Caitlin's Journey to Pain Free Eating

Imagine being in debilitating pain every time you eat, or even drink water, for 3 years! Welcome to the life of 23-year old Caitlin from Sydney, Australia.

My life. I went from a vibrant, enthusiastic lover of the outdoors, spending my days teaching young people to rockclimb, abseil, canoe and hike, to not working at all, due to constant pain. The pain is so debilitating that some days I’m not able to stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, and other days I struggle to get out of bed altogether. Because I’m in such terrible pain, I struggle to eat and have been rapidly losing weight and becoming more malnourished each day.

 

Doctors in Australia have tried everything within their means to help me over the years. I have had hundreds of specialist appointments and tests to try and find out what’s wrong. My current diagnoses include POTS, Gastroparesis, GERD, Endometriosis, Raynauds, Costochondritis, Osteopenia, and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, yet none of the treatments for those conditions are making me better.

Currently my treatment consists of pain medication for nerve sensitivity in my stomach and the next option is to place a permanent feeding tube into my intestines to bypass the pain that occurs in my stomach (as I have had a temporary nasojejunal feeding tube for the past 3 months). This is not how I want to live my life.

 

Australian specialists believe my nerves must be causing this pain, however no one is 100% sure. I can no longer endure being palmed off to doctor after doctor. It's safe to say I’ve hit a dead end here in Australia. But I refuse to accept the rest of my life will be in pain.

 

After months of researching and talking with people worldwide, I believe my solution is in Germany. After speaking with German specialists, they believe it’s highly likely that I might have multiple rare vascular compression syndromes and need diagnostics and possible surgery. Going to Germany is a big risk, however they have the technology and experience that is not available in Australia and I need to get my full, thriving life back!

 

Not including the travel expenses of getting to and staying in Germany, the diagnostic test puts me out-of-pocket over AU$5,000. Then, if there is a diagnosis (which I’m hoping there is), surgery may be required at an out-of-pocket cost of approximately $45-55k. I plan to go to Germany no matter what, as it is my last hope, however any financial support you could give would help ease the strain of trying to get answers and will hopefully let me start to heal.

I appreciate your support.

 

Cheers,

Caitlin