A former healthcare worker from Hatfield has explained how multiple conditions led her to stop working and made it difficult for her to go anywhere long before the pandemic.
A honeymoon in 2014 to Turkey did not go as planned for Jessica Heather, who after having a bout of food poisoning never recovered and now suffers from several rare conditions including Behçet's disease (BD), Fibromyalgia, and Gastroparesis.
"I and my husband Wayne were both having upset stomachs but I got it very nasty and I was admitted to the hospital," she told the WHT.
Jessica's doctors could not figure out what she had so they "mistakenly diagnosed" her with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, and told her to drink meal replacement food until her stomach stabilised.
"They also thought I had lupus so they went back to the drawing board," she added. "And I got worse."
She was then found to have had fibromyalgia, a widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory, and mood issues, but this did not explain her mouth ulcers, skin lesions, blackouts, and constant vomiting.
During Christmas 2019, she received a present with a final diagnosis of Behçet's, a type of inflammatory disorder that affects multiple parts of the body and has no cure and no known cause.
"It went from me going to work to maybe needing a feeding tube in the future," she said. "But I cannot thank the NHS enough for their support and my husband."
Heather is receiving artificially generated plasma, as she cannot have the human-kind due to her body attacking itself.
"Though after the plasma I feel like superwoman," she added. "But this has now been cancelled due to COVID-19."
The 30-year-old's most recent diagnosis of gastroparesis, a disease in which the stomach cannot empty itself of food in a normal fashion, and worsening situation led to her giving up her healthcare work in 2018 and plans to train as a stroke nurse.
"I have found through my YouTube channel that I am talking to people about my condition who are like me and this is really helping me get through everything."
For more search 'holidaywiththeheathers'.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here