Try to imagine a life where you couldn’t eat whatever you wanted, when you wanted, because it made you sick. Imagine around the holidays not being able to indulge in your favorite foods like stuffing, mashed potatoes and an extra large serving of pumpkin pie. This is a life that senior Adrianna Kriger knows all too well. Last December, Kriger was out of school for two months while she battled the beginning stages of her Bile Acid Malabsorption.

Kriger admits it’s a confusing condition that’s very rare among young adults.

“My liver is producing too much bile, which breaks down fats and foods,” Kriger said. “It’s usually stored in your gallbladder but it’s producing too much to where my gallbladder can’t store all of it so it’s constantly in my digestive system. So I pretty much have a constant stomach ache along with really bad cramps.”

In other words, the extra bile buildup causes her to be sick often. Unfortunately because it’s so rare in young adults, there’s no available testing options.

“The only test for it is in the United Kingdom,” Kriger said. “So it’s not a concrete diagnosis but I’ve been taking the medication and it’s been working”

She admits that it’s taken time to adjust to knowing which foods she can and cannot eat.

“When I first got sick for a while I didn’t really eat and I didn’t go out to eat either,” Kriger said. “Before, the medication kept it under control I never knew when I would get sick. There’s a lot of food I can’t eat like rich and fatty foods upset my stomach. Staying toward the natural foods helps. During the school week I eat really plain foods and then I save the pizza and stuff for the weekend, so I have the weekend to potentially be sick.”

She reveals that her parents’ eating habits have changed slightly too.

“For a while, my parents wouldn’t eat my favorite foods that I couldn’t eat anymore unless I was gone,” Kriger said. “I told them like, ‘It’s OK, you guys can still eat that stuff.’”

Eating habits aren’t the only aspect of her life that has changed.

“I can’t really spend the night at people’s houses anymore,” Kriger said. “I have so many medications I have to take every morning and every night to keep it in check.”

Along with Kriger’s change, her family has also had to adjust.

“They get out of work a lot because there’s a lot of doctors appointments” Kriger said. “If I get sick at school, they have to kind of drop everything to make sure I’m OK. Or sometimes I have to go to the doctor immediately if I get really sick.”

Although it’s taken time and loss of control, Kriger believes she’s figured out the key to living with her condition.

“I like to be in control so it’s really hard not knowing when it could happen,” Kriger said. “For a while I didn’t eat anything because I didn’t know if it would make me sick or not, but now it’s been a couple months, so I have an idea of what I can and cannot eat.”