Marianne DeFazio

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My story started in May of 2011. Since then, I have been searching for a Doctor to take on my very rare case and raising money, so when I found a Doctor I would have the money to go see the Doctor. Most people know my story, but I'll give a little bit of a cliff note, just in case those seeing my site, don't know.


In 2007 I started to get sick to my stomach. I was tested for everything, but it all came back negative. Even though I was throwing up, I was also packing on the pounds. By the end of 2010 until May of 2011, I was throwing up almost daily. I couldn't eat anything, except some broth and Jello. I was diagnosed with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome to Stomach Migraines, until it was all thrown out as stress and anxiety. I'm Bipolar, so I truly believe that I wasn't taken seriously enough because of my mental illness. (My own opinion) In May of 2011 the base of my esophagus burst and "killed" my stomach. My entire stomach had to be removed and I only have a very small portion of my esophagus left. When the initial incident happened in May, they only gave me a 5% chance to survive. I was put in an induced coma from May until July of 2011, during that time I coded a few times. I'm now on a feeding tube that goes directly into my small intestine (J tube) and I have a "spit fistula", which is an ostomoy bag on my chest that collects all my saliva, which would suffocate me because I  don't have a stomach, so instead the saliva goes into the bag, but the plus side is that I do get to drink or eat very soft food for taste and pleasure only, but at least I get to taste some chocolate ice cream!  Since then I have been in and out of the hospital. I was in 2 nursing homes, lost all my teeth, had a few blood infections, suffer with CHF and cardiomyopathy. I was exposed to TB, so now I have the virus, which could awaken and kill me, I had C.Diff, collapsed lungs, blood transfusions, in constant pain and right now I weigh 71lbs


After a 5 year search for a doctor to take a look at me, I finally found a doctor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Digestive Disorder Clinic. My first appointment with the Doctor is on September 12, 2016 at 2pm. I will keep up my journal, so keep checking back. This is just the 1st stop on my road to recovery. I'm still raising money and if anyone knows anyone who would help sponsor me, please let me know. Having a sponsor or a few sponsors would help me, my family and friends who have been with me through these past 5 years. Like I was told. It took me 5 years to find a doctor;I won't be fixed in 5 days