When Ashley Broszek, now 25, was 21, she woke up one day in pain.
That discomfort has never gone away.
The student was getting ready for a presentation at university when she felt pain in her abdomen, but dismissed it as period cramps.
When she tried to walk, however, the pain became excruciating.
By the time she arrived for her presentation, Ashley was sweating, shaking, had turned pale and been sick in a bush. Somehow, she got through her presentation but that was her last day at university.
She said: ‘It was a pain I had never felt before, it was overwhelming. I just woke up with that pain one day and it has never gone.
‘Before I was very fit, very healthy, very active. When you’re young, you always think you’re going to get better. No one ever thinks they’re going to wake up one day and be disabled.’
Unable to walk far, Ashley finished her degree from her bed, but she was still without a diagnosis and doctors were unable to find what was wrong.
After a year and a half of tests and desperately searching for answers, a specialist diagnosed Ashley with Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment Syndrome – a rare nerve condition where nerves in the abdomen become trapped and cause continuous pain.
While the condition usually occurs from injury, in rare cases it can appear without an obvious cause or any warning, leaving sufferers like Ashley bedbound.
She said: ‘I saw NHS doctors who were brilliant. But unfortunately, they don’t have the funding and it’s just not something they come across much.
‘If I had gone into A&E with a broken leg it would have been fixed that day, but like a lot of people with invisible illnesses it can be quite a long journey to actually get a diagnosis.
‘Getting the diagnosis was an unbelievable feeling. I remember my mum and I just stood there crying and hugging.
‘Everyone in the waiting room probably thought we’d just had some really bad news, but actually it was the best news possible. I was elated. It was amazing.’
Ashley’s condition had left her unable to leave the house for two years, and while she still struggles with constant pain, she’s learning to adapt to her disability.
For her, mindset is everything.
‘When I became disabled, my first thought was that I’ve got no quality of life anymore,’ Ashley said. ‘But this was mostly because of my mindset.
‘The only thing you can do is change how you feel about a situation, adapt and try to find new ways of finding happiness in things.
‘I consider myself now to have a full life. I’m not doing my dream job and not as fit and able as I used to be, but I’ve changed my goals and what I love in life.
‘I could sit there and be miserable because the pain is always going to be there. But my misery is optional.’
Now using mobility aids such as a walking stick and scooter, Ashley says stares from strangers once made her so self-conscious she stayed indoors for months.
She’s learning to embrace the tools that help her get around and accept who she is, disability and all.
‘If I was in my 80s nobody would bat an eyelid,’ Ashley said. ‘But unfortunately with me being young, people are going to stare and they still stare.
‘It’s not an easy thing, but now I look them in the eye and smile back. Kill them with kindness.
‘You’ve just got to find happiness in what you are now. I do not even notice the stares anymore.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/04/woman-who-blamed-period-pain-for-being-bedridden-for-two-years-finds-out-she-has-a-rare-nerve-condition-13222011/
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