Chron's Disese, The Day My World Stopped

Those of you that know me well enough do know that I have what is called Chron's disease (Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disease, in which the body's immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract, causing inflammation; it is classified as a type of inflammatory bowel disease.) Please read further...
It was a really nice evening in December of 2007.  Still shaken up from the car accident a few months prior, I had taken the family out for a nice dinner at one of our favorite places to eat.  I had noticed a bit of pain and discomfort in my lower abdomen at the beginning of the day but blew it off.  When we arrived back home I was setting a few things on the counter and then... it hit FULL force.. The breath was knocked out of me due to the intense pain and I though I was going to die any second.. was it food poisoning?  Absolutely not come to find out.  I cannot stand hospitals or Dr.s so I simply tried to ignore the problem thinking maybe it would pass.  It got to the point to where I coundn't even walk due to the pain.


I had had enough and Kris made an appointment for me to see the Dr. and you know it has to hurt if I am willing to go in.  She ran some tests on me at the hospital and for the final test I had to drink some of this liquid overnight and come back the next day for the CT scan.  That scan and my Dr. saved my life as it was just about over due to my stubbornness.  I arrive home and the phone rang and it was my Dr.  She said "Todd you have some really angry bowls".  I am thinking "what" that is what's causing this pain?  After seeing the image myself I quickly learned why the pain was so intense.  I was literately about to explode on the inside!  Several feet of my small intestine were horrifically swollen and could burst at any moment.  I was then admitted to the hospital immediately for observation.  The local hospital here could not perform the needed complicated surgery so I was then transfered to and Indiana Hospital for treatment.


I was really scared as I have never had surgery before or in the hospital for any major reason at all.  Things were happing all at once!  I was put on bed rest while more tests were ran as they didn't know what the diagnoses was as of yet and they thought it was Cancer at first.  Finally after a few days and several tests , both Drs came in my room and explained the diagnoses of Chron's disease to me.  I had never heard of it but was VERY glad it wasn't the other C word thats for sure.  I was told by them that I needed immediate surgery to fix the problem or I was going to go septic and pretty much die painfully.  They had kept me REALLY calm with morphine to ease the pain (didn't kill this intense pain) and liquid steroids to reduce the swelling.  These drugs did help with the pain as well as help me with the diagnoses news.

The next morning I was prepped for surgery and had no idea how this surgery was going to completely change my life drastically for the following 9 months.  So the next morning I am wheeled down to surgery still in my bed.  They shave my chest and stomach and that is really when the fear kicked in for me.  I didn't know if I was going to come out of this as they explained just how major this surgery was but it doesn't hit home until your right there.  So I am prepped and ready to go and I remember it being freezing in there to.  I see the mask coming over my face and am told to count to 10 and breath normally.  I remember getting to 2 and then I wake up in recovery really confused.  It was so bright in there and I started to hear all of these echos in the room and couldn't make out any words at all.  Hell I though I was on a dam spaceship!  I slowly come back to normal and there she is... Kris is right there by my side and wow she sure is great to wake up to.  I felt all of the fear just melt away when I saw her.    While waking up I felt this thing on my stomach.  I blew it off at first, thinking it was just the incision.  I was terribly wrong!  I slowly moved my had down to my stomach and remember Kris's face as she knew exactly what it was.  I was still numb and pain free from the surgery but felt this mass down there that was STUCK to me.  I tried to pull it off and Kris told me to leave it alone.
They took me back up to my room and I was still clueless as to what had just happened.  The Dr. came into the room and gave me the worst news I had every received.  First he gives the word that the surgery went well and then gets into the problems found.  While exploring, they had found some really diseased small intestine that were just beat up and covered with ulcers.  He said that he had to removed 3 feet of them to get rid of the diseased area.  He didn't expect this and said that due to that, he had no choice but to place on Ileostomy bag until I fully healed.  I am like "a what" and he went on to explain that this would be attached to me for 2 months (turned out to be 9) and I could not remove it at all.


