When I was 19 and a full time student, I got extremely ill very quickly and spent over a year going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was wrong. It took about 13 months for a diagnosis. I went to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and saw a GI specialist that had been treating patients with CVS. He put me on amitriptyline and life slowly got a little less crazy. I went 6 years without and ER visit. Although I was staying out the hospital and holding down a job out in Oklahoma, I was still sick multiple times a week. I ended up getting a ventral hernia from all the vomiting and i had surgery in June to fix it. Amitriptyline does a great job of keeping me out of the hospital but unfortunately I’m going to have to wean off it and get on something else bc I can no longer deal with the side effects. Sometimes it seems like all hope is lost. Like I’ll never get back to normal. Fortunately I have an extremely solid and loving family that help me emotionally, physically, and sometimes even financially. They help me through the bad times. I know deep down that one day, there will be a better way to treat CVS. A medication that offers more relief than I’ve ever experienced. That hope is part of what keeps me going day after day. Good luck my fellow warriors. I am sending positive vibes out into the world for all of you