text: A young woman has revealed details about her lengthy battle with a rare condition that left her unable to eat anything for a year and a half – despite the fact that she still felt desperately hungry. Kyli Wilfson, a self-confessed ‘food person’, was 26 when she first started experiencing agonizing pain – which made her feel like she had been ‘kicked in the abdomen' – whenever she ate, a symptom which doctors initially brushed off as being due to a mild pancreatic problem which would ‘resolve itself’ in a matter of days. Kyli, now 29, was eventually diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, and the North Carolina resident found herself looking at a lifetime spent on a feeding tube, as the disease, which effects less than .01 per cent of people, would only get worse. Within months she had dropped to a startling 80lbs, she revealed to Cosmopolitan.com, and  had to postpone her wedding as she spent more and more time in hospitals. Mystery illness: Kyli Wolfson, pictured, had trouble getting a correct diagnosis when she woke up in excruciating pain in October 2012; her illness left her unable to eat for a year and a half . At first, doctors faced difficulties even diagnosing Kyli; though she'd had digestive problems for years, her rare disease wasn't initially considered. Instead, doctors at her local ER insisted that she had acute pancreatitis, a condition that commonly effects heavy drinkers. However, Kyli's pain continued to return every time she tried to eat anything — even soup — leading her to visit two more hospitals in search of a new diagnosis and a cure. 'It never even changed,' she said, explaining that when she tried to eat, it felt like she was burning on the inside. 'It was still ten-out-of-ten pain.' Three months after her first visit to the emergency room, she was finally diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, a condition she had likely had since birth but was only found after doctors put a camera down her throat to her pancreas — a potentially life-threatening procedure that was only tried after all other options had been exhausted. Literally starving: Still maintaining an appetite but unable to eat without pain, Kyli was constantly hungry — leading her fiancé Dustin Wood to feel bad eating in front of her . Rapid weight loss: Kyli's weight, which is normally at around 110lbs, dropped to 80lbs when she was at her lightest . Sufferers of the illness, which is characterized by an inflammation of the pancreas, have to be fed through a feeding tube because the condition never improves, and eventually leads to permanent damage. Kyli spent a year and half abstaining from eating entirely, which was an incredibly trying ordeal for both her and her fiancé Dustin Wood. 'We're food people,' she said. 'We [love] to bake, order takeout. Now he felt bad eating in front of me.' Luckily, Kyli found a support group for people who have chronic pancreatitis on Facebook, some of whom said they found a way to eat: a risky surgical procedure to remove the pancreas, spleen, gallbladder, appendix, and duodenum, which allows the pancreas' cells to be transplanted into the liver, enabling it to function as a pancreas. So Kyli flew to a hospital in Minnesota that specializes in the 14-hour surgery, and scheduled her procedure for January 2014. Enduring love: Kyli's wedding to fiancé Dustin is back on, now scheduled three years after she first went to the emergency room with stomach pain . After her surgery, Kyli spent another two and a half weeks using a feeding tube before being told to try food again. 'I was excited, but nervous, since it had been so long since I'd eaten,' she said. 'Sure enough, I had chicken broth and juice and it didn't affect anything. It was amazing.' She soon began enjoying ice cream, lobster, and pizza, and was able to return to her normal weight of 110lbs. 'The number one thing that helped was the support group I joined and knowing other people going through it,' she said. 'They saved me and gave me hope.' Now feeling healthy and grateful for the transformative surgery, Kyli was able to reschedule her wedding to Dustin. She will walk down the aisle in October.
target: Kyli Wolfson, 29, felt severe pain whenever she ate thanks to the disorder, which developed in October 2012, when she was 26 .
  She dropped to just 80lbs and doctors told her she would likely need a feeding tube for the rest of her life .
  Diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, Kyli's only hope was to undergo a 14-hour surgery to remove her pancreas .