A woman has shared the painful reality of having a condition that forces her to wear six pairs of socks just to keep her blood circulating.
Ellen Fitzgibbins has Raynaud’s – a disease that can be activated by the cold, anxiety and stress but is also linked to underlying autoimmune conditions for some patients.
The 25-year-old’s symptoms are sometimes so bad that she can’t get food from the fridge without wearing gloves – and she’s also had to give up her love of playing football.
“My earliest memories are of being very sensitive to the cold,” the fitness trainer, from Winchester, told Need To Know.
“[Now], if I am eating something [chilled], I won’t hold the bowl or container directly in my hands.
“I will either wrap it in a tea towel or tissue or hold my hand in my sleeve.
“I wear multiple layers even indoors – it is normal for me to have three pairs of socks [or up to six] and two jumpers on at any given time.
“Even everyday showering becomes overwhelming sometimes, as I will have an attack in the shower when the rest of my body is warmer, or as soon as I get out of the shower and become cold as soon as the water stops running.
“[But] I don’t like to put the heating on too often to save money.”
Ellen first noticed something was wrong after moving into a chilly student flat.
She said: “It was an old three-story house with mould and damp.
“I was on the third floor and the heating didn’t work on that floor.
“We [my housemates and I] became quite unsociable – we would take to staying in bed as opposed to getting out in the cold.
“My way of coping was to stand in very hot showers – but this also led to chill-blains [inflamed skin] as I couldn’t feel how hot the water was and how quickly my skin was heating up.
“It [the condition] became more evident during football matches, which I used to play, as I would get a stinging sensation in my hands and feet.
“I always found the cold very hard to cope with but a lot of the time, I was told to get on with it and be braver.”
At one point, the condition flared up so bad that one of Ellen’s toes turned black with an infection and she rushed to the doctor for help.
The digit went black from an infection and she rushed to the doctor for help.
She said: “I got antibiotics to treat the infection – they knew it wasn’t deep enough to be permanently damaged and made me come back for a check-up to make sure it was healing.
“My blood pressure was very low so they [doctors] didn’t want to give me any medications that would affect that.
“It has never gone that colour again but there is a lot of scar tissue – it is the first toe to get infected or be painful during a flare-up.”
Ellen was diagnosed with Raynaud’s in 2019 but this was not the end of her health ordeal.
She also began suffering from severe reactions to gluten and was diagnosed with coeliac disease – an autoimmune condition – in 2021.
She explained: “I think that stress was the trigger for both my Raynaud’s and autoimmune conditions – stress of exams and studying and working at the same time, whilst also being emotionally stressed.”
While Ellen now has answers, her life continues to be affected by her health conditions.
She is forced to be careful when eating cold foods and follows a special diet.
Rising energy bills have also played a role in her ongoing battle with Raynaud’s and she is torn between saving money and keeping her symptoms at bay.
For anyone who suspects that their aversion to the cold could be a more serious underlying condition, Ellen recommends taking the health charity SRUK’s online test, which will direct you to the appropriate support.
She added: “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
“Find what works for you to manage and live with the condition – and it’s okay if this is different to someone else.”
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