I used to be disgusted by vomit to the point where I would gag at the smell or sight of it. That all changed in high school when my older brother was diagnosed with Rumination Syndrome.

For those people who do not know what Rumination Syndrome is, consider yourself very lucky. Rumination Syndrome is the chronic effortless regurgitation of most meals due to involuntary muscle contractions of the abdomen. Basically, it is when your body forgets how to eat and digest food so it throws it up instead. It is an underdiagnosed illness that unfortunately had a great impact upon my life.

In high school, my brother was a gigantic 6’2, 290 lb. football player. Going into his senior year, he was being recruited by big D1 football schools for his size and ability. During the preseason, Greg got sick with a horrible stomach virus that left him hospitalized for two days. He dropped about 15 lbs., but fortunately it went away with time and medication. That following October, he suffered from a similar stomach bug that was less extreme but just as equally harmful in the long run. In November, he was back to his normal self and all seemed well.

I remember the day he first threw up clearly in my mind. It was mid-December and we were watching a movie together on a Friday night. All of a sudden he got up and went to the bathroom and vomited several times. I didn’t think much of it at the time, figuring it was another bout of the stomach flu. But instead, this time, was much different.

For weeks, Greg was throwing up constantly after every meal and was losing weight like I’d never seen before. My parents were frantically running him to doctors all across the state to try and figure out what was wrong. For three months, we had no idea what was going on with his body and Greg began to get worse.

Greg had always been my best friend and I gladly spent my Friday and Saturday nights cooped up on our couch with him. These nights consisted of binge-watching horror movies while Greg slowly ate a meal only to vomit it back up simultaneously.

At one point, my parents took Greg to a doctor who treated cases of bulimia in adolescents. My mother recalls sitting in the waiting room next to very thin girls, gawking at the size of my massive brother. From acupuncture to hypnotism, we tried everything under the sun to cure Greg.

Finally, my parents found a saving grace in a doctor who had seen cases like Greg’s before. She previously worked at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where they treated rare syndromes like Greg’s. Putting a diagnosis to this strange affliction was the first step in his recovery. The doctor explained that Greg’s body needed to be retaught how to eat “one Cheerio at a time."

So after a trip to Minnesota and a weeklong stay in a facility in Ohio, my brother slowly recovered and began to put weight back on. He spent the next year in a boarding school as a super senior to give him more options for college. He is currently a member of the University of Michigan Football team and is stronger than ever. Although he doesn’t suffer from Rumination Syndrome daily, there are still times when my brother throws up because of too much stress.

Chronic illnesses of any sort are not only hard on the patient suffering, but also on the whole family. Thinking back to that hard time in our lives, I realize how much closer it made my family. With such a strong family at my side, I know that we can make it through anything.