‘Teen Mom’ alum Jenelle Evans sobs over rare diagnosis that causes ‘excruciating’ pain: ‘I still cannot walk’
“Teen Mom” alum Jenelle Evans sobbed as she revealed a rare neurological condition, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), has left her in “excruciating pain” and unable to walk.
The MTV star told her Instagram followers Tuesday that she had knee surgery back in April and quickly realized something was wrong when her leg wasn’t getting better.
“The doctor that performed my surgery confirmed the CRPS and sent me to a pain management clinic. I went there about two weeks ago and [the doctor] tried giving me a steroid shot injection in my lower back, which wasn’t the best idea because I have been in excruciating pain ever since,” she shared.
Evans said she went to the hospital over the weekend after she began experiencing extreme lower back pain, middle back pain, and neck pain.
“I am literally in pain from the base of my skull to my tailbone and it is every single day,” she admitted.
CRPS is a form of chronic pain that usually affects an arm or a leg. It typically develops after an injury, a surgery, a stroke or a heart attack, per the Mayo Clinic.
The 34-year-old said that at the hospital, an MRI showed a growth of a syrinx filled with cerebrospinal fluid, from two millimeters to four millimeters, on her spine, as well as a second cyst very close to her spine.
Evans also got very frustrated, as she claims she went to doctors back in 2022 and told them that she thought she had a cyst on her spine, but was “ignored.” Now, she explained, if the syrinx grows more, it can result in paralysis and is the root of the problem of her CRPS.
“I still cannot walk on my leg. It keeps flaring up. Now that my back pain is worse, it hurts to use my crutches.”
Evans broke down in tears as she said that at this point she feels hopeless and just wants advice.
“There’s only so much I can do but like go outside and come back in, and it’s really getting to me,” she tearfully confessed. “If I try to drive somewhere, then I have to get out and use my crutches and that’s hard.”
“I just want to be better,” she pleaded through tears. “This is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life because I always get better, and I’m just not.”
The reality star is no stranger to health problems.
In March 2022, she was rushed to the hospital and suspected to have a chronic autoimmune disorder.
At the time, the “Teen Mom 2” alum revealed that she “was in the hospital all day for chest pain” and asked her nearly 3 million followers to “please just send prayers.”
In another post, she explained that her blood results showed that she most likely suffers from myasthenia gravis, aka “MG” — “a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups,” according to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America.
Earlier that month, she revealed she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition that causes widespread pain, fatigue and distress, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“For as long as I can remember, I would get extremely bad tension headaches and full body aches — like I had the flu, but was not sick,” she told E! News.
“My entire body gets in so much pain and sometimes I lay in bed and cry. [For] a long time, no one believed my symptoms until I got a second opinion from a new neurologist.”