Symptom mistaken for contact lens problem turned out to be invisible, incurable disease

When Rebecca-Louise Feddon felt a sudden tingly sensation down the left side of her body, she assumed she had a trapped nerve.

Thinking she may have strained herself at work, the beautician decided to visit her GP. A doctor prescribed her some painkillers and she was told she would be fine.

But in a terrifying turn of events, Rebecca-Louise woke up half blind a few weeks later. Believing a contact lens was stuck in her right eye, the 29-year-old promptly booked an urgent eye test.

Opticians knew something was seriously wrong and sent Rebecca-Louise, who lives in the Milnrow area of Rochdale, straight to A&E.

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The beautician spent four weeks in hospital and was initially treated for a stroke. But multiple tests and scans later revealed she actually had multiple sclerosis, or MS, an incurable and lifelong condition which affects the brain and nerves.

“When I went to Specsavers, I thought it was a contact lens thing,” Rebecca-Louise told the Manchester Evening News. I was treated for a stroke. They didn’t know what it was.”

During her time in hospital, Rebecca-Louise was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS. RRMS is a type of MS where the sufferer has relapses, meaning symptoms get worse, followed by recovery. The disability can get worse after each relapse as the body finds it harder to repair the damage every time.

Symptoms include trouble seeing, sensitivity to heat, numbness – especially in the feet – weakness, fatigue, difficulty thinking clearly, depression and needing to urinate urgently.

Rebecca-Louise was allowed to go home after being given a course of steroids. But shortly after she was discharged, she had to return to hospital again