage so I’m currently taking a break from it (which is something you can safely do with this medication) while getting my food routine and some of my energy and strength back. After Christmas, or maybe the New Year, we’ll reassess and I’ll likely start taking it again at the lower dose since I had had a positive experience with it until that final dosage increase.
So that is where I’ve been: too sick to do anything, too sick to even write a blog post about being sick. When I say it’s the most unwell I’ve ever felt, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve dealt with a wide range of symptoms and various levels of pain during my life but never have I been so ill, in the way we typically picture illness. I’ve dialled everything right back to absolute basics and I am starting to feel a bit more normal, despite a few bumps in the road. Fingers crossed, I’ll be feeling more like myself again by the time the New Year rolls around…
Migraines, Tooth Pain, And Blood Pressure Monitoring
Posted on June 5, 2021
So often in my life it seems, medical stuff is like waiting for a bus: weeks or months go by and then suddenly a whole slew of them show up. And that’s certainly been true of the last few months. Just as the final module of my Masters was starting, I was hit by a series of awful migraines, suffered with terrible tooth pain, and spent twenty four hours hooked up to a blood pressure monitor, a test ordered by a neurology unit in London. So it’s been a pretty hectic time…
MIGRAINES
At the time of writing this, I’ve lost approximately half of the last forty days to migraines.
I’ve had migraines before – maybe a handful a year, depending on my stress levels and the medication I’m taking – but they usually only last for a day or so before fading away. They’re not pleasant but they weren’t seriously impacting my life. But then I had one that lasted roughly four days and I ended up in A&E because, having fairly recently had the Astra Zeneca vaccine, my doctor was worried about the extremely rare side effect of a blood clot. I was sure it was a migraine but agreed to go and after most of the day there, I was released; the doctor agreed that it was most likely a bad migraine but told me to come back if it didn’t go away. And after another day or so, it did. While I was somewhat irritated about losing a day that should’ve been spent working on my end of semester assessment (despite the pain, I was pushing myself to work on it as I could, in the moments where the painkillers actually worked – I think that’s mainly why it went on so long personally), I am really grateful to all of the hospital staff. They were all great – warm, considerate, and personable – despite the somewhat alarming COVID precautions everywhere that weren’t exactly great for my anxiety. But they were really kind and gentle with me throughout my visit, making the whole experience a lot easier than it could’ve been.
I’d thought that that was it. But then, again and again, I was hit by migraine after migraine, all lasting unusually long periods of time (for me, at least). They were averaging out at about six days each time, sometimes more. That was extremely stressful, bearing in mind that I’m at the beginning of the homestretch of my Masters with this final module accounting for 60% of my final grade, and I was utterly miserable from the pain. I was also so light sensitive; at one point, even the darkest room in the house felt too bright and I dissolved onto the floor in tears, which only hurt my head more. It was awful. That was the first time we called 111 and they called paramedics. That time they determined it was, again, a severe migraine and recommended two other pain medications to try in the hope that they’d be more effective than Nurofen.
A couple of migraines later, with minimal help from the new painkillers, I had another really bad one, which had us calling 111 and they sent paramedics (both such lovely guys who fell in love with the cats and talked musicals with me while they did their tests). This migraine was slightly different: it had all of my normal migraine symptoms but I also had this almost blinding pain at the front and right side of my face. They thought it was probably a migraine but suggested talking to my doctor about having a CAT scan and/or whether there was something going on with my cranial nerves. They also had some practical, experience based advice around pain relief (one of them had personal experience with severe migraines). They said they could escort us to the hospital on the off chance that a doctor would do a CAT scan but did acknowledge that they might just take blood and keep me there while it was checked again, like my previous visit to A&E. So we chose the second option: Mum was going to go out and get the new medication option and call my GP ASAP.
TOOTH PAIN
That was the most recent migraine (at the time of writing this). As time passed, the pain in my head started to decrease, then my face, settling in my back-top-right teeth; every time they – and finally just one (after about a week) – knocked against the bottom teeth, the pain was so bad that my entire body would freeze up.
As soon as it had settled in my teeth, we’d called the dentist and they brought me in as an emergency (a few days wait rather than a few months). The dentist checked, took x-rays and saw some decay in the painful tooth, fairly close to the nerve root, and it already has a pretty big filling in it. At one point, somehow, the hEDS diagnosis came up (I was diagnosed since my last dental appointment) and the dentist said that she’s seen and heard about multiple people with a form of EDS (or who were later diagnosed with it) struggle with tooth decay, as well as being scolded by their dentists for not doing a good enough job with their dental hygiene even though they actually were; it was often the EDS causing problems, not necessarily their actions. This really is the diagnosis that keeps on giving (imagine a sarcastic snort at the end of that sentence).
