Three years ago, Annie Moore's life changed forever. Now she's sharing her journey with the entire Internet.
In August 2012, Moore woke up one morning unable to feel anything below her waist. According to her 17-image post on Imgur, doctors "discovered that I had slipped disks in my spine causing compression on my spinal cord and lumbar radiculopathy down my left."
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Moore had surgery for a herniated disc to correct the problem, but her recovery became complicated after she was involved in a car accident soon after.
"The car accident reversed everything the operation had done for me, causing my disks to slip again and for the pain to return. In the last three years, the only time I have been completely pain free was the month between my operation and the accident," she wrote.
Because of the loss of sensation in her legs, she was often covered in bruises.
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While in recovery for surgery and her accident, doctors prescribed a wide array of medications for her various symptoms. The many different pills began to have side effects, like hair loss.
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Once Moore began to lose her hair in May 2014, she decided to shave her head and started a personal fund for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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Moore was able to gain some independence with a wheelchair after a few months.
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By December 2014, Moore needed to return to the hospital because doctors feared another compression on her spine. However, she did not need another surgery. "I was lucky enough to get out Christmas Eve, but I was very medicated and didn't get to enjoy a lot of time with my family," she wrote.
Eventually she began to lower the dosage of her medication, which began a long, hard journey to where she is today.
She wrote, "To regrow my hair, I had to come off all my medication including high doses of morphine and benzodiazepines. Coming off all the pharma was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I was in opiate and benzo withdrawal. I suffered from sickness, panic attacks, tremors, insomnia, violent mood swings and a shit loads of other horrible symptoms."
However, while coming off the medication and attending physical therapy, Moore was able to regain strength and ability to walk.
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Today, she is walking mostly on her own. "This might be just a collection of selfies to you guys, but for me it's a progression. I see how sick and ill I was and how much I suffered. How much pain I was in and how lucky I am to be where I am today...Whatever it is though I'm grateful. Always count your blessings."
Moore is a marine biologist in England, and she is still too ill to ride out to the coast. In her post, she asks anyone who is touched by her story to send her sand so she can study it under a microscope.
For more details about her journey in her own words, you can read her original post on Imgur.