My arthritis journey

Hi everyone! 

As some of you might of figured out I am currently home and back in England. Not because ofthe corona pandemic but because my life literally got turned on it’s head 6 months ago. 

This is going to be long but stick with me! 

Let’s rewind to last year October time. 

performing in Ice College 2019 at Phantasialand. 3 shows a day 6 days a week. one day I notice a pimple on my right ankle. It was literally so small. I thought nothing of it. Maybe it was from shaving, I don’t know.. anyway a week goesby and I start to feel so much pain whilst doing the shows. It was horrible! I was padding my boots with dish sponges, anything I could get my hands on! Nothing was helping and I was literally gritting my teeth through tears in my eyes to perform the shows. None of my cast could believe me that I was in so much pain from a tiny pimple! Towards the end of the week my ankle started to swell and I went to the hospital. They tested for any infection and x rayed me- and nothing came back. They sent me home with ibuprofen. 2 days later my whole foot and leg had swollen SO much! I went back and immediately I was put on a drip and that was me for the next 5 days! 3 drips a day and bed rest. Major infection!!

after I got discharged there were only a few days left of ice college. I took these days to rest so I was ready for my winter contract. It is now the 4th of November. I wake up with some slight knee pains.. maybe this is because I’ve been inactive for a while I think.. 
Anyway I go to the doctor as a routine checkup after being in the hospital. He agrees that it’s just aches and pains from being bedbound. But to come back if it gets worse. 
7th November- I wake up and I kid you not I can’t walk. I can’t bend my legs, straighten my arms or make a fist. 

what the hell has happened!? 

I some how make it to the doctor as soon as he opened at 9am. By 10am I was in hospital backon a drip!! 

I didn’t even know what was happening at this point. Everyone around me seemed very concerned. I’m in a forgin country, alone and currently disabled. 

I’m going to skip ahead a few weeks.  But basically I stayed in Germany to receive treatment in 2 different hospitals  as long as I could until I realized this isn’t getting better and I need to come home...

Since getting home on the 20th November. Mylife has been.. crazy, emotional, frustrating andvery hard. 

I mean trying to explain my story to English doctors after all that went on in Germany was difficult. Getting a diagnosis and medication is still an ongoing battle. 
They “think” it’s reactive arthritis as an onset from that daym pimple on my ankle!! Can you believe it!?

The current outlook is hard to get my head round. 

1. there is no current cure for my autoimmune disease. 

2. So far we are struggling to medicate me so I can be pain free and start moving again. And the end goal being getting back on the ice! 

3. I don’t know what my future in skating will be. This is the hardest thing to process right now. My whole life and everything I was working for literally got snatched away from me. I don’tdrink, smoke. I take care of my body, and to wake up one day and not be able to walk?! And nobody can tell me WHY this fully happened to me. 

they say it “could” be many things. But actuallythere is no known reason why people get autoimmune disease and there is no cure. 

So what now? 

Immune suppressing drugs to try and calm my over reacting immune system from attacking my joints. 
Physio therapy to re-train my joints to function properly. 

If you have read this far- thank you!!

The reason I’m setting up this page is for 3 things. 

1. I wanted to tell my story for anyone that was wondering why I’m home and have seen some things about me being ill. im more than happy to answer any more questions. 

2. The UK’s biggest arthritis charity is called Versus Arthritis. And they are currently the only charity that funds any kind of research to these diseases. And let me tell you the amount of times I have begged for answers and tests and I get told ”Research and Funding” is annoyingly frustrating!! 

So. For the month of June. They are doing a fund raiser for the charity! It’s to try and walk 10thousand steps a day or more for everyday of June! That’s 300,000 steps!!

Now for most of you that will seem easy. But for me this will be a challenge. Most days I can’t even walk downstairs, brush my hair or put on socks! I barley walk 1000 steps a day. So to do 10k is a challenge. 
One that I am determined to do.  If I can do this AND raise money to help towards a cure to ending this hell then im going to do it! 

And the last reason is to also help towards funding alternative medicines. Such as cryotherapy and acupuncture. These have been studied and could really help in my recovery to remission. Unfortunately they are costly and are not a service that the NHS provide. 

So if you have finally gotten this far, and wouldlike to help and support my 10k challenge and help towards further treatment I would be eternally grateful!! 

If you follow my fb I will be posting updates on how I’m getting on and when lockdown is lifted I can document how the treatments are helping me.