Leading up to junior high and high school where we’d have a typical gym class and have to jog or walk around the track a few times. I became quickly out of breath (thinking it was because I needed my inhaler for my asthma). Pain started on the left side of my abdomen to the lower back and down to my legs where I became frozen like a vegetable. Eager to move but felt relief as soon as I hit the ground. I was like jello by the time I could move again. I sat out for a bit but this happens quite often and more than teachers expected it. Concerned for my health and well being, I was sent back to the nurse’s office but didn’t go home. My mom told me to take some Advil and get through the rest of the day without any more complaints.
Moving on to college, I seemed to be the same exact weight as I was in HS and junior HS. I didn’t really grow much until my sophomore year of college. Finally reached 5’5” but my weight never hit the minimum average. For someone who isn’t really athletic, can barely jog a few laps, to someone who was out of breath walking the halls or climbing up the stairs. I was defeated by my own body. I was hoping to gain that Freshman 15 pounds; however, I continued to lose. I believe I was turning 19 and finally hit 100 pounds. That was a great experience because I never really went above 80lbs. Continuing with loss of weight and unable to eat food, persistent aches, I managed to reach a point to more symptoms to which never left me as well such as brain fog, blurred vision, jello legs, numbness, stomach spasms, regurgitation, nausea, headaches, feeling heaviness in my body pushing me down to the floor. I thought after gaining a couple pounds back I would feel pretty confident in myself. Knowing that I was able to gain a bit was a miracle to me. But that miracle didn’t last very long. I relentlessly chose to eat as much as I could, not noticing if it were healthy or not or how much it hurt to swallow every single bite.
I was told from my second and recent Gastroenterologist that I needed to go on a strict diet. Not to make me lose weight but to stay away from the foods and drinks that affected my esophagus, digestion, and stomach. Trying to be healthy while eating the right foods was pretty hard especially at college when there’s not much I can choose from. I ended up staying away from high fatty foods, anything heavily breaded, fried, spicy, bubbly, carbonated, acidity, anything containing alcohol or caffeine, and dairy. Basically everything that I wanted to have like Italian dinners such as pizza, chicken parmesan, soda, pineapple juice (was my favorite at the time for some reason), ice cream cake, pudding, mac and cheese, burgers, anything from a fast food place. I was deprived from a lot of choices for about three years after being diagnosed from my GI with all these types of problems. Yet realized the therapy and the medication I was prescribed was not helping me whatsoever. I felt worse, I looked worse, and I wasn’t getting any better as the day went on. My GI (devil doctor) would always speak to my mom and I separately making sure our relationship was steady at home, trying to come up with all these excuses to why I may still be in pain. It didn’t change until 2020! The year I couldn’t wait for until a lot of crazy s*** happened. At this time I was like oh I promise I won’t get sick or have to go to the hospital for any kind of reason, may that be the stomach bug, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or whatever. Well lucky for me I was on winter break from school and January 10th, 2020 was when the detailed diagnoses began.