I was horrified and though to myself, how am I going to live like this.  I went on to say that it was reversible and that I was very lucky for that as most are not and you must wear them for the rest of your life.  This was a complete shock and life change for me as well as my family.  I had this bag on me (Ileostomy means small intestine by the way) for 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It was disgusting if you ask me as when I ate and nature took its course, it went right into this thing as liquid as that is all the small intestine contains as it hasnt hit the color yet.  They had to teach me how to live with this thing and I was in the hospital for over a month healing both on the outside as well as inside.  I was then discharged and went home.  I had a home health care nurse come to the house everyday until I was well enough and educated enough to do this on my own.  You get a bit set back when your small intestine is hanging out of your stomach!  


I was severely depressed by this as well as ashamed and afraid to go in public.  I did go back on the air and people didn't even notice at all.  The long  days and pain involved with this thing really brought me down. One day, Kaycee had her annual softball games and I couldn't miss it for the world.  I gathered up all of the courage I had and threw a shirt on to cover this device and ventured out into public.  No one even noticed it but there was one thing they did notice and that is the 160lbs I had lost!  I have drastically lost weight due to my body not being able to absorb nutrients from the food I ate.  This is still a problem today but have gained about 20lbs now and look healthy.  


Kris and I kept up with the Dr. appointments and he really let me down yet again.  First, he didn't even let me know that this device could be an option after the surgery as I had no clue about it, but then he tells me that day that I had to keep it on even longer.  My insides were just not enough yet and I was forced to keep this thing on.  It was a simple rule "you take it off, you die" simple enough right?  So the months go by and I get use to having it there but NEVER get use to all of the details and work of having one.  9 months go by and it is the end of July when I see him next.  He then says he can schedule surgery to removed the device.  I was so happy to hear that and two days later I am back in surgery again.  I come out of surgery and that is the first thing I feel for and finally it is gone!  It felt like someone cut a limb off as that is just how close you are to this thing for that length of time.  I spend a few weeks in the hospital, healing up and then I am finally released to go home.  My life has really changed because of this experience and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.  I had a rough 9 months but learned so much about myself in the process.  I still have both scars that are very viable and I think about it almost everyday as it haunts me very much. They have no cure for Chron's and the Dr tells me that it will eventually turn to cancer but I changed my whole outlook on life in general. 


I am finally on the right medication now that seems to be working well and am now almost 100% pain free.  Sure I have what are called "flare up's" about once a month or so, but NOTHING compared to the pain and agony i was in at the beginning.  My lifestyle was totally taken away from me but I am now living once again and finally putting some of this behind me now. That is the main reason I am writing about this as I never use to talk about it to anyone before but now feel comfortable enough to write it all down.  It is now time to cleanse my mind of all of these hardships and my therapist was right, keeping a journal is a great way to free your mind.  I feel so much better after writing this as if a giant weight was lifted off.  Sure it may be boring and make no sense at all, but this is what happened and NOT all of the rumors and drama you may have heard.  With 2 major surgeries in a 9 month period, I was only off the air for one of those months and then right back at it again.  


I must thank my wife for all of her help through this as she is a true saint from heaven and stuck right by my side the whole time.  This is the reason I am so close to her as she is the ONLY one I let in.  I love my kids to death and would die for them, but Kris is the only one that I let in and I will explain that situation in a future blog.  I thank you all for putting up with this read and hope that you learned a lesson from it all and that is, don't take life for granted as you can be stopped dead in your tracks any second!  If any of your reading this have Chron's disease and wish to talk, you can always contact me here.  I am sure we can both learn from each other and visit this site for answers and support 


https://www.livingwithcrohnsdisease.com/livingwithcrohnsdisease/crohns_disease/crohns_self-assessment.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=crohn's&utm_campaign=paid%2Bsearch


it sure did help me!


Until next post....