This woman discovered that the shocking cause of her health issues was a fish tapeworm inside of her.
Alexa Kilbride, from West Islip, New York, USA, revealed how after dealing with horrific medical issues for four months, she finally found the cause of her pain.
She found that a fish tapeworm was inside of her causing painful reflux, extreme weight loss, nausea and bad panic attacks and anxiety.
Alexa said: “Finding out that I had a tapeworm was not easy and it took a long time.
“I have no idea how I got this tapeworm; I don’t eat fish!”
After unexplained nausea and extreme weight loss down to 110 pounds (49.8kg), Alexa claimed that doctors told her that her symptoms were just anxiety, but she knew in her gut it was something more.
She decided to take matters into her own hands and paid $150 (£121) for a phone consultation and after two hours of explaining her symptoms she was sent for testing.
The accountant executive and influencer was then diagnosed with Diphyllobothrium Latum Fish tapeworm.
Alexa was left in shock as she has never eaten fish before in her life and presumed the cause must have come from cross contamination or when she travelled out of the country.
She had travelled to Aruba and Miami and after experiencing her first symptoms in Florida, she believed that she may have got infected in Aruba.
Alexa had visited Miami with some friends for her birthday and after taking a tiny sip of alcohol, she proceeded to throw up in the restaurant for two hours straight.
After this incident, she decided to eat ‘clean’ but the nausea did not go away, leaving her even running out of her Pilates class and going straight home to be sick.
When she finally got the diagnosis of her fish tapeworm, Alexa couldn’t grasp what was happening to her and even the doctor admitted to never seeing a patient with a tapeworm before.
Alexa explained how there was some happiness over her diagnosis and finding the answers to her illness, but it also left her not feeling like a person for days.
She said: “It’s literally taken like four months of my life and I can’t believe it.
“Clearly something was cross contaminated because I’ve never ever eaten fish in my life.
“They were like, ‘Have you traveled out of the country?’ and the only two places I’ve traveled to that kind of make sense are Aruba back in April and Miami in August.”
The first time she experienced symptoms was in Miami, so she believed that she may have got infected in Aruba or sometime before Miami.
She added: “When we were in Miami, I was going out to dinner for my birthday. “I had all my friends over to come pregame in our hotel room.
“I took like the tiniest bit of tequila, which is the only thing I ever drink and I’m always totally fine with it.
“We went to dinner and on the car ride there, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel so nauseous. I feel like I’m going to throw up’.
“I get to the restaurant and for two hours straight I am throwing up bile in the bathroom.”
For the next two weeks, she ate pretty clean but begins throwing up again.
Alexa added: “I keep going to doctors and they keep telling me I’m fine or that there’s really nothing to worry about, it’s just anxiety.
“I was like, ‘something is wrong and I’m going to find the person that believes me’.
“So, I pay $150 for a phone consultation, and I explain everything for almost two hours. “We went far beyond my time slot because there was just so much that I wanted to tell them.
“Low and behold, the testing comes back that I have this fish tapeworm.
“So, I wasn’t crazy, like I was happy that I had answers, but for the next 48 hours, I basically wasn’t a person.
“Mentally, I could not grasp the fact that this actually was happening to me.”