Jessica's Journey to Overcome Undiagnosed Illness

Here's the headline if you don't have time to read: I have had 9 episodes of severe vomiting that bring me to a point where my body metabolizes my muscles to keep me alive since 2016. During these episodes I vomit 50-100 times, and can do nothing other than wait until it's over, as there are no common triggers. There have been years where this illness has been dormant and after hundreds of medical tests and specialists I am no closer to understanding why it happens when it does. After my most recent experience of this illness on 11/23/24 I am humbly and vulnerably asking my community for help and seeking funds to invest in doctors and healing modalities that will help me live a pain-free life and pay off my existing debt.

Hi, my name is Jessica Walters and many of you receiving this already know me. I am an advocate for the youth, alternative school Director, Early Childhood Educator, poet, weaver, devoted community member, friend, sister, daughter and relative. And as I near my 30th birthday I am grappling with the reality that I have an unpredictable and thus far, medically unexplainable chronic illness.

On Saturday, November 23rd I woke up feeling like myself, got dressed like any other day and made a little tincture drink to start my morning as I often do. Within 20 minutes I found myself expelling the contents of my stomach and returned to bed, hoping it was just my stomach disagreeing with the tincture. About an hour later I found myself retching over the toilet bowl again and as the heaving subsided I began to sob, because I knew it was happening again.

From Saturday to Thursday I vomited somewhere between 50 and 60 times, rising from the bed every 1-2 hours for the first 4 days and then slowly tapering off. I went to an IV bar to receive fluids on Sunday, and spent 2 hours at urgent care on Tuesday. At urgent care I got a blood panel, urine test and 2 more liters of IV fluids. Nothing showed up abnormal in my tests. The diagnosis? Viral gastroenteritis, which is medical jargon for “stomach bug”.

So what is it !? This question has plagued me and my loved ones since 2016. And I’m asking for your help here so I may finally be able to answer than question.

In 2016 this scary and strange illness presented itself in my body for the first time. I was in my 3rd year of college and flying back from the winter holidays in Connecticut when I got stuck in the Chicago airport during an ice storm. My partner at the time was with their parents in Ohio and came to pick me up when I couldn’t get a flight out the next day. As soon as I arrived at their parents home, I started vomiting, and this time it didn’t stop for 10 days. My partner’s mother worked for the University and ensured that I went to great medical centers, they tested me and again nothing presented abnormally. I had to stay in Ohio for several extra days before returning to San Diego where I went to school. Upon returning to my university, with one of the top medical centers in the country, I received more tests. Everyone concluded that it must have been a terrible virus I picked up in the airport, and that it would never happen again.

Three months later, on my 21st birthday in March, with no precluding events, it happened again. 10 days of vomiting and many tests later, the medical panel that was overseeing my case ordered an endoscopy. After imaging the severe inflammation my esophagus, I was prescribed a low acid diet and told that that would fix the issue. Of course, this protocol addressed the symptoms that were a result of stomach acid burning my insides for 10 days, not the root of why it happened to begin with. So, another 3 months later in June, it happened a third time.

Each time it happened I received a new gastrointestinal specialist, and came to each appointment with my notebook full of questions, only to be met by doctors who didn’t have the time to sit with me and answer them. They prescribed tests and protocols, but as soon as I was not longer vomiting my body regained its strength and faculties with remarkable quickness. The doctor would conjure a diagnosis, test for it’s viability, find it was wrong and then say “well you seem healthy now, so we’ll see you in a few months for a check up.” In June the doctor’s failed diagnosis was gastroparesis, and upon received the negative test results I launched into my own health reconnaissance mission. I saw a therapist, acupuncturist, nutritionist, and physical therapist. I worked through a lot of past emotional trauma and started a consistent spiritual practice for the first time in my life. After June 2016, I didn’t get sick for 5 years.

Then in April 2021, the illness returned. This time it was 7 days, but characteristically almost identical to what I had endured in 2016. It happened again in November 2021, July 2022, June 2023, and August 2023. There is no common trigger, no warning signs, and no precursors that let me know when it will happen. Each time I am brought to such a space of depletion, IV fluids are what keep me alive. I have received hundreds of medical tests, and never been close to having an answer for the what, why and how of this excruciating experience.

It had been over a year since the last occurrence ended 8/10/23, so I spoke about it like it would never happen again. Then it did, and though the illness doesn’t quite feel “chronic” I need to reconcile with the notion that it is a part of me, and a part of me that needs to be addressed tenderly.

As I sat in the bath the other night listening to a podcast , I learned that 1 in 2 people have a chronic illness, and this statistic disproportionately effects women. On average, it takes 8 years for women to receive a diagnosis. But perhaps the most impactful quote from the podcast was “Being unwell gives us the radical understanding of how wonderful interdependence is.” And so I reach to you, the resourced and wise, and humbly ask for your help. This fundraiser campaign will help me to pay off my debt and also have funds to invest in alternative testing like Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis , and alternative healing modalities not covered by insurance like hypnotherapy .

It’s interesting to sit on this side of the screen and ask, it is more vulnerable to describe a stomach illness that makes me vomit for days, than it is to tell people about the debt that I have? And somehow it’s all inextricably linked. Financial sovereignty will give me the freedom to invest in my health fully. Much of my debt is from my early 20’s and moving across the country from California to Colorado, with years of accumulated interest, but some of this debt it also from seeing myself through the hard moments of my young adulthood, like every time this illness has struck.

In the spirit of celebrating interdependence, and if you have read this far but find yourself unable to contribute monetarily, I ask that you consider if you have any knowledge or wisdom to share with me. Do you know of a healing modality you think might help me? Do you have a book/podcast/article to recommend? Does a certain practitioner come to mind that you can share? Do you know someone who could donate that you can share this with? Anything helps, and all is appreciated. Thank you so much for being a part of my healing journey.

All my love,

Jess