This year started off great. I was actually loving school, and everything. My body was healthy, and my mind was happy. I enjoyed going to school, and learning. Around the end of January I got to were when I tried to eat, I would have pain in my stomach. My stomach would burn every time I ate, and I would have acids come back up, into my mouth. I though it was just acid reflux or something like that. It started getting worse, so my mother took me to my doctor. She told me it was probably just stress causing the acid reflux. I thought about what she said...It made since, I was becoming very stressed out with school. However, as time went on, it kept getting worse. I started loosing weight, because I stopped eating like I normally would, because I hated the burning, discomforting feeling I got when I ate. At this time, I weighed about 95lbs. As time went on, I started getting stabbing pains in my upper left side, along with the burning. I got the stabbing pains whenever I tried to eat. It got so bad, even a few small bites of my food would trigger the pain. Eating became a fear. I knew if I ate, that horrible pain would start. The only way to get ride of the pain, was simply to not eat. I wanted to eat SO bad...but I didn't want the pain. I started to loose weight dramatically. I knew there was something wrong, and so did my parents.
My mother took me back to my doctor, and my doctor didn't know what to tell me. By this point, I was 5'3" and weight 85lbs. I'm a teenage girl, so what dose that sound like? My doctor suggested that maybe I was anorexic. Actually, it was getting to the point where many people suggested that maybe I was anorexic. Hello?! Dose anorexia explain all my PHYSICAL pain?! My doctor(Who's been my doctor since I was a baby.) then realized, anorexia couldn't be the answer. I was mentally healthy. She ordered an upper GI x-ray at the local hospital. I went for the x-rays, and the radiologist noticed something strange, that when I drank the barium, something was causing it to not pass through properly. He didn't know why, but he did suggest that I get an appointment with a GI specialist.
I remember one Thursday afternoon, around 4:30 I started experiencing the sharpest, most painful pain in my upper left side. It was the WORST pain I have ever experienced in my life. I remember just wanting to die I was in so much pain. My mother and father decided I needed to go to the ER, because the pain wouldn't stop. I was all for going to the ER. By the time we got there, I was SCREAMING at the top of my lungs. The pain was just getting worse and worse. I felt like I had knifes being stabbed in my side. The people in the ER were getting annoyed with my screaming. They weren't to busy, so they took me back without even making me wait. The didn't really do much in the ER that night. All the really did was give me some morphine, and they gave me an IV since I was dehydrated. The doctors in the ER had no idea what was wrong with me. At first they thought I was just some pregnant teenager having a miscarriage, then the came to the conclusion I was anorexic, since I was so thin.
For the next week, I pretty much stayed home from school, because I was so weak from not being able to eat. I was loosing more and more weight. I was now down to about 80lbs. My mother and father became disgusted with the doctors in my town. My body was slowly starting to fade away, so my parents decided it was time to get out of the town we live in. It was a Thursday afternoon, I had tried going to school for half a day, but I couldn't do it. I ended up calling my father to come pick me up. When I got home, my mother told be to get back in the car. She and my Father were taking me to the ER at a Children's Hospital that was two hours away.
When we got the the ER at the Children's Hospital, we were amazed how wonderful the service was. By the time we got through security, the lady was already calling us back a room. That was around 6:00p.m. A few doctors stopped by out room through the course of that night. They asked me questions about where I was having pain, and what not. They listened to EVERYTHING I had to say. They knew there was something wrong with me. As a matter of fact, they already had an idea of what was wrong with me. One of the residents mentioned something called SMA syndrome. She told us since I had lost so much weight, there was a possibility I had SMA syndrome. By 12:00a.m. I was rolled off for a CT scan. Once I was finished with the CT scan, I was rolled back to the ER. By 1:00a.m. I was admitted to the hospital. Honestly, when I was admitted I had the thought in mind that I was going to be there no longer than two days.....haha, boy was I wrong!
The next morning, the doctors came in to visit us, the first thing they did was hooked me up to a feeding tube. Then, they said the CT scan showed I did have SMA syndrome. The doctors knew it was caused from all the weight loss. But what caused the weightloss in the first place? SMA syndrome was only the secondary cause. From what I told the doctors in the ER about having burning feelings in my stomach, they thought maybe I had ulcers in my stomach, which caused me to not be able to eat, which then caused me to loose weight, which caused me to get the SMA syndrome, which then caused me to not be able to eat from that. Since I could not eat, my body went into starvation mode, and started shutting it's self down.
The doctors put me on some medicine for the ulcers to see what would happen. It actually helped a great deal. When I took it, the burning feeling went away. However, one morning they took me off it to see what would happen, and the burning feeling in my stomach came back. In doing that, the doctors where pretty sure I had ulcers, however they wanted to make sure that's all it was. They decided to do a scope on me.
