This is the one nobody talks about.
Everyone knows about the burning and the food restrictions. But the tiredness. That bone-deep drained feeling where you sleep eight hours and wake up feeling like you slept two. Where every afternoon feels like you're moving through sand. Where people ask if you're okay and you say yes because how do you explain that your stomach is stealing all your energy.
I'd been like that for years. I thought it was just getting older.
Around week five I woke up and felt rested. Actually rested. I made breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, ran an errand, and realized it was noon and I hadn't needed to sit down yet. My husband looked at me that evening and said I looked different. He said I had color in my face again.
I heard a similar thing from a woman who said she told her family she felt like she got five years back. Her husband noticed before she even said anything.
When your body stops spending everything it has fighting your stomach, you get the rest of yourself back. That's what happened.