A woman lived with a paralyzed stomach for three years and was told by doctors – after wrongly diagnosing her with anorexia – that she could die.
According to the criteria of
Luned Davies, 23, has gastroparesis, which affects the nerves of the stomachwhich does not allow him to digest food properly.
The condition left her weighing just 31.7 kilos.
Davis, from Banwen in South Wales, says she “knew” she didn’t have an eating disorder but her complaints went unheeded when she first started experiencing symptoms in 2020.
The BBC has asked Swansea Bay Borough Health Board, which operates within the NHS, for comment.
“They didn’t take me seriously”
The woman says she was referred to an eating disorder specialist in 2020 despite her doubts about the anorexia diagnosis.
“They kept telling me I had an eating disorder, but I knew that wasn’t it and that there was something wrong with me,” she says.
“I was losing weight and didn’t want to eat anything. I felt full all the time and I knew something was wrong.”
“I went back and forth to the doctor, I had blood tests done but no one took me seriously.”
Davies also received the results of tests he had at a private hospital, but after there was no change in diagnosis by August 2022, and he lost so much weight, He was told that he could die.
“I weighed 31 kilos, you could see my bones. I looked horrible.”
“I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t take care of myself. My mother had to put me in the shower, wash me, and lift me up from the sink,” she says.
“You could see every bone in my body and people thought I wanted to be like that.”
“Nobody knew what was happening because they could see that she was eating, but then she was still sick.”
“They told me I was going to die, that I couldn’t survive this.”
According to Davies, He had to wait three years to receive a diagnosis of gastroparesisbut before that she had trouble dealing with people who doubted her symptoms.
“People kept telling me there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all in my head,” she said.
She added that the hardest thing was seeing the stress it caused her family.
“The worst thing for me was seeing my mother and father, the family, suffer and seeing how this had impacted their lives.”
“I said many times that I didn’t want to be here anymore, but I wasn’t going to give up and do something that would affect my family’s life even more.”
Awareness
Today, Luned manages to control his symptoms with a combination of pills.
“I feel pain every day, all the time, but I have to keep going. I have one life and I need to make the most of it,” she says.
“If I do nothing, I would stay in bed for days.”
Her hope is that by sharing her story it can help raise awareness about the condition to help others who may be affected by it.
Symptoms of gastroparesis
- feeling full earlier than usual – not being able to finish food
- feel nauseous and vomit
- stomachache
- heartburn
- swelling
If you’ve had these symptoms for a while, you might also be losing weight.
Source: NHS
According to dietitian Gwawr James, Those living with that condition must adjust their diets.
“Once the nerves in the stomach are damaged, there is no cure,” he warned.
“We traditionally tell people that they should eat three main meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
“But in this case, we recommend eating four to six smaller meals, which doesn’t put as much pressure on the stomach at the same time.”
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