Nancy Morel, 18, from Milton Keynes, has revealed how the skin on her face painfully bruises from within after she developed a seemingly innocuous pimple on her lip at the age of 13.
The student from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, has left NHS medics baffled and her alarming condition remains untreatable.
According to DailyMail, the social media influencer started experiencing symptoms at 13 when she was in school and they initially thought it was a reaction to Ibuprofen.
She has spent the last five years visiting hospitals and doctors and been misdiagnosed with urticarial vasculitis, received multiple skin biopsies, been put on steroid injections but her condition has got no better.
Nancy is no longer attending hospital as she feels like they weren’t able to help her and is now concerned that the condition may just be something she has to live with.
Nancy never had underlying health conditions and had never had any skin complaints aside from the occasional pimple that plagues all teenagers.
She said: ‘When I was thirteen all of my skin problems started, but before that I had no prior health conditions so it was a real shock. I also have a twin sister and she has never experienced it, she has no skin conditions.
‘I was in school and my lip started swelling up out of nowhere, it was completely random and the school nurse said it meant I was allergic to Ibuprofen.
‘They thought I had taken Ibuprofen in school which I hadn’t but they did not believe me because of the reaction.
‘They took me to the hospital and they told me it wasn’t an allergic reaction, they told me to just go home and monitor it, the swelling stayed and this bruise appeared on my lip for a few days.
‘After that initial reaction it spread to my legs, my feet, my stomach, my face and now it is just all over me quite a lot of the time.
‘Nancy is able to pre-empt the flare-ups before they start. She begins feeling nauseous and light-headed and the pain in her face starts building but unfortunately there is very little she can do to stop them or to help manage the pain.
‘It is really really painful, especially on the different parts of my skin, my face is probably the most painful.
‘The best way I can describe the pain is when you are at the end of having pins and needles and you get that sharp stabbing pain coupled with a throbbing bruising pain at the same time.
‘I will also put ice packs on it sometimes if the burning is really bad but it doesn’t make the bruising go away so it is a nice sensation in the moment but it doesn’t make the actual symptoms any better,’ she said.
