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As a young firefighter and paramedic in St. Petersburg, Florida, Ryan Mitchell worked in a profession known for its high macho quotient and stoic heroism. But often, his body reacted like a baby who had just been fed a bowl of three-alarm chili. And he was embarrassed.
It began in the fall of 2002, when the 21-year-old would get stomachaches after eating certain foods. By December, he couldn't keep anything down, and he was plagued by horrible, ripping cramps and diarrhea. "I was running to the bathroom six or seven times a day," Mitchell recalls. When responding to car accidents, fires and other emergencies, he'd get the unmistakable urge and sweat it out until he could get to a toilet. "As soon as a call was over, I'd have to beg the engine driver to pull over at a gas station, or I'd even use the bathroom at the scene. I'm not sure how I did it. The pain was practically unbearable."Mitchell's stomach troubles and frequent bathroom breaks also got in the way when it came to dating, running errands -- just about everything. "I had to plot even the most mundane things," he says. "And I knew where every gas station in the county was."
He thought he had caught some kind of infection, but his doctor told him it was simply stress-related and offered him Valium. Mitchell, a laid-back guy, was pretty sure this wasn't the problem and didn't want to take the drugs. When the six-foot-four, 180-pound fireman's weight plummeted to 156, he finally went to a gastroenterologist. Right away, the doctor suspected celiac disease, a condition marked by an intolerance to gluten. A blood test and a biopsy of the small intestine confirmed the diagnosis. The treatment? Eliminating all gluten-containing foods, such as wheat, barley and rye, from the diet. Within a few weeks, Mitchell noticed improvements, but it took more than two years for all his symptoms to disappear.
Gastrointestinal disorders plague more than 60 million Americans. Some are more serious than others. But all can be painful, puzzling, embarrassing and tricky to diagnose and treat. So how do you know if your stomachache is the result of a pathogen, an overindulgence, stress, an allergy or some rare disorder?
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