Before Diagnosis:

The Road Begins

In high school I was a Track and Field and Cross Country runner. I would run about 45 miles a week.  I started noticing some side pain during my 10 mile runs, but I thought that was normal.  After all, it was 10 miles!  Then I started losing weight (which I did not need to lose).  When I got down to 90lbs my mom and the doctor had agreed that if I did not gain 5lbs I would have to stop running. I was not about to stop running, so I did what every other runner would do, load up on carbs.  I would eat bagels, pretzels, pasta, Ice Cream and anything else that had WHEAT in it.  After a few weeks I found that this was not helping me gain weight.  It was actually making me lose weight again!  I was now down to 86 lbs (but I didn’t tell anyone because I still wanted to run).  The pain was on and off so I didn’t worry to much about it and I kept running through it.

        A couple years later, I was recruited by the Dallas Baptist University coach to come and run for them.  We would run day and night, 14 miles a day, 75 miles a week!  They put a lot of stress on our bodies and I was always injured.  I spent most of my days in the doctor with either hip injuries, stomach pain, and different joint pains while still running through the pain.  After a year, I decided that I was putting to much stress on my body and I needed to give it some time to heal so I dropped out of the team.  It was a hard decision, but I knew it was what I needed.  

        After letting my body rest I noticed more things than before.  Now I was barely ever able to run.  My side would kill me!  I always woke up and went to bed with a horrible headache.  I would get dizzy in the mornings getting out of bed.  I would have stomach pain throughout the day (not just running).  My parents knew something was wrong when I would sit at the dinner table with my left leg up and my arms wrapped around my stomach.  This might be a little much, but it felt like someone pouring salt on an open wound inside my stomach.  Besides that, I was always tired.  I would try to watch a movie and would fall right to sleep.  Even in the middle of the day!  There were several other small things I would notice like my eyes always hurting, ringing in my ears, tingling in my hand and feet, dark circle around my eyes, brain fog, random rashes, and my hair would fall out like crazy.  This is when I knew I needed to talk to a doctor and figure out what was going on.  This was the was just beginning of the long road ahead.