Abbotsford NewsHer biggest battle
By Vikki Hopes - Abbotsford News
Published: November 17, 2008 1:00 PM
Updated: November 17, 2008 3:03 PMMillie McConnell was surprised to recognize the doctor when he walked in the room. Dr. Benjamin Ross had performed surgery on her five years before.
“Millie?” he said hesitantly.
“It’s me!”
They hugged. He couldn’t believe it. She was alive.
* * * * *
Millie’s ordeal started at the beginning of 2001. She began having abdominal pain that at first felt like a bad stomach ache.
Over the next few weeks, it became so severe that Millie, then 45, kept a heating pad on her abdomen all day. She concealed it beneath her clothes while she interviewed clients at Vancouver Career College, where she was an admissions rep at the Coquitlam campus.
She used the heating pad so often and on such a high temperature to alleviate the pain that she burned her skin. [ Emphasis added by Robert Riedlinger.......]
One day she was constipated. The next, diarrhea. Then bloating, nausea, weakness.
Millie thought the symptoms would go away, but after eight weeks she sought medical advice.
Her doctor said she had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Millie researched the topic and visited a naturopath, who suggested she change her diet – no wheat, dairy or bananas.
But Millie lost weight. Sometimes, she vomited.
“There’s something really wrong,” she told her doctor.
An ultrasound revealed a spot on the top of her stomach. She was referred for an endoscopy, in which a tube is inserted into the body to examine an organ.
One day at work, Millie excused herself from a client and barely made it to the bathroom, where she fell to her knees and vomited violently. She struggled for breath, panting like a woman in labour.
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