When I was nine years old, I moved from my hometown, Vernon Hills, Illinois to Minnetonka, Minnesota. Not only was the weather cold, but the people were, too. Unfortunately, I cannot claim that the term “Minnesota Nice” is real. I hopped in my mom’s blue Honda Odyssey every day after school with tears streaming down my face. I never wanted to go to school and could not wait for the day to end. I often faked sick so that I could stay at home with my only real friend, my mom. She, being the all-knowing, all-powerful mother that she is, quickly caught on to my acts and was able to see right through me, but this did not stop my incessant attempts to skip school. Even though I hated school, I hated the doctor more. I would hide under the sink and scream and cry until they would pull me out and hold me down.
One morning, I had stomach pains so paralyzing I could barely move. My mother, who was tired of me crying wolf, gave me an ultimatum. Go to school or go to the doctor. I told her I needed to go to the doctor. Upon arriving, they asked me my symptoms and concluded that I was most likely lactose intolerant. I gave up dairy for thirty days to see if my symptoms changed, and they did. But, after that, I went back to my old habits and did not think much of it. I never drank milk and was relieved when I had an excuse to eat my cereal with almond milk because I hated the taste of cow’s milk. However, I ate cheese all day, every day.
The summer before my senior year, I constantly felt fatigued. One day in the fall after school, I walked to my car, got in, and instead of turning my key, I turned to everyone’s best friend, Google. I looked up symptoms of consuming dairy while being lactose intolerant. Sure enough, one of the first symptoms was fatigue. That day, I began cutting out dairy completely, my fatigue went away. But, that wasn’t the end of my struggles.
I began feeling sick all of the time. I felt weighed down like as if I had rocks in my stomach. No matter what I ate, it made me sick and miserable. After school I would come home, get in bed, and curl up in a ball. I went to my doctor, she ran multiple blood tests, and they all came back normal. Her explanation was stress and that it would pass, but I was not stressed. If anything, for the first time in my life, I felt stress-free. I was happy and everything in my life seemed to be going perfectly.
In December, we reached our health insurance deductible, so I asked my mom if I could go to a GI doctor. He listened to all of my symptoms, asked me questions that I never even thought of before, and did not have a proper answer to, and ran three pages worth of blood tests. He ruled that I was not lactose intolerant, but was actually highly allergic to dairy, and that I had severe IBS. While most people with IBS have triggers to their episodes or certain foods that aggravate them, that was not me. I had no trigger, I had no episodes, and my body reacted to everything. It was constant, painful, and paralyzing. It affected everything from my social life to my mental health. There were some days when I was so sick that I could only consume green tea because even water would bother my stomach. I tried three prescription medications and none of them worked.
After graduation, I felt hopeless. It was almost a year of dealing with these symptoms, I was on an extremely strict paleo diet, and I ran out of options. I turned to my cousin who was a Plexus Ambassador. He listened to me more than anyone else had before and genuinely cared to get me help. He started me slowly on supplements that were designed to repair my gut. Although he warned me that everyone was different, and it might not cure my problems, I was more hopeful than I had been in a while.
Two months later, I was healed. I do not use that statement lightly. I was healed. I have zero symptoms of IBS anymore and I am no longer allergic to dairy, soy or gluten. I can now eat anything I want, feel no pain and have no reaction. Just two days before I stepped on UMHB’s campus to move in, I was cleared to eat dairy again.
I cannot properly explain in words how amazing it feels to be healthy again. While I still will only be consuming minimal dairy due to my personal research, it is amazing to have options. I used to be limited to a handful of foods, but now I am as free as a bird on a sunny day, and I cannot be thankful enough.
