Nicki’s Foot Drop Story

It all started when…

My name is Nicki, I am 42 & I have a left-sided foot drop. On 16th May 2013, after a week of intense back & sciatic pain, I woke to find that I could not move my leg from the knee & that my foot was drooping.  I was referred to the acute orthopaedic department at my local hospital where I was assessed, sent for an urgent MRI scan & given my first AFO.  I was told that I had a foot drop & that I would be seen by a consultant later that week.

I left the hospital that day completely bewildered.  I didn’t know what foot drop was, I was scared, anxious & worried about the future.  I was mum to 2 boys, I had a job, how was I going to manage?  When I met my Consultant for the first time he explained that I had had a disc prolapse & that had compressed the sciatic nerve which in turn had damaged the peroneal nerve & that had caused the foot drop.  He thought that the back problem would perhaps settle without surgery & suggested that we meet every week to see how things progressed.  I was given an 18 month window for the foot drop to recover.  I trusted his advice & went with the plan.

So over the weeks & months that passed my back pain recovered without surgical intervention but I was left with agonising nerve pain in my leg & the foot drop didn’t seem to get better despite the weekly physio sessions that I had.  I tried everything to recover.  I sought the opinion of a foot surgeon, I had nerve conduction studies that showed there was no nerve response at all, I tried nerve root blocks for the pain in my leg, I had an AFO custom made to help with my walking & confidence.  But I still became really depressed, the life that I had known before was gone.   I had numerous falls that made me lose my confidence. I had been so active & I was left a shell of my former self.  I couldn’t do half of the things that I could before & I was struggling, really struggling. 

A friend suggested that I try counselling as she could see that I wasn’t coping.  I reluctantly booked myself in & attended my first session.  I was convinced that I would be sat there the whole hour with nothing to say.  I was wrong! I didn’t stop talking & went every week for 8 weeks.  It did me the world of good to be able to sit and talk to someone who wasn’t clinically or emotionally attached to me. If you can access this I really would recommend it.  It was suggested at one of my sessions that I see my AFO as a part of me & that perhaps I should give it a name.  I took this advice and she is called Belinda!  I don’t like her some days but she sticks with me regardless!

So fast forward to today, I still have the foot drop and have to wear an AFO. I have to take daily neuropathic medication to control the pain & spasms that I get in my leg but I am living my life & coping so much better than before.

I have just recovered from a really bad episode of back pain where I lost the little bit of strength that I had gained in my foot.  I could feel that I was starting to slide into depression again but that is when I decided that I was not going down that route again & that I was going to speak out about what happened to me.  I do not need to be ashamed of my disability and it is a disability. I have learned to never take life for granted & to not judge others as you do not know what people are going through.  I have accepted the new me & what she can & can’t do.  I rest if I need to & don’t fight myself.  I enjoy my life again.

I want to make people aware of this this type of nerve injury.  I just couldn’t find the right support initially & it was really hard at first.  When I first set out on this journey someone said to me ‘Nicki you know it could be worse’.  Yes it could have been worse, but at that moment in time it was the worst case scenario for me & I just didn’t want to hear that.  If you are diagnosed with this please know that you have every right to mourn for the person that you were before.  Know that you will find a way to move forward but it will take time.  Be kind to yourself and try and find a way forward.  You will start to enjoy life again it will just be a slightly different one from what you had before.

Thank you so much to Nicki who has shared her story of Foot Drop with us this week .

Nicki Fairchild - Sept 2019.