I have always had a sensitive stomach. My stress knows exactly where to go to make things even more miserable for me. Or in a kind of evil way, force me to finally just stop.
Back in college, it hit me hard. I had been thrown head first into full time college and part time job with no car. Between the stomach problems and suddenly so much activity, I lost 40 pounds in 3 months. I spent years bouncing from doctor to doctor, still just classified as upper right abdominal pain and handed pills for whatever theory that particular doctor had (the weight loss, acid reflux, my periods... always targeting only one thing instead of looking at the whole picture). Most memorably, my primary doctor at the time told me it was great since my BMI was almost "normal".... I looked him in the eye and pointed out that you could see my ribs through my shirt.
One doctor finally labeled my stomach problems IBS and released me into the world. I never put much credence in that, but it helped enough to get me eating again. In the next few years, I increased my exercise and eventually stumbled onto discovering my food allergies. Those two things helped me more than anything else.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with POTS and talking to others in a dysautonomia group finally cleared up most of the questions about my stomach; it's one of those automatic bodily functions that just don't work right. Likely, my vagus nerve is damaged and the signals are messed up.
A friend was worried I might not be able to celebrate my favorite holiday properly, so I sent her a photo of my "sick pirate" costume.
Fast forward to last year when I ended up in the hospital with liver enzymes off the charts; they eventually went down on their own, and I never found out the cause.. my doctor refused to send me to GI against my protests. To say I've felt like I'm just waiting for it to happen again is an understatement. I thought that time came this week. I've had much more minor attacks over the year, but I do okay with upping my water and electrolytes. This week, it turned into abdominal pain, nausea, and lack of appetite. A barrage of tests at the hospital showed I'm fine. So instead of one mystery problem coming back, an older mystery problem may be coming back. And I've already lost 4 pounds this week.
It's fun to go into the hospital with abdominal pain right now.. yes, my Covid test was negative
And this whole thing is a vicious circle... I don't want to eat because it hurts and I don't want to exercise because it'll probably cause more weight loss (plus low energy), but exercise is what may help me eat a little easier. Nothing is a guarantee though, so I keep playing the game.
This was me right out of college; I had graduated high school at just over 200lbs, at this point I was just under 150lbs... but since I had lost weight so fast, I had very little muscle and absolutely no energy. No matter what clothes I wore, they just hung on me. I had people jealous at how easily I'd lost weight, they didn't care that it was because I had been so sick since they thought the same as my doctor, being skinny was more important.
