The Wright road to recovery

ELIZABETH Wright is a woman who likes to be busy. Whether it's making cakes and chutneys from her farmhouse near York, selling sausages at the neighbouring farm shop or cooking elaborate dinners for her legions of friends, the grandmother of seven rarely sits still.

After 17 years working at Browns department store in York, Elizabeth set up her own business, Ivy Cottage produce, in 2004.

At the age of 67, she threw herself into her new venture, making cakes as well as jams and chutneys using home-grown fruit and vegetable from her garden near Wilberfoss. When her neighbours, the Burtons, opened a small farm shop, Elizabeth began working there part-time too.

December is one of Elizabeth's busiest times, when she is inundated with orders for Christmas cakes and festive hampers.

So when two Christmases ago she developed a painful shoulder, she blamed it on a flare-up of rheumatoid arthritis brought on by the bad weather.

"I had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in my foot when I was quite young and living in Hong Kong," said Elizabeth, adding she had never been troubled again by the complaint.

But over the next few weeks, the pain in her shoulder spread through her body, affecting her knees, feet and ankles.

"After three months, I was totally incapacitated," said Elizabeth. "My husband, George, had to lift my legs out of the bed in the morning, lift me into the bath and even dress me. I couldn't raise my arms above my shoulders to even put on my bra."

Walking became an agonising slow shuffle, she couldn't raise her feet off the floor without her body flinching in agony. She said: "I can only describe the pain as like having gout in every joint. I really thought I was dying."

Elizabeth also developed a troubling cough and found herself breathless doing simple tasks she once managed easily. Her weight plummeted too and she dropped two dress sizes.

Amazingly, Elizabeth kept working throughout this period. "Work kept me going," she said. "I couldn't have stayed in bed even if I had wanted to because it just wasn't comfortable. At night, I had to lie on my back with my knees raised and resting on some pillows. I couldn't lie on my side because having my two knees together was just too painful."

At work in her farmhouse kitchen, she adapted her cooking methods to cope with her limited mobility. "I used my food mixer a lot for cakes and when making jams I had to get my husband to physically lift the fruit into the jam pan. When it was ready, he'd put it into a jug for me to pour into the jars."

Initially she tried to control the symptoms with anti-inflammatory drugs as well as heat treatments including hot baths and hot water bottles.

But as she grew worse, her doctor referred her to experts at York Hospital.

At first, doctors were baffled and monitored Elizabeth for three months. They recognised she had rheumatoid arthritis, but were not sure what was causing her breathing difficulties. Then further tests revealed she had fibrosis of the lung which was impairing inflation, probably caused by a bout of pleurisy a few years earlier. Doctors eventually diagnosed her condition as scleroderma with rheumatoid arthritis.

Elizabeth was shocked when doctors decided to give her a course of chemotherapy to treat the fibrosis. "I thought that was only for people with cancer," she said.

But the chemo, combined with steroids and immuno-suppressant drugs to tackle her other conditions, soon made Elizabeth well again.

She recalls the first time she felt her symptoms lift. She said: "I was sitting in an armchair and the pain literally began moving, like a fluid, up through my legs. I remember thinking: I'll go shopping tomorrow. Until then, I'd lost all my confidence of being among people because I was afraid I'd get knocked over, I was so unsteady on my feet."

Within six months, Elizabeth's health was fully restored. "I'd never heard of anyone so ill becoming so well," she said.

Last December, Elizabeth made 18 Christmas cakes for customers and was able to get back to work in her vegetable garden. "I hadn't been in there for nine months because it had been just too painful to walk."

Elizabeth is full of praise for all the staff at York Hospital who made her well again. She said: "The nurses, my consultant, I couldn't fault them. They were brilliant. Everything they did was really effective. When I was on the ward, even though the nurses were busy, they would always bring me a coffee. They were really attentive."

The nurse manager gave Elizabeth her card, telling her to call any time. "If I needed it, I could have had 24-hour contact," said Elizabeth. "How great is that?"

Elizabeth was also supplied with lots of leaflets about her condition as well information about her treatments and drugs. "I never felt like I was in the dark," she said.

Although she is on medication, perhaps for the rest of her life, she is being closely monitored, and feels in safe hands. She said: "With the NHS, you only hear about the bad stories, you never hear about the good ones. Well thanks to the NHS, I've got my energy back and I'm back to my old self."

Medical notes

Scleroderma
This disease affects the connective tissue (the supporting tissues of the body, such as tendons, ligaments, bone and cartilage). Scleroderma means hard skin, but the hardness can damage the internal organs and their blood supply too. Symptoms include puffy and itchy skin, tight and uncomfortable joints, small calcium spots and red spots under the skin, trouble swallowing, and diarrhoea, bloating or constipation. There's no cure for scleroderma, but there are ways of overcoming the problems it may bring.

Rheumatoid arthritis
This affects around one in 50 people and is more common in women than men. It is most common after the age of 40, but can happen at any age. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. Your immune system, which usually fights infection, attacks the lining of your joints, causing them to be swollen, stiff and painful. Over time, your joints become damaged and stop working properly. It usually affects the joints of your hands and feet first, but any joint may later become affected. It can sometimes be difficult to diagnose as there are many causes of joint inflammation and symptoms often start slowly. There is as yet no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but early treatment will reduce pain and may minimise joint damage.