This is the beginning. The beginning of my story for living with a corn intolerance. From the day I got my corn intolerance, until it was identified and labeled as a corn intolerance.
It all started the night before Halloween 2011. There were some personal stress factors going on in my life at this time: my grandma was sick so all of my family was in town, I was working too much, about to fail chemistry, and in my first relationship. I definitely think stress was an added factor into becoming corn intolerant, but have no scientific proof to back me up on that. Halloween, I got so sick I couldn’t keep anything down. The main thing I remember was pacing around the living room trying to not puke while my parents handed out candy. This is where it all began.
Weeks go by, and I’m not feeling much better. The vomiting has stopped, but daily I’m painfully bloated, gassy, and nauseous, unable to eat much. The logical thought to having stomach pains is to go to a gastroenterologist. This led to the rest of my sophomore year of high school missing many classes to sit in a doctor’s waiting room, because he was always running at least an hour late. I wish I could say he was more helpful than wasting my time, but I’m not sure if that’s the case.
After discussing with him, I had an endoscopy, a scope down my throat, to see if there was any swelling or problems they could physically see. I think they were looking to see if I had a stomach ulcer. They found nothing.
A few months later
There was an ultrasound, and they saw what was considered “sludge” in my gallbladder. The idea was it’s thicker than it should be, and could become gallstones. The hope was that this was causing my issues. I was given medicine to try and make it more normal. After a few weeks and another ultrasound that didn’t look any better, they suggested getting my gallbladder removed…
The woman doing the ultrasound suggested a food intolerance test. It had helped her understand the causes of her headaches. We decided to try removing my gallbladder first, and if that didn’t work, we would try the intolerance test.
By summer, I had broken up with my highschool boyfriend, cut down on my work schedule, and miraculously passed chemistry with the help of a tutor. Most of the stress was gone, but my stomach problems prevailed.
I did think certain foods could be making it worse, and the closest I had determined was that it might be related to sugar. I tried eating sugar-free candies in place of regular candy, but that didn’t seem to help.
Summer, and I had my gallbladder removed. (more about that in Living Without A Gallbladder). Sadly, it didn’t get rid of all my ailments. I was willing to try anything at this point, so we found an allergist to do the intolerance test (more info under Intolerance Testing: A Side note.
At the end of July 2012, my problems finally had a name: I had a corn intolerance.
Read what my life was like before I had any of these issues here.