Woman Says She Can Vomit 15 Times an Hour Due to Rare Condition
Originally appeared on E! Online
A 29-year-old woman is speaking out about her rare condition that causes excessive vomiting.
Sharisse Zeroonian has been diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome, a chronic disorder that can make her throw up as often as 15 times an hour during a severe episode.
"The biggest thing was that people wouldn't understand that it's a disorder," she said in a Today interview published June 13. "They'd just think it was me being overdramatic."
The ordeal started for Zeroonian in 2021, when she felt extreme nausea during a time of stress, anxiety or her period, leading her to relentlessly throw up for days on end.
She spent the next two years going through a gauntlet of medical tests—including an endoscopy and a gastric emptying study to measure how quickly food passed through her digestive tract—before finally learning what was wrong.
According to the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association, patients are often misdiagnosed with the stomach flu or food poisoning since there are no procedures to test for the disorder. Doctors can only diagnose the condition, which can flare up at any age, by ruling out other diseases.
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"It can persist for months, years, or decades. Episodes may recur several times a month or several times a year," the CVSA noted on its website. "One mother aptly described her child's state during the episode as a 'conscious coma.' The symptoms are frightening to the person and family, and can be life-threatening if delayed treatment leads to severe dehydration."
Fortunately for Zeroonian, she now takes an antipsychotic drug and an anti-nausea drug to help manage her symptoms. While she still experiences vomiting episodes once in a while, she told Today that they're shorter and less intense than before.
In fact, she's even making a self-described "vom-com" centered around her condition. Titled Nothing Solid, the movie is loosely based on Zeroonian's own health journey.
'Being open about it and making this movie has helped so much because I think I suffered a lot more when I was not being open," she added. "I felt a lot more liberated once I started talking to people about it."
And she won't be the first in Hollywood to a shine light on the disease. Grey's Anatomy tackled the rare condition in 2012.
The season nine episode—titled 'Second Opinion"—was directed by actress Chandra Wilson (a.k.a Dr. Miranda Bailey) and was inspired by her daughter, who was diagnosed with CVS. 'She would get these terrible bouts of vomiting and stabbing abdominal pains,' Wilson told People in 2017. 'I thought, 'This was crazy.' Something was wrong with my daughter, and nobody could tell me what it was.'
For more Grey's moments inspired by reality—and more that aren't—read on…
(E! and Today are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
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