so. I had some big deal garbage happen to me that basically started exactly on new year’s day! this means that for the entirety of 2025, I have been sick and pretty miserable! what an awesome start to the year:)
I’m going to be super extra and make a timeline of my piece of trash sickness because I am currently laying in bed (sick) feeling like crap with nothing to do (I am eating junk food and watching gilmore girls, but eating hurts my idiot mouth because of the canker sores)
first, we need backstory: several times during 2024 (starting my final week of field camp, which was almost the most unfortunate timing possible) I randomly got sick (mainly stomach issues and fatigue) for 1 to 3 weeks, and then I would randomly start feeling better. this happened for like 2 weeks at the end of field camp and lasted until the beginning of our Iceland trip (thank god it ended at the beginning of the trip). then, it came back around our last day of the Iceland trip (crazy timing) and I think it lasted like a week or so, I don’t really remember. after that it gets a little fuzzy, but I had several other 1 to 2 week periods of sickness, and the symptoms were always mainly stomach issues. it was never bad enough that I thought I should go see a doctor, also because towards the end of the year, it started to sort of sync up with the week preceding my period, so I thought maybe it was just a weird intense PMS symptom.
additionally! I had my IUD replaced in november. important info for later!
now for the timeline:
end of december, 2024
I started feeling sick again at the very end of december, basically just the start of some minor stomach issues
january 1, 2025
literally on new year’s day, the stomach issues took a very drastic turn for the worst… like as bad as it gets:|
january 8, 2025
doctor appointment with dr. depew, my primary care physician, because the stomach issues were not stopping and they were pretty bad…
this visit included bloodwork, specifically a celiac blood panel because I asked if it would be worthwhile to check for celiac because my mom has celiac…
january 9, 2025
this was a thursday, and I think it was the first day I took off of work, because I felt like absolute garbage and I needed a bathroom a billion times a day, but I was hoping that I would be able to come back very soon…
january 11, 2025
my lab results came back… very highly indicative of celiac:/ basically, the bloodwork looks for antibodies that form when you have celiac because your immune system attacks the gluten and attacks the villi in your small intestine. so, if you have the antibodies, it pretty much means you most likely have celiac, but I guess it’s not 100%. after this point, I stopped eating gluten.
january 15, 2025
follow-up appointment with dr. depew that honestly I don’t remember being very helpful at all. we talked to him about some of the other symptoms (lots of canker sores, sore throat, discomfort/pain swallowing in throat and pain in chest, high heart rate when moving around (it was 122 at the appt), fatigue)
january 20, 2025
appointment with melissa armknecht, a PA in gastroenterology, because it was the soonest appointment I could get. Dad’s MA helped schedule it really fast for me, which was nice:) I talked to her about all of my symptoms and the celiac diagnosis. she basically said we’ll schedule an endoscopy and I should eat gluten until then…. I was so scared that we wouldn’t be able to get it scheduled for months, but we got SO lucky and it was only like a week and a half away!! she also said I could try going dairy free to see if that would help with my stomach issues. she mentioned that I might have EOE or something else that could be causing the pain in my throat and chest. also I felt like I was going to throw up on the drive there and a little bit like I might pass out.
january, 28, 2025
my enteroscopy
dun dun dun…
I had it at riverton hospital, which was nice because it was so close! but I was absolutely terrified… the only other medical procedure I’ve had done is getting my wisdom teeth out!! and getting an iud in, I guess, which is pretty awful already. they had me pee in a cup to see if I was pregnant, I think, and then I changed into a robe and got in a little hospital bed and got hooked up to some stuff!
my heart was beating so quickly, and it was a bit embarrassing because I was hooked up to one of the heart rate machines that beep with your heart lol. the nurses were like “are you nervous?” and I was like ahhh a little humiliating!! when the anesthesiologist came in to talk to me, I told him I was afraid of waking up and panicking and choking on the thing, and all of the nurses and him shook their heads, and it was kind of funny, but also reassuring:)
then, they took me to the operating room or whatever, and I met dr. oelsner and they got me ready to go! I had to lay on my side and they put like an orthodontist thing to hold your mouth open, which was weird, but very soon after that, they gave me the sedative or whatever it’s called and Iiiii passed out!
