A woman who suffers from a debilitating disease says she was finally diagnosed after a year of confusion - when a stranger reached out to her on Facebook. Annie Marshall, 20, first began experiencing symptoms in March 2020 after a bout of food poisoning left her in pain every time she ate.
And, after seeing a number of specialists, she was diagnosed with gastroparesis in March 2021. But none of the medications or treatments she was given helped relieve the symptoms - and she even had to go on a liquid diet.
It was only after she vented her frustrations in a Facebook group for gastroparesis sufferers that a woman reached out to her and suggested she looks into Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome, or MALS for short. Annie said: “A stomach is supposed to empty itself in half an hour but for me, after four hours, zero percent had emptied.
