Dawnette

“There was definitely something in my food that day,” said Dawnette. “It was a chemical or cleaning product. We’re not sure what, but there was something in my food that should not have been there.”

Dawnette was headed home for the day with her two boys when she decided to pull into a fast food restaurant and grab something to eat. As she headed out of the drive-thru with their order, she handed the kids their food and took a quick bite of her own meal. Instantaneously, Dawnette became sick. She grabbed the food from the kids before they ate it and somehow managed to drive to her parents’ house a few miles away.

It was the beginning of years of pain and anguish for Dawnette and her family.

After the incident, Dawnette went to several doctors and hospitals, but she had no luck in finding relief. No one could pinpoint exactly what was wrong with her or figure out a treatment that would help. “I couldn’t hold anything down – not even water,” said Dawnette. “I went from 134 lbs. down to 93 lbs. I had constant, excruciating pain in my abdomen. My hair began falling out, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t cook dinner, I couldn’t take care of my kids, I couldn’t go to their school functions, nothing. I just kept getting more and more sick, and it continued for years.”

Finally, Dawnette went to the U-M Livonia Health Center. It’s where her children’s pediatrician was located, so she decided to try a doctor there. “That’s when things started to turn around for me,” she said. “The U-M doctors immediately tried to find help for me where the other doctors really just didn’t. They took the time to talk to me, to find out what my life was like since I had gotten sick. Based on that discussion, they did several tests that none of the other doctors even bothered to do. Once those results came back, between them and the hospital, they were able to figure out treatments for what they diagnosed as chemically-induced pancreatitus.” It was then that Dawnette began to see changes.

 “As they started treatments, the first thing that happened was I could eat again,” said Dawnette. “The weight loss stopped, and I started to regain my strength. My hair stopped falling out. And I could be part of my children’s lives again. I could go to their school plays and baseball games.”

Dawnette credits the doctors and nurses of U-M Livonia and the hospital with showing her the compassion and care that helped her get well. As she tells it, “They always made sure that I knew I had someone there for me, that they were on my side, and that together we were going to find out an answer to what was happening to me.”

“Dr. Fan at U-M Livonia has taken my life in a new direction,” said Dawnette of her primary physician. “She was so comforting – to me, to my husband, and both my children. And it continues today. She still sends me notes with my blood work results that say things like ‘Get well, be well’ – just little notes to let me know that she cares, and that I’m not just a file in her office.”

Dawnette experienced many milestones during her recovery, but a comment from one of her son’s made her aware that things really were going to be all right again. “My son told me it was really great that I was back,” she said. “It just made my heart smile.”