From birth to adulthood, Sherri Jones’ life has been both unusual and rare.The 54-year-old resident of Red Deer, Alta., was born despite her mom using an intrauterine device — a one-in-100 occurrence.“The IUD apparently had gotten stuck on her bladder, and it penetrated her bladder, which is why she was able to conceive,” Jones told Global News in an interview.
The IUD, which hadn’t caused any major problems for her mom’s pregnancy, was later surgically removed several months after Jones’ birth, she said.
From the age of three or four, Jones says she has been struggling with a series of health problems, such as leg pain, a speech impediment, vision issues and slow bladder development.
As she got older, she started feeling pain in other joints of her body.“I was constantly back and forth to the hospital, I was in an ambulance, you name it, doctors’ appointments. It was all the time.”
In 2010, a then-39-year-old Jones was in a car accident, and her body pains got worse. An MRI scan showed a large Tarlov Cyst, a very rare neurological condition, in her sacral spine. Seven years later, she developed three new Tarlov Cysts at the surgical site of the first one.“The pain has just been excruciating,” Jones said. “I haven’t been able to walk or sit or stand for long periods of time ever since this all started.”
She has suffered from blurred vision, dizziness, “crazy” headaches and short-term memory loss.Jones said she has also been diagnosed with enlarged ventricles and a couple of small congenital deformities in her brain, as well as a connective tissue disorder.“I’ve just had so many unique things going on with me, and they’re all rare.”
These health problems that have followed her throughout her life have raised a lot of questions, Jones said, as doctors have been unable to pinpoint the root cause.“The majority of them are all rare diseases, so how does that get to happen? Something had to have played a role for that to happen.”