My Condition Means I'll Never Eat Again | BORN DIFFERENT

This is my gorgeous friend Liv — she’s absolutely amazing 🩷 We share some of the same diagnoses, and her support has helped me through some incredibly rough patches. Despite everything she’s going through, she’s always there for others. I love you so much sunshine — unbelievably proud of you angel. You deserve the world xx

I had gastroparesis for about 6 years. Between age of 31-37. Was on a jejunum feeding tube for 4 years. Dr's don't know how, but by a miracle I was able to eat again and live a normal life.

My best friend has gastroparaesis and 18 months ago she was given a gastric pacemaker and she now lives a virtually normal life she goes to Essex and has the voltage increased there is one surgeon in the whole country that does these pacemakers and its amazing what its done for my best friend

I have Gastroparesis and mental conditions. I'm fighting to eat until the day I can't. I had throwing up episodes recently and I get more and more scared I will need TPN and a heart pump one day. Beautiful humans like her make my future seem a little brighter. Thank you love we can do it. We are stronger than our illnesses.

Most social activities as an adult revolve around food -- inviting people for dinner, coffee, drinks etc etc People are ALWAYS eating 😑 You can go along and not eat but it makes others uncomfortable and can bring up feelings of anger and jealousy for the person not eating. It's an ongoing struggle and her situation is more extreme than my own. I love how she brings awareness.

Praying for everyone battling this horrible chronic illness ☹️🤎

Her gastroparesis must be extremely severe if she is on TPN instead of being on a PEJ (post stomach variant of tube feed)

😢God I pray that one day her Illness reverses and she can live and normal life if there ever is one ❤️🙏

As a Nigerian I must say You have inspired me To hold on through current times🥹

As soon as I saw the video title and thumbnail, I was like, "Omg, Gastroparesis?" 😁 Cuz I have it, too -- though mine is related to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that tends to cause a bunch of other disorders. A lot of those are neurological, like Gastroparesis. Mine was diagnosed 16 years ago, when I was 19yo (I'm 35yo now). I was really lucky, in that my EDS specialist knew that a lot of EDS patients develop it, so he referred me to a gastroenterologist who treats a lot of his EDS patients. My Gastroparesis is "moderate", in that I can eat a small amount of a very limited selection of foods, so long as I take a ton of meds throughout the day. Along with a lot of supplementation, monitoring electrolytes and vitamin/mineral levels, blood sugar, etc. I'm thankfully able to get by. It's been a massive adjustment and there are times when it gets worse for a while, but I'm conscious of how good things are now, compared to how much worse they may get in the future. I have a friend with GP who got a gastric pacemaker a few years ago and has had great results with that, so I'm hopeful about future treatment options. But I know what you mean about the toll it all can take on a person's mental health. Thank you so much for the work you're doing, Liv. It is absolutely vital and you're making a difference for all of us 💜

Whoa, I didn't know stomachs could get paralyzed. Thanks for sharing Olivia's story!

Very inspirational! I hope she knows that she doesn’t have to justify her chronic illness to anyone!

What an incredible young woman you are, Liv. One of my friends has a diagnosis of GP amongst other things and is NJ fed. Unfortunately for her, she had to go private for a diagnosis and treatment. She’s had to spend a huge amount of thousands of pounds to treat this condition. It just shouldn’t be like that. It’s a valid illness and you should be able to receive treatment from the NHS. Keep speaking out, Lovely. You’re making SUCH a difference 😊

It sounds incredibly hard to live like that. You have very good internal strength to go through all that and still be a positive.

Such a beautiful young lady, I'm glad she has her mum, who's very supportive. She has a positive attitude and can inspire so many others going through this disease. God bless her and her mum 🙏🩷🙏

I'm also going through multiple chronic illnesses that weren't diagnosed until my last year of college, some new ones I'm still being diagnosed with, and I have the same mental health issues. I also totally get the feeling of her having to rely on the support of her mom and having to deal with people not understanding that she's sick or disabled because I have to do the same and I don't look disabled. And it's hard because it just seems like there's always more and more issues and no one else is going through them and will never get what it's like for me to have them and suffer with them, but here is this girl suffering with 90% of the same stuff as me. She seems cool. I'd be her friend.

She's a sweetheart tho its crazy that people that goes through life haps are always the bigger than life people

I met a lovely 13 year old girl with Gastroparesis. I learned all I could about her condition. How sad Olivia was suffering symptoms quite some time before she was diagnosed. When a condition is explained, most people accept it as just a small part of a person's life. I was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma after many years of pain and other symptoms.

I was diagnosed with this 3 years ago I’m no where near as sick as she is I pray it doesn’t get worse but it’s slowly going down hill I’m sorry you have to deal with this I feel your pain

As someone who has GP, never feel like you have to ever justify it! And thank you for sharing as it's something that needs awareness.