Alisha writes…

Until this last year, I avoided going to the doctor like the plague. I remember hearing “lose weight” every time my mom took me to a pediatrician.  By the time I was old enough to decide when I wanted to go to the doctor, I more often than not opted not to, even if I was sick.

When I was about twenty, I started experiencing terrible stomach pains.  The pains came out of nowhere; I was drinking a smoothie and suddenly felt like I was going to throw up. It was a hard pain to describe; it would come and go, and was both a burning and a cramping. It felt like it was at the top of my stomach. The first time it happened, I thought it was heartburn; I took a handful of Pepto Bismol and slept until it went away.

But it kept coming back. I discovered that if I either took a lot of Pepto Bismol or ate a lot, of anything, the pain went away. After a few weeks of this I went in to my university medical center and saw one of the doctors there. (more…)