A young mum who became paralysed overnight is still no closer to a diagnosis two years after her life changed forever.
Lisa Harris woke up and collapsed one morning in December 2020 and is now a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair, having lost her hearing and in the process of losing her eyesight.
Medics were left baffled by the 30-year-old's condition and have not been able to determine the cause of her degenerating nerve damage.
Speaking in February, 2022, Lisa from Merthyr Tydfil said: "It did more or less happen overnight. I'd noticed my legs felt a little weaker than usual for a while and my balance was worse. I stood up to go to the bathroom while holding onto my partner and literally just hit the floor. I've not been able to stand or walk since.
"The nerve damage has now spread and I have very minimal hand function, my hearing is more or less gone and my optic nerve is dead so my sight is also going."
A year later, the mum-of-two has said her health had continued to deteriorate. Lisa admits she feels as though she was trapped in her body and has become terrified of interacting with people.
Describing how life had changed for her over the last 12 months, she told WalesOnline: "I've struggled massively, I feel a lot weaker and the pain has definitely levelled up. I can't remember the last time I had a full night's sleep without the pain waking me, it's very draining.
"It has been a struggle to say the least. Physically, I feel like I'm trapped inside a body that's breaking down which then affects every aspect of my life. I rarely leave the house or even interact with people anymore. I have no social life whatsoever and I have developed an irrational fear of people.
"I have to have my mother or my partner Luke with me as I can't handle being alone with people, even people I'm familiar with. This whole situation has been an emotional rollercoaster from the start and it's taken a toll on my mental and emotional health."
Lisa, who is a mum to Leo, nine, and Luna, three, with fiancee Luke, 29, previously said she was left so devastated by her paralysis that she felt suicidal. She told WalesOnline how her life now feels like "hell".
She said: "Now I am completely disabled. I can't do anything for myself anymore and it's pure hell to be honest. I have no independence at all and I can't even go for a wee by myself. I literally need help with everything I do. Going from someone who was stubbornly independent to this has been a hard pill to swallow."
Day-to-day, Lisa said she grieved for the mum she used to be. "A typical weekday consists of waking up with my children for school," she said. "Luke gets them ready while I sit in bed watching. I have a very broken sleep, night or day, so I try to sleep while the children are at school when I can.
"I usually spend my days sat in bed, I have a stairlift installed but the whole process of being moved from my room to the stairlift, then from the stairlift to the sofa and back again at bedtime is getting harder and leaves me drained and in agony so I tend to just stay in my room to avoid any additional pain.
"The kids understand the situation as best they can. They understand I can't get up and play with them so they bring their toys and activities to me and we sit on my bed while I watch them play. They're happy but it still kills me that I can't be the mother I want to be or the mother I used to be pre-disability. I can't do simple things anymore like the school run or bath them, pick them up if they fall or even just get them a snack. For me, that's the hardest thing."
Lisa said the NHS was "incredible" and praised staff for the work they did despite the strain they were under. However, she said she personally felt she had received little support from the health service.
"This past year I've received absolutely no care whatsoever," she said. "I've been like this since December, 2020, my last hospital stay was in March, 2021, and the last time I heard from [my] consultant neurologist was in March, 2022 - so no contact for a year. I just feel forgotten about, like they ran some tests, couldn't find out the issue and aren't really bothered to look further. Sometimes I even think I'm not being believed or taken seriously. I've just been left to carry on and try to manage."
Lisa has started a GoFundMe page in the hope of being able to pay for private healthcare to get the answers she so desperately needs. She hopes a diagnosis will lead her to find ways she can manage her symptoms.
She said: "I have no quality of life as it is, not even an ounce of independence. I feel like I'm literally just existing day to day and deteriorating. I really hope that going private means I'll be taken seriously and allows me to finally get answers to what is wrong with me. It was said around two years ago that it's unlikely I'll ever recover or get better but I hope that, with a definite diagnosis, there will be ways to help me manage. I'm desperate for answers and closure now.
"I've been sharing my journey on Instagram and have an incredible community of followers who have told me for a while to start fundraising and I've always been reluctant but I'm at the point now where I'm so desperate for answers that I'll try anything."
A Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board spokeswoman said: "We are sorry to hear of Lisa's circumstances and we ask that she contacts us direct with specific issues and concerns. This will enable us to look into this in detail."
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