(June 25) -- A British woman has gone three years without eating a bite of solid food.
Trudy Sharp, 43, has suffered from severe digestive problems since her appendix burst when she was a teenager. In 2006, they got so bad doctors told her she needed a colectomy to remove her upper and lower bowel, London's Telegraph newspaper reported.
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Since then, Sharp has been limited to liquid meals, taken through a feeding tube inserted in her neck.
Sharp is also allowed to drink tea, but only three cups per day. So much as a fourth cup could overwhelm and damage her digestive system.
"It's not easy watching everyone else eat, while I have to get by on tea," Sharp told the Telegraph. "I'd love to sit down to a really romantic three-course meal with all the trimmings and lots of wine."
Sharp is on the top of a waiting list for intestinal transplants. Although she told the Telegraph she dreams of a normal life again, the surgery is not without risk.
Professor Peter Friend, clinical director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, said, "Intestinal transplants are very vulnerable to failure and the body can reject the organ very quickly. It is a difficult operation."
