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23-year-old Woman With a Rare Condition Vomits Once in Every 20-Minutes

by Reshma Anand on Aug 8 2015 2:19 PM

23-year-old Woman With a Rare Condition Vomits Once in Every 20-Minutes
Stephanie Horner, 23-year-old woman suffers with a rare condition that makes her vomit once in every 20 minutes.
She has been diagnosed with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome (CVS), a condition that brings on severe episodes of sickness that can last between three days and four weeks.

Her symptoms have worsened and affects her five days a week. Sometimes she is able to medicate herself at home but other times she has to go to hospital to avoid suffering from severe dehydration.

“It can be a very embarrassing condition because I end up throwing up on myself countless times without any warning from my body. Every morning I lie in the bath and work out whether I can deal with the condition myself or whether I need medical attention at the hospital if I misjudge it I could die of dehydration,” said Stephanie.

Due to her illness she has lost five jobs and had to drop out of her Sociology degree at the University of Sunderland.

"I really want to get a job and have a normal life again but because of this condition I can't. Every time I get a job I know it will only be a matter of time before they fire me because I'm hospitalized so much due to my illness,” she said.

She lost her mother due to lung cancer in 2007 and has dealt it all by herself from then. Four years later she started dating boyfriend Paul Driver, 25 who has since become her full-time care taker.

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"It was a really bad time for us to meet, but he has been amazing and hasn't left my side. Anyone else would have ran a mile, but to me he's been my rock. I'm so glad he loves me despite my condition - I really don't know what I'd do without him," said stephanie.

CVS affects one in 300,000 children but only 20 percent continue to have the condition in to adulthood and there is no cure.

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Dr Robin Dover, Chair of the Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome Association UK, said, ”CVS is a poorly understood condition in which the sufferers are usually healthy and normal between episodes but have debilitating attacks of relentless nausea and vomiting. Attacks last between 1-4 days for most people but can last as long as two weeks in extreme cases, with vomiting up to six times an hour.”

Source-Medindia


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