When Hope Gordon was 12 years old, she developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a neurological condition that afflicts one limb of the body with chronic pain. The pain can be caused by a variety of influences, but is always disproportionate with the significance of the original injury.
Gordon lived with her pain for years, undergoing a wide variety of treatments that attempted but failed to lessen the pain.
Her leg was always sore or painful. If she wanted to wear pants, she had to first wrap her leg in a bandage to just bear the sensation of wearing the piece of clothing on her body. She took constant painkillers, none of which helped.
“I was living with a leg that felt as if it had been permanently wrapped in barbed wire and set on fire. I know some people will judge me and think I’ve made a big mistake. But unless someone has lived with that kind of pain, it’s difficult to understand how it affects every aspect of your life,” Gordon explained.
For many years, Gordon was scared of going outside because she was so fearful of others bumping into her leg and causing her intense pain.
When Gordon turned 15, she began to ask her doctors if they could simply amputate her leg, to remove the problematic limb from her life for good. Her doctors refused to comply. They said it wasn’t allowed on her medical plan, and ended the conversation there.
By the time she was 16, Gordon was reduced to wheeling herself around in a wheelchair. The nerve pain was simply too much for her to bear, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.
She would crowdfund her own money to get the amputation surgery done privately.
Gordon was overwhelmed by the amount of support she received from people online. She raised more than enough money to fund her surgery, and after convincing the private doctors that she had, in fact, thought through all the consequences of having her leg amputated, she had the procedure done.
It hasn’t been long since the surgery was completed, but Gordon already feels significantly better than she had before. The surgical wound gives her some pain, but it’s nothing compared to the pain she was experiencing before.
“I feel like I’ve been given a brand new life. There is not a single bit of that leg that I’m going to miss,” Gordon admitted.
Gordon is now looking forward to rebuilding her strength to continue competing as a swimmer and rower.
