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Gill Haddington struggles with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a rare disorder that causes disproportionate pain following trauma
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Haddington had to have her leg amputated after merely dropping a perfume bottle on it, and her hand amputated following a minor scratch from her dog
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The surgeries, she said, helped her “[get] my life back” — and now she’s raising money for a support group that she credits with “saving” her life
A woman with a rare, but “excruciating” disorder, had two limbs amputated after minor injuries caused significant pain.
It all started in September 2017, when Gill Haddington, now 48, dropped a perfume bottle on her right foot. She thought she’d broken her foot, but scans showed that her foot was technically fine.
However, over the next few months, “my foot began to twist at a 90-degree angle,” Haddington said, according to The Daily Mail. “It got to the point where you could actually see bone coming through. I was getting a lot of blisters and ulcers which started to spread up to my ankle.”
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Gill Haddington is raising money for Enable, the support group that helped her through her pain disorders.
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“I was on 30 different pain medications a day,” Haddington, who hails from the English town of Morecambe, said, adding that the medicine didn’t help. She was finally diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in 2016. It’s a rare neurological disorder, the Mayo Clinic explains, that isn’t well understood. It causes pain after an injury or surgery. “The pain is out of proportion to the severity of the initial injury,” according to Mayo.
Haddington’s pain was so severe that on May 11, 2017, she had her leg amputated below the knee. When she woke up from the surgery, “I’d gone from quiet and in pain to laughing and joking,” Haddington said, adding that her partner, Pete, 67, told her, “‘We’ve got the old Gill back.’ “
In March 2020, Haddingon’s dog, Bella, accidentally scratched her hand. “She just got excited to see me, bless her,” Haddington explained. “It was the tiniest scratch, literally an inch long.” But it triggered another flare-up of CRPS, Haddington says. “I knew, as soon as the blisters started, it was going to be the same as my leg.”
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Gill Haddington and her partner, Pete, before her surgeries.
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Despite physical therapy, she couldn’t open her hand beyond a fist, and on May 11, 2021 — exactly four years after her first surgery — she had her hand amputated.
“I felt immediately afterwards like I got my life back,” said Haddington. “I just feel sorry for people having to live through this pain, who haven’t had the opportunity to undergo an elective amputation yet.”
She’s raising money for Enable, a support group that’s helped her through her struggle. “The pain of CRPS is excruciating,” she says, crediting the group with “saving” her life. “I’ve had so many ups and downs. I’m incredibly lucky things have turned out the way they did.”
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