A woman with the condition vasculitis now lives with a prosthetic nose after her original one “completely collapsed in on itself”. 

Vasculitis is a disease in which a person’s immune system attacks their healthy blood vessels, resulting in them becoming  swollen and narrow.

Originally, Jayne Hardman thought her dog had triggered the condition when he bumped into her nose. 

Upon reflection, she has reconsidered this theory. 

“I think the dog was trying to alert me that there was something going wrong with my nose,” she told Moncrieff. 

“I like to think that the dog probably saved my life.”

Diagnosis

Ms Hardman then approached her GP, informing him she was in pain and having a lot of nosebleeds. 

She was referred to a specialist who was similarly at a loss about what could be wrong with her. 

After nearly two-years and many doctors’ appointments later, she was diagnosed with vasculitis. 

“I think if my original GP had given me a blood test or the second person I saw had given me a blood test, they’d have been able to see that there was something seriously wrong going wrong,” she said. 

“Sadly that didn’t happen, so I didn’t get any treatment for two-years.” 

At this point, Ms Hardman’s condition had worsened and it was “probably a little bit too late” for medication. 

“I wasn’t treated as aggressively as I should have been,” she said. 

“I was given a drug that was used for maintenance, as opposed to actually getting me into remission.

“So, the drug I was given wasn’t strong enough [and] the damage continued to be done.

“My nose just completely collapsed in on itself until it was completely flat on my face.” 

'A fabulous prosthetic nose' 

To this day, Ms Hardman is still not quite sure what caused her to contract vasculitis. 

“They think it can be a range of different things,” she said. 

“It can be stress, it can be brought on by infections, I’d had a previous really bad infection of streptococcal - and that can live at the back of your throat and go on to cause vasculitis.” 

Although she has been warned that it “might come back in the future”, she has a “fantastic team” looking after her in Birmingham and, overall, feels “very fortunate”. 

Her doctors have banned her from going wild water swimming but otherwise lives her life “completely normally”. 

“I’ve got a fabulous prosthetic nose,” she said. 

“If you met me in the street, you would just think I looked like a fabulous 50 something lady. 

“You wouldn’t think I’d got something alien on my face.”

Main image: Jayne Hardman. Images: Supplied.