As Dr. Miranda Bailey on ABCs Greys Anatomy, Chandra Wilson is used to solving medical mysteries. But when her daughter suddenly came face to face withher own rare disorder, the actress fell straight into detective mode.
After a casual outing with friendswhen she was 16 years old, Sarina McFarlane thought she was fighting a bad case of food poisoning. However, after repetitive attacks of nausea and vomiting, both daughter and motherknew it was something more serious.
She would get these terrible bouts of vomiting and stabbing abdominal pains, Wilson, 47, exclusively tells PEOPLE in this weeks issue. I thought, This was crazy. Something was wrong with my daughter, and nobody could tell me what it was.
For Wilson, watching her daughters struggle nearly got to the point ofunbearable.
I found myself tracking what foods she was eating, where we were, tracking all this information myself, she says. Each hospital visit, I would put the info into a binder. By month eight, I was walking around with this gigantic binder.
After 10frustrating months of unanswered questions and endless hospital visits due to dehydration, McFarlanewas finally diagnosed with mitochondrial dysfunction (severe depletion of the bodys cellular energy supply) andcyclic vomiting syndrome(CVS), a rare disorder that presents with random attacks of committing, nausea, and extreme exhaustion, in 2010.
Now, 23, McFarlane admits she was scared, frustrated and depressed during the months leading to her diagnosis.
People in high school thought I was throwing up because I was trying to lose weight, she says.
The episodes tend to be abrupt, coming at different frequencies, McFarlanes physician, Dr. Richard Boles, the medical director for Courtagen Life Sciences, says. Dueto the symptomslack of diversity, its extremely hard to diagnose.
Theres really no objective criteria to back it up, he says. And, though experts have not found a cure, Boles stresses that it can be controlled with the right medication, vitamins and healthy lifestyle.
As McFarlane made a transition from adolescent care (where she maintained the same group of doctors and nurses) to adult care, her troubles seemed to only get worse.
If you go to the hospital two, three or four times, they think youre a druggie, she says.
You have to go through the process of being believed again, adds Wilson.
Now McFarlane, whos studying screenwriting at Cal State Northridge, and her momtry to remain upbeat.
I could be sad about it, says McFarlane, but its going to come back anyway.
Greys Anatomy airs Thursdays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
Excerpt from:
Grey's Anatomy's Chandra Wilson Opens Up About Her Daughter's ... - PEOPLE.com