Mike Swick learned recently following his February loss to Paulo Thiago that for the past four years, he's been a victim of a misdiagnosis.
"I've been dealing with a medical condition for the last several years," Swick revealed in a video blog posted Monday. "It's affected every part of my life and it's been an absolute nightmare."
Swick says he was told he had the stomach disorder dyspepsia when in reality he had esophageal spasms with acid reflux.
"But not knowing back then, I started to diet which was about one-third of what I was used to eating at that time," he said. "And this in fact the reason why I lost 30 pounds and dropped weight classes."
Swick competed as a middleweight early in his career and was a middleweight contestant on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. Swick won five fights in the UFC before losing to Yushin Okami at UFC 69. After the loss, Swick felt he was undersized for his weight class and moved down to 170 pounds.
A significant difference between the two conditions is that esophageal spasms are treatable while dyspepsia has no cure and the only approach is to treat the symptoms.
"I was happy that I was being told there are options, possibilities for to get over this and get my health back," Swick said. "But it was a little bitter because for four years I was told I had dyspepsia and I thought there was nothing I could do, and it greatly affected my life and my career."
Swick says this week he plans on getting a Neurotoxin injected into his esophagus for relief and if that option fails, will explore medication and even surgery.
"[Surgery] would be the third and final option, but one that I will be willing to take if it's all that's left," he said. "I'm going to do everything in my power to get healed up and healthy and get back in the Octagon as soon as I can."
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Mike Swick learned recently following his February loss to Paulo Thiago that for the past four years, he's been a victim of a misdiagnosis.
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