I don’t really remember waking up, but the procedure was only like 30 minutes, and then I was back in the first room with Jordan! I was a little out of it, but not crazy out of it. I think I kept asking Jordan how long it had been (and it hadn’t been very long at all each time) and asking if he took a picture of me, lol. dr. oelsner came in and told us that it looks like I definitely have celiac and that I had ulcers all up and down my esophagus that he thought was due to a virus (specifically herpes, which scared the hell out of me)
anyway, then my australian nurse helped wheel me out and I asked if I was imagining that he had an accent or if he really did lol
Jordan picked me up in the car and we went home!
oh also dr. oelsner prescribed me an antiviral
january 30, 2025
dr. oelsner called me with the results of the biopsies, which confirmed celiac and was negative for the two most common viruses (including herpes), but he said he still thought it was a virus…
the good news was that the antiviral started helping really quickly!!
february 6, 2025
my first day back at work! meaning I took basically an entire month off of work, which was insane, but needed. this day sucked… I was pretty fatigued, but at least my stomach issues and canker sores had improved a lot. after a few more days, I started feeling less tired, and I had about a total of 2 weeks of feeling better but not amazing!
february 9, 2025
I felt like I was getting a cold or something because my cough was getting worse and my throat hurt
february 15, 2025
around this time, I was feeling a lot better, mostly just tired and my throat was a little screwy, but not terrible
february 17, 2025
around this time… I started feeling terrible again. my stomach all of a sudden got 8 billion times worse, but my esophagus and throat were not hurting. I had a few weeks of this, then….
the canker sores came back… and the stomach issues came back… and the discomfort swallowing came back… and the throwing up once in a while came back…
march 11, 2025
I called Melissa before the symptoms got too bad (except the canker sores, they were terrible), and she said to call her again next week and let her know if things got worse, which they did. but! my mommy had made me an appointment with dr. coleby for march 17 that I meant to cancel, but it ended up being really really good that I didn’t.
also! I had an obgyn appointment because for the previous 2 weeks (almost) I had been having discomfort/irritation/inflammation/pain in probably the worst place for it, and finally I decided it was worth it to see a doctor. she said it didn’t look like typical yeast or BV, but she took a swab and sent it for tests for yeast, BV, and STIs. spoiler alert: it was negative for everything and the b@*&# never called me about it.
march 18, 2025
I had an appointment with dr. coleby. he’s mom’s doctor and she has always spoken very highly of him. and he was amazing!!! my symptoms were canker sores, pain/inflammation down there, joint pain, general pain, etc. he was super in depth and ordered a ton of tests and he did a pelvic exam and apparently I had ulcers down there too. wow!!! amazing!!! the pelvic exam was so insanely painful that I sobbed and had to squeeze the medical assistant’s hand. it was embarrassing and PAINFUL and awful and slightly traumatic. anyway. we did a ton of bloodwork and a urine test and a stool test (ew). he also prescribed me a steroid solution for my canker sores and a steroid cream for the other ulcers. oh and he prescribed me something for a yeast infection that I was supposed to like halfway take just in case the steroids caused yeast.
march 18 – 25, 2025
my labs came back a little at a time. they basically said yeah you have a hell of a lot of inflammation, possibly a UTI, low iron, low vitamin D, high platelets, and some things that were normal (yay!). dr. coleby said he thought I had another autoimmune disease because my platelets were so high.
on the 25th, a bunch of labs that were checking for indicators of a bunch of autoimmune diseases came back, and they were all negative. this is a good thing, right? except that it means there is no explanation for what is going on with me. Dad hypothesized that I was just getting sick from every little virus or sickness that I come across because my immune system was so screwed up. my understanding of these results is that they don’t mean I 100% don’t have those autoimmune diseases, but that I likely do not. they checked for crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, hashimoto’s, and behcet’s, which is a more rare disease that could explain the ulcers on my poor self (both areas).
april 4, 2025
this is today… I took the medications basically as instructed, and stopped them like 4-5 days ago, and guess what…. the canker sores are coming back… the ulcers down there are coming back and the inflammation is getting worse again… also the stomach issues started again over the weekend very suddenly, just like last time, and it is miserable. completely and absolutely miserable. I feel like garbage all the time and everything hurts! and dr. coleby is out of town, and I left a message with his MA yesterday and they didn’t call yesterday or today. so I don’t know if I can use the steroids again or not… and I have no idea what is wrong with me. I don’t think it’s celiac, because I’ve been really careful with what I eat for like 2 months now! I have another appointment with dr. coleby on monday, so I’m really really hoping he has some ideas.
v rocks & reads 
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