My Body Feels Like It’s On Fire | BORN DIFFERENT

VIRAL podcast host and content creator Alex lives with "debilitating pain" every day - and, at its worst, it can be so painful that it feels like her "body is on fire." Having been diagnosed with six chronic illnesses - all of them incurable - Alex has to carefully manage a host of symptoms every day, from the moment she wakes up. The rarest of her conditions, polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), causes her blood vessels to become inflamed, which can do untold damage to other organs in the body if left unchecked. Although the condition was caught early, it had already damaged Alex's nerves, leading her to develop complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), an often "unbearable" pain condition that affects her life every day without fail. Alex told Truly: "On really bad weeks, I'm crying when I wake up. It feels like there's fire ants crawling up my legs biting me, [or like] I have my hand over a hot flame, or touching a cast iron that's on. It's debilitating." When the agony is too much, a trip to the ER is unavoidable - but Alex pulls out all the stops to avoid that where she can. Gritting her teeth and fighting through the pain inevitably causes Alex to experience fatigue, so she leans on husband Cooper, who is nothing but supportive and "unlocks life" for her. When Alex has a bad day, Cooper goes into "full caregiver mode" and takes on all the daily living tasks required to enable Alex to push through her flare ups, as well as calling in help if things escalate. And when Truly went to film with the couple, it wasn't long before Cooper had to make that call. With Alex's chief surgeon dad Mark tuning in via video call and home nurse Julie rushing over to give Alex an emergency infusion, will she turn the corner and get through the rest of the day? Or will she face one of her dreaded trips to the ER?

Follow Alex:
https://www.instagram.com/alexandrawildeson
https://www.tiktok.com/@alexandrawildeson

Tune into Alex's podcast, Calling In Sick:
https://www.instagram.com/callinginsickpod
https://www.tiktok.com/@callinginsickpod
https://www.youtube.com/@CallingInSickPodcast