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A mum who was in so much pain that showering caused her agony when water splashed on her leg has resorted to an amputation.
Tenterden mum Jo O’Callaghan endured 15 years of torment - that left her unable to sleep under a duvet as the material pressing against her lower right leg was agony - before she ended up on the operating table.
But she has found comfort in setting up a shoe-swapping community for people like herself who only have a need for one shoe.
VIDEO: Jo O'Callaghan speaks to KMTV about her amputation
Surgeons amputated Jo's outwardly healthy right leg from below the knee after the 45-year-old elected to have the operation done to control the symptons of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
Commonly triggered by injury, the condition results in severe pain that persists for years, but in Jo's case she woke up one morning in 2003 with numbness down her right side. Her right hand eventually seized up and the former accountancy worker lost the use of it.
A decade later after several spells in hospital and undergoing a battery of tests, doctors at University College Hospital in London finally had an explanation for Jo's debilitating symptoms when they diagnosed CRPS in 2013.
Now wheelchair-bound and with a stump, the brave mum of Col Stephens Avenue, said her level of pain has reduced so dramatically that she doesn't have a moment of regret about the operation she had in November at the Queen Victoria hospital. East Grinstead.
She describes her pain as at five out of 10, instead of 10 out of 10 as she still has pain in the stump itself.
Speaking of her agony before, caused by light touches to the skin and known as allodynia, Jo said: "I was terrified of people coming up to me in case they accidentally touched my leg."
She had to keep her distance from the family's golden retriever Millie in case the dog brushed up against her.
At night-time her right leg was raised on a special cushion as she could not bear to have it covered by the duvet. She said: "I still woke up in terrible pain if I knocked my leg on something during the night."
She was unable to wear a shoe or sock on her right foot due to extreme discomfort.
Jo, who is married to IT manager Nick, was in agony when she took a shower. "I had to stop water touching my right leg. It was unbearable - my leg felt like it was burning and my skin turned black if water hit it."
But now the mum of Wesley, 20 and George, 18, can curl up on the sofa at home and do more towards developing her online shoe-swapping enterprise that she began to help others. She started a Facebook group that links people, many with chronic conditions, who only have the need for one shoe and find themselves with surplus footwear because of it.
Her group has nearly 500 members from different corners of the country, some amputees, some have problem feet because of diabetes and others like Jo have CRPS, which mean they only wear one shoe.
The members swap their unwanted shoe with others who are in need of the opposite number. Now Jo has around 900 shoes to give away, with donations made by big firms such as Next.
"I have made friends through the group and people support each other so they don't feel isolated, " said Jo,
It's given me something positive to focus on as there's no point sitting at home feeling sorry for myself."
