Hello everyone, my name is Alice, I’m 18 and I have a pretty strange condition. Many of you probably heard of diseases like diabetes, hemophilia, or ADHD, right? If you have one of those I’m sure you had to learn how to live with it and I’m not here to tell you that your experience is lesser. I have something too. It is not common and I’ve suffered since the first day it appeared… It’s not easy for me to talk about it. I’m quite ashamed of it, but here goes nothing, this is my story…

Everything began five years ago when I was just fourteen. I went out with a few friends for pizza after school to this small restaurant in my hometown, San Francisco. We were having the time of our lives eating, messing with each other and not worrying about anything important, as teenagers do. Everything was normal.

The next day I woke up with a really, really strong stomachache. It wasn’t like anyone I’ve had before, this time I felt a unique pain, like when you know that you need to throw up to feel better. I squeezed my belly to incite vomiting and it didn’t work. I tried to touch my uvula with my fingers, you know that weird red thing that looks like a boxing bag in your mouth, and finally, I threw up.