Watch the story of the woman who was on a liquid diet for a year
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A 21-year-old woman suffered severe pain as her body was unable to digest food. Due to her body’s inability to digest food, she was on a liquid diet for a year.
Charlotte Twinley, from Arundel, Sussex, was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (or EDS) – a connective tissue disorder when she was in her teens.
It affected her joints and gastroparesis in her digestive system and she was unable to digest food. She was on a liquid diet of meal replacement milkshakes for a year.
But, after the ostomy surgery, she is now able to eat again.
Charlotte told Barcroft TV: “Now, after especially not having to eat for over a year, I absolutely love food again. I took food for granted back then. I don’t think I would take it for granted anymore.”
“With food, I have got a happy relationship with it finally and my body again, I was a bit worried that I would start gaining weight that it would trigger me back but if anything it has done the opposite, it has made me love and appreciates my body.”
“I used to see like, oh that could change, that could change, this could be smaller, that could be larger, that could change and now I just see me as I am and there is nothing wrong with it, there is nothing wrong with me. Nothing needs to change.”
Pasta and chocolate cake were her favorites and now, she can eat them once again, thanks to her ostomy bag.
She said: “When I was younger I’d eat all the time. I would have a breakfast space, a dinner space, a pudding space. And I used to have pasta every single day.”
“From around the age of 10, I started getting mild stomach symptoms but nothing too disastrous. I just got occasional stomach pains.”
But, after her diagnosis with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, she had to give up everything.
“It was quite embarrassing and a taboo kind of thing to talk about.
I was ashamed to talk about to my friends because it’s embarrassing really. No one else had these problems, no one else especially girls really talked about it so I felt quite alone and I kind of became quite withdrawn with my friends. I became a lot more shy than I used to be”, she said.
The ostomy surgery has made her life easier and now, she can eat whatever she wants once again.
She said: “It didn’t take me too long to post a picture of me with my stoma bag mainly because I had followed other people [on social media] and I just saw their confidence and I thought that I could post it.”
“After I posted pictures on Instagram I started gaining confidence, more confidence than I had done for the last six years which is weird with an ostomy bag but my confidence just kind of skyrocketed and I am really happy with it.”
“I look in the mirror and I don’t cry anymore. It’s ironic how a bag of poo attached to my stomach could change my whole perspective on how I feel about myself!”