A Christmas To Remember

We all look forward to a relaxing break. But for some, last year’s festivities were tarnished by the prospect that it could be their last as they knew it

- Bess Browning

‘I SPENT CHRISTMAS DAY IN SURGERY’

Jennie Sharpe, 28, is a show jumper who lives in Northamptonshire.

Looking in the mirror at the tattoo etched in black ink down my spine, I’m reminded how far I’ve come since last Christmas. It says: ‘This scar means I’m stronger than what tried to stop me’ and while it’s true, there were moments I thought that my life was over.

As a show jumper, I’vealways loved the outdoors, spending time with my horses and dogs, mucking out stables or walking in the countryside. Only, on 21 December last year, as I bent down to pick up my new puppy Vinnie, I felt a strange tingling sensation travel up my legs, and then my genitals and hips went numb.

Throbbing pain

At A&E, medics said it looked like sciatica and sent me home with painkillers – but by the time Christmas Eve came around, my back had started to throb with pain. I could barely move with the agony, and suddenly, as I wrapped the last of my presents, I felt my bladder weaken.

‘I’ve wet myself,’ I sobbed to my mum, Kate, 54. It was humiliating, and what was happening to my body terrified me.

After being assessed at A&E, I was rushed to Leicester General Hospital for an MRI.

With my parents by my bedside, I was told by doctors that a disc in my back had exploded, affecting my bladder, bowels and legs. It had caused a condition called cauda equina syndrome, where all of the nerves in my lower back had been compressed, and I needed emergency surgery to remove the ruptured disc.

If I had gone to hospital any later, I’d have been paralysed from the waist down.

At 1 am on Christmas Day, the last thing I saw was the tinsel above the operating table as the general anaesthetic kicked in. Hours later, I was told terrible news.