My Health Journey - Part 2

May 17, 2023

After 10 miserable days of unbearable abdominal pain every time I ate, I finally went to the Vanderbilt walk-in clinic. Honestly, I don’t know how I even made it that long. Every meal left me sweating, hunched over, and in the worst pain imaginable.

The doctor was convinced I had an ulcer and tested me for H. pylori, thinking it could be a bacterial infection. She told me to stick to bland foods and prescribed medication. I felt hopeful—until I went to Walgreens and was told the medication was on backorder for over a week. I sat in the parking lot and cried. I was so over the pain, the frustration, and the hopelessness.

At that point, I had to plan my days around the pain because 30-45 minutes after eating, I knew I’d be dying. It was so bad I almost went to the emergency room multiple times.

A few days later, we took a trip to Gatlinburg, but the pain intensified. Every meal brought severe nausea along with the abdominal pain. The strange part? After about an hour, the pain would suddenly stop, and I’d feel normal again—until the next meal. We ended up cutting our trip short because I just couldn’t handle it anymore.

When we got home, my prescription was finally ready. But the medicine didn’t work. I went back to Vanderbilt on June 9th, and the doctor was baffled. By July, I was still seeking answers, and after multiple visits, they referred me to a specialist.

The specialist? He rushed through the appointment, gave me another acid reflux prescription, and suggested an endoscopy. I had the procedure done in July or August, and every single test came back fine. “There’s nothing wrong with you,” he said.

By this point, I felt like I was losing my mind. When the prescription ran out, I was back to square one. The only thing left to consider was food allergies. I got a food allergy test done in September, and 150 foods came back flagged. It seemed like we’d finally found the answer.

I cut out every food item on that list, and for a while, I felt great. If I ate something I wasn’t supposed to, the pain came back with a vengeance.

Then, sometime into 2024, a new problem began. I started developing agonizing joint pain. It started in my shoulder and radiated to my elbow and wrist. Some days, the pain was so bad I couldn’t even hold my camera. It was devastating—I cried so many times, not knowing what was happening to me. I had numerous conversations with Matt about retiring. The thought of not being able to do the job I love broke my heart.

By December, I felt good. By early summer, I had the whole food routine down pack, and everything was fine. I was finally making progress.

Until August 22, 2024. That’s when it all came back.