20 - Year Time Bomb

Something that I’d eaten as a toddler was slowly killing me…

- Danielle Smalley

Sitting on the side of the bath, I let out a groan.

‘Are you OK?’ my boyfriend Jack, then 24, called from outside the bathroom door.

‘I don’t know...’ I started.

But I couldn’t finish my sentence, had to lift the toilet seat to be sick again.

For months, I’d had terrible abdominal pains and attacks of vomiting.

‘You really should see the doctor,’ Jack said when I eventually staggered out.

‘I know,’ I sighed.

Actually, doctors were very familiar territory for me.

Born at 26 weeks, I’d been in Intensive Care and had tummy problems my whole life.

So I made an appointment.

‘It’s probably just IBS,’ my GP told me. ‘But we will do some tests.’

It was September 2016, and I was sent for a trans vaginal ultrasound to examine my pelvis.

Two weeks later, I went along and was given some shocking news.

‘Your liver, intestines and bowel are on the wrong side of your body,’ the doctor said.

They were all on my left side, which meant that I could have blockages later down the line.