Kalycia Urquhart was seven when she was diagnosed with an extra vertebra. It all began when she bent over to pick up her baby brother who had just begun to crawl.



Something in her neck tweaked causing an excruciating amount of pain and she couldn’t move. “I first got put into traction in hospital by a specialist,” she says. “They put weights on a pulley system in an attempt to stretch my neck out. I was in hospital for about two weeks in this contraption and it was the worst possible thing that could have been done as they were putting weights on a bone that was fused to other bones.”



Urquhart was in pain, but the doctors didn’t understand exactly what was going on. It was only after Urquhart’s mother found a neurosurgeon, an expert in spinal osteoporosis anomalies, who x-rayed her at a specific angle and exposed an extra vertebra.



It was an extremely rare condition, she was one in the 600,000 people born with a spinal anomaly and at that point, the only person with her condition in the world.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-946x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59399" style="width:375px;height:406px" width="375" height="406" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-946x1024.jpg 946w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-277x300.jpg 277w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-768x832.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-1418x1536.jpg 1418w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Kalycia-Urquhart-1891x2048.jpg 1891w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Kalycia Urquhart. Image Supplied</figcaption></figure></div>


“It was quite an ordeal. It took us a very long time to get an actual diagnosis because no one could see what was wrong with me or find the issue,” she says. “The neurosurgeon changed my life. He explained that it would be a lifelong issue for me and that there was no potential for surgery. I also have a high chance of paralysis because I am double-jointed.” Urquhart couldn’t play sports. If she got knocked hard enough, she could be paralyzed. 



“My parents freaked out. Their response was ‘oh my God, bubblewrap her’. It was scary. There was not a lot of information or cases to reference,” she adds. Urquhart found herself in medical journals and her case is still the one referenced today.



After being on chronic, schedule five painkillers for over a decade, Urquhart had semi-kidney and liver failure at 19. Even though she was taking anti-inflammatories, painkillers and probiotics to protect her stomach lining, she developed ulcers. “My kidneys and liver were basically shutting down and my doctor said I have to get of everything, I had to detox.



It was terrifying because I didn’t know how I would cope with the level of pain – just carrying a handbag is hard, carrying a laptop bag is a challenge,” she says.



Before the age of 20, Urquhart had to reassess how she would manage pain and began looking into alternative therapies. Cannabidiol (CBD) oil wasn’t as accessible as it is now, but for Urquhart, it was a life-saver. “And it didn’t have the negative side efects of normal medication, it was a sustainable expense,” she says. “The alternative healing world is very cowboy. There’s no regulation and while you can find people who are incredible healers, some are charlatans who are milking vulnerable people for money. When you’re in a horrible state of pain and you’re trying to find help, you’re willing to pay and do anything to find relief.”



At 25, Urquhart hit a financial blocker – taking out her own medical aid as she was too old to be on the family plan. She often had to fork out cash for therapy as she couldn’t aford weekly (sometimes twice-a-week) treatments. Added to that, she was working at an advertising agency, a high-stress job where taking time of or asking to work from home was seen as a weakness.



“You just want to be normal; you want to be considered competent and capable… it becomes tough to open up and share what you’re struggling with,” she says. In order to manage her pain, she’s had to learn a lot of maintenance techniques. While she can drive an automatic car, for example, the condition of South Africa’s roads afects how she lives her life. Hitting a pothole could not only damage her car, but severely impact her condition: “If we go on holiday and I have to go into a dirt road, I know I am going to feel it for a couple of days. I pack a neck pillow, muscle spasm relaxant, heat pad – and that’s just for leisure!”



“I have a lot of medical expenses around



this as my condition is technically considered a disability,” says Urquhart, who adds that one of her biggest expenses has been physiotherapy, finding someone who can help



manage her pain without hurting her. “Physios will also push you to try other techniques, like needling, and some of it has worked, some really hurt me, and others made no diference at all but it has been a massive expense in



my life – you pay, per hour!” After starting psychotherapy at 26, Urquhart found that dealing with emotional issues impacted how she lived with chronic pain. “Pain takes you to the extreme and your mind is a most powerful tool. Intense pain can be transformative but unfortunately, when you grow up with chronic pain, you don’t always develop the mental tools to deal with it,” she adds.



