My Story

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Starting with oldest to newest diagnosed. 

IBS

When I was 14 I started having stomach problems. Pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea. The worst was the pain. Went to my primary Dr and he thought it was an ulcer and treated me for that. I was referred to a gastrologist and had many test done,  all came back normal. That's when I was diagnosed with IBS. It seem like they couldn't think of anything better to diagnose me with. A few years later and after trying many different medications I was still having a lot of pain. My doctor decided to have me do a HIDA scan. That came back that my gallbladder's bile duct was closing up and had to come out. I had my gallbladder removed a month later. Currently I am not on any medication for this.

GASTROPARESIS 

Within a year of having my gallbladder removed,  I was still in pain and throwing up all the time. None of the different medications I had tried did anything for me. I noticed that in the evening I was throwing up food that I had in the morning for breakfast. I brought this to my doctor's attention and he ordered a gastric emptying scan. I can't quite remember the results, it was a four-hour scan and I believe my stomach emptied at 30%. I was then diagnosed with gastroparesis. I don't have diabetes and my doctor thought that I got gastroparesis from having my gallbladder removed and there had been damage done to the vagus nerve. After years and years and years of always being sick and throwing up after every mealmeal, my gastroparesis got better after I remove a lot of stress in my life. Currently I am not taking any medication for this condition, just watching my diet and stress level.

FIBROMYALGIA AND ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS 

I believe I've had fibromyalgia since my teenage years,  but didn't know anything about it and didn't think to go to the doctor. In 2010 I was diagnosed with costochodritis. In 2013,  I finally decided to try to go to a Rheumatologist. I was having constant pain all over my body and was always so tired. What really stood out to me was how painful things were getting- bumping into something, any pressure really seem to hurt me more than it should have. After going to the rheumatologist and having a physical exam, she diagnosed me with fibromyalgia, having 13 of the 18 points. She also had me go to physical therapy in which they decided I had tendinosis in my legs. I stopped going to the rheumatologist because I was planning on getting pregnant and I didn't want to be on any medication anyways,  so I didn't see the point of going. During my pregnancy, I felt amazing. I had some hip pain in the first couple months,  but that went away. After my son was born, I noticed a lot of the pain coming back and also new joint pain that I hadn't had before. It got to the point where I can no longer work out because my ankles, knees, hips, and back hurt too badly to continue. That's when I decided I need to go back to the rheumatologist. So now in 2015 I went back to my Rheumatologist, and she reaffirmed fibromyalgia(17/18points) and diagnosed me with Ankylosing Spondylitis. My treatment started with sulfasalazine, which I had a very bad reaction to and had to stop taking. I am now trying gabapentin and it seems to help. 

The hardest part of all of this has been having my friends and family think that I'm a hypercondriac. Because of this,  it's always hard for me to go to the doctor when I think something is wrong because l feel like they're going think I'm doing it for attention versus there something you being actually wrong. I'm not a hypochondriac. Every time I've ever gone to the doctor there's always been something legitimately wrong and needing treatment.