Anyway, she diagnosed an abscess and gave me two treatment options: extraction or root canal therapy, which would involve multiple, multi-hour sessions that would be painful, ultimately might not work, and probably wouldn’t last into my late thirties. The whole thing felt pretty overwhelming and I ended up in tears. Extraction was the obvious choice as far as I was concerned and everyone else agreed; there seemed to be way too many downsides to the root canal option (plus it sounded horrendous and I find dental work, even fairly straightforward stuff, very distressing) and even if I was inclined to choose it, it’s the worst possible time given the end of my Masters. Even an extraction is going to be a significant disruption. I’m applying for extenuating circumstances, which both my supervisor and module leader have encouraged, so hopefully that’ll mean I end up with the same amount of time to do the work as everyone else.
So, I’ve been referred for an emergent extraction under general anaesthetic but I don’t know when that’s going to happen. They also prescribed me some antibiotics for the mean time. Now it’s a waiting game. But several days after the appointment, either the antibiotics are working or the nerve is dying or both because the pain is getting better and I feel more human. There are periods of time where I can actually ignore it, which is a huge deal considering how much pain I’d been in. So that’s definitely something to be grateful for.
BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING
A couple of months ago, I had an appointment with a doctor from a neurology unit in London, which I believe I mentioned in this post. After spending most of the appointment vehemently telling me there was no point in getting any tests, he somewhat reluctantly offered to write to my GP, suggesting I have my blood pressure monitored for twenty four hours. It took forever to get a monitor from the hospital but finally test day came.
I had to go to the hospital where they fitted the monitor (found the right size for my arm, wrapped me up, made sure it was taking readings, looped the cable behind my neck, and used the tie from my coat to secure the monitor/data recorder around my waist) and gave me the instructions and paperwork to go along with the monitor. I wasn’t allowed to get it wet so I couldn’t have a shower while wearing it but since that’s when I usually get my blood pressure related symptoms, we devised a plan where I would go through the motions – with the shower on to create the heat and steam – so that it would still record whatever was happening to my blood pressure during a shower, as much as possible at least. The whole process was relatively stress free and the two women who sorted me out were great, warm and extremely competent but flexible to my needs. I’m really grateful to them for making it so easy.
All done, we headed home. It was a bit weird with the weight of the monitor, the too long cable getting caught on stuff, and so on but overall, it was fine. The cuff got very tight – tighter than I remembered them getting when you get a one off test – but it wasn’t a big deal and the rest of the day went on as normal. It was a bit of a struggle to get to sleep because I couldn’t get comfortable with the cuff on my arm but once I did get to sleep, the inflating and squeezing didn’t wake me up, something I’d expected to happen.
However, when I woke up, my arm was really sore. I felt like I’d been punched a hundred times in the same place, convinced the skin was bruised underneath the cuff (it wasn’t and no bruise ever emerged but damn, it was tender). I think the cuff had slipped in the night as well because I had several error readings on that second day.
I had my pretend shower and, as usual, felt shaky, dizzy, and lightheaded; having thought ahead, I’d timed things so that the monitor would be taking the reading right at the end of my fake shower. I’m intrigued to see what that reading says. That done, Mum helped me wash my hair, leant over the side of the bath; I had an online meeting and couldn’t bear the thought of doing that with unwashed hair. It wasn’t very dignified, especially with all the extra towels wrapped around me to keep the monitor dry, but it got the job done.
I wore it for the rest of the twenty four hours and then, with great relief, unwrapped the cuff. By the end, my arm felt really sore from the squeezing, plus it had started to pinch in various places at some point. There’s also that Autism-sensory-thing of wearing something constantly constricting, which starts causing anxiety after certain periods of time, like a long day in skinny jeans or wearing my retainer all day. Does that make sense? The anxiety had been building for the last few hours and it was wonderful to take it off.
Mum dropped it back at the hospital, so now I guess it’s another waiting game. I don’t know when we’ll find out the results and the conclusions drawn from them. I assume that they’ll let us know at some point, although it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to chase results. As I said, all we can do now is wait.
So, yeah, hectic. At a very inconvenient time. But that’s life and I’m determined not to let it spoil the last of my Masters and this project that I’ve been looking forward to for so long. I am going to make the most of every good day I have, take the extenuating circumstances gratefully, and continue working as hard as I can.
Finding Hope 