Zeal & Ardor Reveal Stomach Disease Behind Bassist’s Absences
Zeal & Ardor have played some shows over the past year minus their bassist Mia Rafaela Dieu and in recent postings from both the group and Mia herself, they've revealed the reason she's been out of action.
The bassist revealed via her Instagram, "This year I got diagnosed with a debilitating sickness called Gastroparesis, which in my case is caused by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Gastroparesis is a motility disorder of the stomach, that literally translates to 'paralyzed stomach.'"
She continued, "It means that the stomach fails to digest food and empty the way it should. Both are clinically incurable chronic diseases with unpredictable courses, and they bring many manifestations in the body. For me, they mainly express with heavy nausea, massive abdominal pain, vomiting, malnutrition challenges, fatigue, migraines and other funny things who are joining the party."
According to the group and their bassist, Dieu is currently "figuring out how to deal with everything," but is fighting to find a course of treatment. The band adds, "For now it is not possible to say how long it will take until she can play live shows again."
The bassist says in her posting, "Since I have a more or less invisible illness, you might see me and think I don't look terribly sick, as I will not always look like the walking dead. You'll probably only see me on my good days, having a drink with friends, laughing and appearing quite normal. But this illness is a 24/7 job I didn't choose."
She continues, "The intensity of the symptoms vary extremely from day to day, and even hour to hour without a logical pattern. There are days that I feel pretty good, and suddenly some hours or a day later this sickness will pull me down to where I'm not able to eat or leave my bed, and am left wishing that somebody could just cut out my gut and stop this nightmare."
Dieu comments, "Right now I don't know when I will be able to get back to touring or playing live shows. On some days it just feels like my body is trying to keep me down and take away the life I've built up for the past 15 years with a lot of hard work, conviction and all my heart and belief. This is beyond not easy to accept or understand, and leads very fast into a black downward spiral of darkness and despair. But I'm trying to face it everyday and put all my energy towards hope and finding the power to endure everything it takes to get my life back, sooner or later."
The band's full statement on the matter can be read below, while Dieu's more elaborate explanation can be viewed over a series of Instagram posts that follow.
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