Amiya Shah is a 12-year-old lymphedema patient who resides in Canada with her mom, Dr. Priya Sood. Amiya’s goal is to become a famous clothing designer. In the summer of 2024, Amiya attended the Camp Watch Me program in Colorado for children with lymphedema. There, she met Dr. Shelley DiCecco, CLT and a board member of the LLN.
After an uneventful pregnancy, Dr. Sood gave birth to Amiya, the second of three daughters. At birth, Amiya showed right labial swelling. In her first few weeks, Amiya was vomiting breast milk and had poor weight gain, followed by fever and a diagnosis of Citrobacter sepsis. After a few weeks, an endoscopy showed villi. She was diagnosed with Intestinal Lymphangiectasia and right-sided Hemi-Lymphedema. Amiya was also low in lymphocytes, immunoglobulins, and albumin.
had a weight problem my entire life, starting as a baby my mother was told to only give me Skim Milk. As a toddler I had chunky legs and started to become knock-kneed. My mother had me on diets from Weight Watchers, Scarsdale, OA, Hypnosis, and others, where I would lose some weight but never from my legs, especially once I started menstruation. As a young adult I did the Medifast program and got down to 175 pounds, I was thinner on top and 2 sizes bigger on the bottom, even with going to the gym daily doing cardio and aqua aerobics. I had to stop because my liver enzymes elevated rapidly. I steadily regained weight though I was dieting and exercising.
ng WLS in 2016. I lost 120 pounds, then started gaining weight primarily in my hips, thighs, buttocks, and abdomen. I was also rapidly losing my mobility and was in intractable pain. I had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, which was causing my arthritis to advance, chronic fatigue, and an immense amount of pain. In 2018 I had trouble walking and doing other activities of daily living and was in pain constantly despite being treated by Pain Management. My Quality of Life was flying out the window. In 2019 I could hardly walk, needing a rollator walker, mart carts and wheelchairs, needing help bathing and toileting, and was hardly able to do any household chores. Little did I know I had started Perimenopause and my hip blew up on my right side, my calves and arms got bigger, my extremities were heavy, and I was in continuous pain and miserable.