By doing the scope, the doctors found I did a have few small ulcers, but the medications they had been giving me for ulcers, had already started healing them. Also, it was weird because the lining of my stomach was so irritated. The doctor got a few samples to send off to the lab for a biopsy. Also, while they had the camera down in my stomach, they got a few pictures of the SMA syndrome. It was actually kind of neat.
Two days later, the biopsy results came back in. The doctors where so excited with what they found. They found I had something called Eosinophilic gastritis(Which is very rare.). Basically, what that means is, I had a allergic reaction to something in my stomach, and the Eosinophils(Some type of white blood cells.) in my stomach where attacking my stomach. What was so weird and rare about all of this, was the fact that most people who have this, also have it in their esophagus as well. Why do I only have the Eosinophils in my stomach? and what caused it? That the doctors still do not know. They know I had an allergic reaction to something, but they don't what. I was to weak at the time to have allergy testing done, so I actually go back tomorrow for that.
The long and the short of all this, I stayed in the hospital for a LONG 12 days. I'm now home on a feeding tube(ng tube.) trying put back on all the weight I lost, which will hopefully cure the SMA syndrome. I'm taking steroids trying to get rid of the Eosinophilic gastritis, and like I said before, I'll be going back tomorrow to hopefully find out what caused the allergic reaction. I still have a long way to go before I well have all of my strength back...but I know I'll get there someday!
Thanks for reading! Forgive me for all the grammar errors and typos...I'm just two tired to edit all of what I've typed. Haha, I'm so un-professional.
When we got the the ER at the Children's Hospital, we were amazed how wonderful the service was. By the time we got through security, the lady was already calling us back a room. That was around 6:00p.m. A few doctors stopped by out room through the course of that night. They asked me questions about where I was having pain, and what not. They listened to EVERYTHING I had to say. They knew there was something wrong with me. As a matter of fact, they already had an idea of what was wrong with me. One of the residents mentioned something called SMA syndrome. She told us since I had lost so much weight, there was a possibility I had SMA syndrome. By 12:00a.m. I was rolled off for a CT scan. Once I was finished with the CT scan, I was rolled back to the ER. By 1:00a.m. I was admitted to the hospital. Honestly, when I was admitted I had the thought in mind that I was going to be there no longer than two days.....haha, boy was I wrong!
The next morning, the doctors came in to visit us, the first thing they did was hooked me up to a feeding tube. Then, they said the CT scan showed I did have SMA syndrome. The doctors knew it was caused from all the weight loss. But what caused the weightloss in the first place? SMA syndrome was only the secondary cause. From what I told the doctors in the ER about having burning feelings in my stomach, they thought maybe I had ulcers in my stomach, which caused me to not be able to eat, which then caused me to loose weight, which caused me to get the SMA syndrome, which then caused me to not be able to eat from that. Since I could not eat, my body went into starvation mode, and started shutting it's self down.
The doctors put me on some medicine for the ulcers to see what would happen. It actually helped a great deal. When I took it, the burning feeling went away. However, one morning they took me off it to see what would happen, and the burning feeling in my stomach came back. In doing that, the doctors where pretty sure I had ulcers, however they wanted to make sure that's all it was. They decided to do a scope on me.
By doing the scope, the doctors found I did a have few small ulcers, but the medications they had been giving me for ulcers, had already started healing them. Also, it was weird because the lining of my stomach was so irritated. The doctor got a few samples to send off to the lab for a biopsy. Also, while they had the camera down in my stomach, they got a few pictures of the SMA syndrome. It was actually kind of neat.
Two days later, the biopsy results came back in. The doctors where so excited with what they found. They found I had something called Eosinophilic gastritis(Which is very rare.). Basically, what that means is, I had a allergic reaction to something in my stomach, and the Eosinophils(Some type of white blood cells.) in my stomach where attacking my stomach. What was so weird and rare about all of this, was the fact that most people who have this, also have it in their esophagus as well. Why do I only have the Eosinophils in my stomach? and what caused it? That the doctors still do not know. They know I had an allergic reaction to something, but they don't what. I was to weak at the time to have allergy testing done, so I actually go back tomorrow for that.
The long and the short of all this, I stayed in the hospital for a LONG 12 days. I'm now home on a feeding tube(ng tube.) trying put back on all the weight I lost, which will hopefully cure the SMA syndrome. I'm taking steroids trying to get rid of the Eosinophilic gastritis, and like I said before, I'll be going back tomorrow to hopefully find out what caused the allergic reaction. I still have a long way to go before I well have all of my strength back...but I know I'll get there someday!
Thanks for reading! Forgive me for all the grammar errors and typos...I'm just two tired to edit all of what I've typed. Haha, I'm so un-professional.