Living with chronic pain, Urquhart, now 34, works for herself and from home. There’s no tell-tale sign that something is wrong with her or that she has a physical anomaly.

I need medication to get rid of this flu

Chronicling Chronic Pain: ‘I Didn’t Know How I Would Cope With The Level Of Pain – Just Carrying A Handbag Is Hard, Carrying A Laptop Bag Is A Challenge

Having suffered panic attacks for 10 years, Zane Wilson could have easily thrown her hands in despair. Instead, pain led to creativity. She formed a support group to help others face their deepest fears, and is today free of the painful episodes that traumatized her life.
Today, this support group, which started in the hallowed halls of the Sandton library in Johannesburg initially attended by a group of 80 people 20 years ago, is the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), founded by Wilson, a South African businesswoman.
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“I started the group and soon had to get a second phone, which rang night and day. I have had calls from people all over Africa looking for help. I have never had an attack since.”
Wilson’s first experience of a panic attack was on the highway, on her way to a business meeting.
“I suddenly felt hot. My palms started sweating. I started shaking and my heart started beating fast. I was terrified, but couldn’t understand why. I thought I was losing my mind,” recalls Wilson.
The attacks got worse, at times going up to three or more episodes a day.
“I was the director of a very busy company and had more and more attacks. I became acutely suicidal.”
She sought medical help, which included blood tests, assessments, even a lumbar puncture, and attended counselling, but they were all in vain. It got to a point where she couldn’t lead a normal life.
“I couldn’t even go to a shopping mall or a grocery store without an attack starting. I was determined to keep working and my husband had to follow me to work and I’d come back with staff. It reached a point where I couldn’t even be at home on my own. I would have to be dropped off at a neighbor’s. Eventually I was sent to a professor of psychiatry and he told me that I was suffering from panic attacks,” says Wilson.
This is a route most victims are familiar with. According to SADAG, South Africans will, on average, visit 11 doctors and spend over R20,000 ($1,800) on medical investigations before arriving at the diagnosis.
Recent research points to strong genetic or hereditary factors that might predispose some to paralyzing panic. Attacks can be triggered by non-biological factors too. Stressful experiences, caffeine, cold and flu medications, Lariam (the anti-malarial drug), appetite suppressants and local anaesthetics containing adrenaline may cause attacks that last an average of four to six minutes.
Clinical psychologist Lee-Ann Hartman says of all the disorders within the spectrum of anxiety and depression, panic attacks are the most treatable. With the right therapy, she claims 90% of people recover greatly and the remaining 10% can experience significant recovery.
“It’s very important to seek help early on, as once it starts developing, the sufferer will associate the panic attack with a certain place, person or situation. Mental illness as a whole is greatly underestimated and grossly under-resourced. In South Africa, one in 10 people suffer from HIV/Aids – whereas one in three people will experience mental illness at some point in their lives.
“People suffer in silence and among high-achieving women, there is always the fear it will be seen as a weakness.”
Hartman says that a panic attack is a false alarm set off by our innate ‘fight or flight’ instinct where a slew of hormones are released.
“When the fight or flight response happens in an appropriate situation, you don’t think about your trembling, increased heart rate&#8230; But when it comes out of the blue for no reason, your cognitive interpretation is ‘what is happening to me, am I having a heart attack’?”
She recommends a full medical to determine the underlying physiological – and psychological – factors.

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Chronicling Chronic Pain: ‘I Didn’t Know How I Would Cope With The Level Of Pain – Just Carrying A Handbag Is Hard, Carrying A Laptop Bag Is A Challenge

Don’t Hit The Panic Button,Yet