A few years ago, about around the time of the Swine Flu fling, I caught the flu. It was a bad one. I had slept for 2 days straight with no food, was hallucinating, couldn’t walk anywhere and when I WAS awake, I was being sick. I recovered from that in the space of a week, and after that, my eating habits had changed unnoticeably at the time. I didn’t notice this until 2 years ago when I looked at myself and saw and felt my bones becoming more prominent under my skin, such as my ribcage, hips, elbows and my spine. I had also realised that after the flu, I wasn’t eating much at all, and I felt sick to eat a full meal. However, nothing immediate was done as we all thought, “it’s just illness repercussions, I’ll just have to teach my stomach to hold food again”. Today I’m very very underweight and REALLY unhealthy as regards to nutrition. I can’t run anywhere, I’ve still got my face blemishes at 18 and I’m not very strong. I’ll snap at any sort of heavy contact. Not only that, for a year or so, I’ve been having muscle soreness problems – however, these pains were just annoying rather than painful – coupled with the fact I had my first laptop for 6 years and my posture got atrocious. I’m hunched over now just typing this. And now today, things are starting to scare me. Last Wednesday I had the most unbearable cramp. It ringed right across the are beneath my ribs, and even hurt my back. I could barely stand, but after a long bath, those cramps were gone for good. That Saturday though, it sort of came back, but milder and didn’t last for as long and I didn’t need a bath. That sort of pain hasn’t happened at all since and it’s just these other painful aches that are remaining. I’m having the worst abdominal cramps to the left of my stomach area, from under the ribs to down by my womb, on the lower right, around my stomach and these pains are kicking up everything else as well. My toothache – I have dentist issues too – sore heads, achy back, sore hip bones.. (Would it help you to know that my family has no history of hereditary heart diseases, cancers or really any organ problems. Family members who died of those diseases developed it from drinking and heavy smoking.. Oh, I also have insomnia). I’m sitting here saying something’s wrong with me.. like some sort of disease, but my family – and they’re no doctors – are saying it’s all because I barely eat in the day and my body’s eating itself. I am going to the doctor today but I’ve had a bad history with these doctors where I’ve went for help and they’ve given me nothing but painkillers. So I’m kind of desperate for answers elsewhere. Are all my worries just nonsense, and I just need to get my eating sorted?? I’m very frightened right now, so any help is greatly appreciated.
This question was not answered by a nutritionist, however another user commented.
Answer:
Jackie M talks a lot of sense and, being diabetic [as am I ] she understands how crucial it is to get your diet right when your body seems determined to get it wrong. Don’t wait for the doctor to refer you to a dietician, insist. Also ask for a blood test to seek out any fundamental problems of which you are not aware.