On
November 16th 2006 the day started out normally and I got up to go to
school. I wasn't feeling ill at all until I arrived at my first
lesson. I started feeling dizzy and lethargic and I got sent to
the medical room where it was eventually decided it would be best to
call an ambulance.
I was kept in
hospital and monitored for a week or 2 and after my consultant from
Great Ormond Street children's hospital had seen me, it had been decided
it was time to have a pacemaker fitted. Within 2 days I was in
London - I wasn't scared about having my pacemaker fitted because I knew
it would make my heart faster and hopefully I would be able to start
doing more physical things without getting tired out within 5 minutes.
Although the
operation took 3 and a half hours instead of an hour and a half like
they originally said, everything went well and I was discharged 2 days
after. Then for a few weeks everything was fine until one day my
left arm started turning blue and purple - I could hardly move it, it
was tingling all over and I had had shooting pains going up and down my
arm.
So, I went up
to Lowestoft hospital and then ended up going back to James Paget
Hospital where they kept me in and did some tests. After staying
in at JPH and then again at GOSH they eventually decided I had RSD
(Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) in my arm. I didn't know what it
was at first but they explained about it - RSD is a chronic pain
condition that is believed to be the result of dysfunction in the
central or peripheral nervous systems.
They said my
pacemaker had moved out of the muscle pocket it had been stitched into
and that it was more than likely the cause of it. They had never
before seen RSD caused by a pacemaker - I was the first.
It made me
feel a little bit worried - I had no-one to talk to with the same
problem but I managed to cope (with help from all my friends at the
Salvation Army). I was put on a mixture of pain killers and
tablets to relax my nerves and muscles. This was at the start of
2007 - it is now April 2008 and I am still suffering with pain every day
but I hope that someday all the pain will go.
Kelly
