A Doctor Misdiagnosed Her With A Rare Form Of Muscular Dystrophy, But It Turns Out She Had A Problem With Gluten

bongkarn - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
bongkarn - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual people

If you’ve ever sat in a doctor’s office and felt like your concerns weren’t being taken seriously, you’re not alone.

Many doctors make mistakes, but these mistakes occur more frequently with women. Women are more likely to receive a misdiagnosis than men, and the repercussions can be life-threatening.

Bayleigh (@bayleighburress) is a registered dietitian, and she’s sharing her story about how a doctor misdiagnosed her with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, but it turned out she had an intolerance to gluten.

“To the doctor who thought he found a rare form of muscular dystrophy and refused to listen to us when we said the treatment was not working…you misdiagnosed me and almost killed me. It was gluten, you idiot,” she wrote in the text overlay of the video.

She began experiencing symptoms in the eighth grade. At the time, she had just won an award at the science fair and was celebrating with her family by having a steak dinner.

While she was in the living room, she sat down on the couch and suddenly fell over. She recalled that she was able to see and hear everything that was going on but just couldn’t move her body. To this day, she still experiences episodes like that.

When her sister walked into the room and saw her, she started screaming. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room.

They ran tests, but the tests didn’t come back with any results that were out of the ordinary. Bayleigh and her family thought the incident might’ve just been a fluke and hoped it would be a one-time thing.

However, she started having these episodes about once a month, which then increased to two or three times per week.

bongkarn – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people

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Her doctors diagnosed her with neurocardiogenic syncope. She visited a bunch of other different medical specialists, and they all came to the same diagnosis.

But then, it got worse. Her spells were interfering with her schoolwork and extracurricular activities. The doctors instructed her to quit taking her medications immediately.

After more tests were done, they found that her potassium levels were dangerously low and told her parents to take her to the emergency room. That was when she was diagnosed with periodic paralysis and started doing the treatment for it.

While doing the treatment, she ended up in a wheelchair and was confined to bed. She had to be homeschooled because she wasn’t able to sit in a classroom.

Her condition didn’t seem to be improving. In fact, it only appeared to be getting worse. Her mom kept calling the doctor to inform them about how the treatment was ineffectual, but the doctor said they needed to give the treatment time to work.

They stopped seeing that doctor, but the other medical professionals were still unsure what to do with Bayleigh.

Finally, they went to a different medicine department and saw a doctor who told them that Bayleigh had a gluten intolerance and a gut imbalance.

They ran multiple tests and ended up diagnosing her with gluten ataxia, which was what was causing her episodes.

0What do you think?Post a comment.

She worked with a dietitian to start incorporating more fruits and vegetables into her diet to get her gut microbiome back into balance.

This whole experience inspired her to become a dietitian herself. She is now a functional medicine dietitian and is the only one in her hometown.

@bayleighburress

you could at least spend more than five minutes with a patient bud.

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Emily  Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a ... More about Emily Chan
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