A woman has revealed how she stumped doctors after waking up paralysed one morning – with no one able to figure out why.
Lying in her bed, Sophia Moore was terrified when she found herself with severe pain in her left hip and unable to walk with no explanation.
The musical theatre performer and dancer was rushed to hospital and has since left medical professionals baffled, undergoing nine surgeries in an attempt to discover the cause of her constant pain.
The sudden loss of movement still remains a mystery, with Sophia unable to retain normal motion in her legs to this day.
“It was incredibly sudden – the day before I had been walking around a shopping centre with mum, trying on clothes and everything had seemed perfectly fine,” the 23-year-old from Chelmsford, England, told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“I had had incidents in the past where I had some sort of injury where the onset of pain was quite sudden and it had always passed quite quickly, so at first I wasn’t too worried.
“When it didn’t pass after a few days, Mum took me to a physio, I was 13 at the time.
“He was very worried and sent me straight to A&E.
“At this time I think my mum was a lot more worried than I was, I just assumed that my mum would be able to get me fixed like she always had.
“Over the next few weeks, doctors at my local hospital tried to find the problem, though it was an endless battle for my mum.
“No one seemed to have any answers.”
Suffering from unexplained joint pain, dizziness and fatigue since the age of seven, Sophia had previously been diagnosed with hypermobility, a condition where her joints are too flexible and loose.
In September 2013, the doctors decided to perform an arthroscopy on her hip, a keyhole surgery used to investigate joints and treat minor damage.
Following two more arthroscopies, Sophia was diagnosed with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder which affects the connective tissue in her body.
However, the cause of her paralysis is still unknown.
She said: “I cannot rely on my body in the same way as other people do.
“I remain in constant pain today.
“I am unable to put any weight through my left leg without excruciating pain, so I cannot walk and need crutches to mobilise.
“No one knows why this is the case – they are still investigating my symptoms at University College London Hospital, including in the Institute for Dance and Sports Medicine, where they are trying to find the source of my pain and so try and find a way to help reduce the pain levels for me.
“My hip problems are almost certainly linked to my JHS, but to what extent no one knows, and they probably never will.”
Having to put her dreams of dancing on hold until she was able to walk, Sophia felt like she was missing out on life, each new procedure setting her back months and putting her on crutches again.
She said: “In between the various procedures I have had periods when I was able to walk and dance, but also periods when I was in constant pain and unable to walk except with crutches.
“During the period from April 2013 until October 2020, I only danced when I was able-bodied.
“When I was unable to walk, I stopped dancing, found life very hard and often became withdrawn and depressed.
“When I had the first operation in September 2013 it made things better and I could walk and dance again.
“But things regularly went wrong with my hips – only once with my right hip, but regularly with my left one.
“Each time I went back on crutches I stopped dancing – and my dream got further and further away from me.”
Following six arthroscopies in total, Sophia then received pins in her left hip for a year, before it was entirely replaced in the hope of improving mobility and reducing pain.
“The NHS has been great to me, supporting me throughout,” she commented.
“They are constantly trying to find answers and never given up trying to help me.”
Despite everything, she has continued to dance when she can, using crutches from Cool Crutches & Sticks to aid her, matching any costume she wears.
Now, two years later, Sophia is in her third year of a musical theatre degree at Performance Preparation Academy, embracing her disability as she dances the pain away.
She hopes to become one of the West End’s first disabled musical theatre performers.
Sophia added: “I did a lot of work on myself, and also a lot of growing up.
“I accepted that I would most likely be disabled for the rest of my life.
“It was around this time that I began to dance on crutches.
“Once I took dancing on crutches seriously, it quickly became apparent that NHS crutches would not stand up to the task.
“Cool Crutches resonated with me and I could see that their crutches had a broader resting place for my hands – very useful as I was now supporting my whole bodyweight on my hands for periods when I danced – and different types of ferrules which could offer more support and stability.
”Instead of not dancing when I was unable to walk, I turned that on its head and worked out how I could still dance.
“I could not live without my Cool Crutches now.
“So, in October 2020, I made a decision that I would try auditioning for dance/drama college again but this time as a disabled performer.
“I was enthusiastic, resilient and determined by this point.
“I have been through a range of emotions over the last 10 years of my life.
“They range from hopeless to hopeful, resigned to resolute, broken to resilient, depressed to excited, unimportant to confident, afraid to determined.
“The fact is I love to dance – whether able-bodied or on crutches, dance is my passion.”
