Imagine if your child is sick as a dog all the time. "As the days went by I just kept on throwing up, I got dehydrated, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink," says Sarina McFarlane, patient.
"I'll vomit up to about 40 times a day. That's just terrible, terrible. For being my age especially," says Olivia Brown, patient.
Both Serena and Olivia suffer from cyclic vomiting syndrome -- sometimes called abdominal migraine.
"In cyclic vomiting and abdominal migraine, as the word says you have disease in cycles or episodes and they will often occur with vomiting and nausea -- but also abdominal pain, tiredness and occasionally other symptoms as well -- including sometimes headache," says Dr. Richard Boles, pediatrician.
Diagnosing the condition is tricky. it's a situation Sarina's mom, Chandra Wilson who plays a doctor on TV found herself in.
"She had every kind of scan you could think of. You know, upper gi's and ct scans and delayed gastric tests and bloodwork constantly."
"Some of them have had over 100 episodes before somebody figured out what caused the trouble. And unfortunately probably most people out there with this condition still haven't recognized it for what it is," adds Dr. Boles.
Dr. Richard Boles has zeroed in on changes inside cells that might cause the problem. "It's really the nerve cells that require the most energy and disease occurs at times of energy demand. This is a real disorder. There's a real physical cause that's not in your mind and treatments are usually, not always, but usually successful.
Once diagnosed, treatments include prescription and over the counter medicines. "A particular medication, amitriptyline which is now considered the standard of care with mitochondrial disease coupled with coenzyme q-10 which is an over the counter remedy that you can take that increases energy supply to some degree."
It's turned Sarina's life around. "Everything seems a lot better. I'm back where I used to be."
