My Life Changed Overnight

I woke up and couldn’t use my arms any more By Caroline Midwood, 62, from Stourbridge

Waking up, I tried pulling myself out of bed. But it was like my arms were frozen. 

As I tried lifting them, pain tore through me. 

Gritting my teeth, I managed to get myself up. 

But in the shower, I couldn’t lift my arms to wash my hair. 

The pain was too intense. 

‘I must’ve slept on my arms funny,’ I told my husband John, 67.

But each day that passed, my arms were still causing me grief. I couldn’t lift them to dress myself, brush my hair, pick things up…

‘The pain is unbearable,’ I told my GP.

He prescribed painkillers, but they didn’t help.

Weeks passed and the pain just wasn’t letting up.

In fact, every joint in my body was aching.

I went back and forth to see my doctor, had various tests.

Blood tests revealed I was anaemic, but that didn’t explain the pain I was in. 

Back home, I became dependent on John.