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Kristy Harris

One night in February 2004, I was watching television at a friend's house when my stomach started hurting uncontrollably. I was in far too much pain to drive home, so he took me home and walked me inside my house while I was screaming and crying.

For the next year I experienced round-the-clock abdominal pain. It felt like my stomach was on fire, like I'd been kicked in the stomach as hard as humanly possible. The first thing I did was visit my regular doctor to see what was wrong. She did blood tests for five or six things she thought could be wrong. After all the tests came back normal, she sent me to my gynecologist.

The gynecologist suspected that I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), so she sent me home with some prescriptions. I took the pills for four weeks while maintaining the diet for IBS. That didn't work, so she decided to do laparoscopic surgery to try and find the problem. She found nothing.

By this point, the ER was like my second home. The more I went, the more the doctor thought that I faking the whole thing just to get drugs. During one ER visit in the fall of 2004, the doctor admitted me to the hospital and gave me some Demerol. I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning, and the doctor had called in a psychiatrist to talk to me. Now they were thinking I was just crazy, that this was all in my head.

I strongly disagreed. How dare they tell me it's all in my head? But to be safe I talked to the psychiatrist and made appointments to see her and also a therapist, just to let everything out. All of my feelings just flowed out with the therapist. I felt so comfortable talking to him. They put me on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds, but the psychiatrist still didn't find anything that could be making me ill.

My next step was to see a gastroentrologist. Over a few months he did an upper GI, colonoscopy and CT scan. Everything that could be done, he did, with no results.

Next I tried a chiropractor. He made my back and neck better but didn't help my abdominal pain. So I found a different chiropractor that also did acupuncture. He got me all balanced out and prayed that that would do the trick. Once again, nothing.

After the chiropractors, I saw a general surgeon. He suspected my gallbladder and suggested some tests. The tests showed that I had an abnormal gallbladder. The surgeon told me there was a 50/50 chance of it actually being the problem. After eight weeks of recovery from the gallbladder surgery, my abdominal pain was still there.

In February 2005, one year exactly from when my pain started, my grandma went to her doctor. She told him about my struggles and asked him if he had any ideas. First thing out of his mouth, without even seeing me, was, "She could possibly have AIP." I made an appointment to see him promptly. He sent me home to do a 24-hour urine test. Six days later, the test confirmed that I had AIP. Praise the Lord we found the problem!

Right then, I burst into tears. I had suffered for so long with no answer. Now I knew what was wrong with me, I was the happiest person alive. The doctor immediately put me in the hospital and started Panhematin and glucose IV's. I stayed for 10 days. After a year I was finally pain-free. It was a miracle. I actually felt like hanging out with my friends and going places.

I continue to have attacks, but I also have months where I'm pain free. I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Kristy Harris—Benton, AR