Almost 4 in the morning, another sleepless night. No better time to type out my story, one I'm sure heard all too often.

March 07 All my roommates and I all came down with a stomach bug. I noticed a little blood in mine but didn't say anything and hoped it would clear up. I went for 3 weeks working through it, running to the bathroom a lot and in alot of pain.

I finally went to the doctor, told him what was going on and he put me on cipro to try to clear it up. Then till the middle of June I spent hopping back and forth between Cipro and Flagyl with it only getting worse. My GP said he wanted to do a sigmoidoscopy I said no, you send me to a specialist now.

By the time I went to the GI doc I was barely eating once a day. First thing he said he thought I had IBD and wanted blood tests and stool sample and to do a colonoscopy. After my Apt the receptionist was taking my insurance info I had to sit on the ground while she was doing it cause I was too weak to stand for too long. They wouldn't let me drive home until I sat down and drank some water.

I had the bloodwork done, called in sick to work and left the next day and drove 4 hours to stay with my parents until my colonoscopy as I could no longer take care of myself. The GI recieved the bloodwork and my wbc was 30,000 and was told to come down and enter the hospital asap. June 29 I was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with UC after the colonoscopy. I was put on a bunch of pred and left on July 2. I was driving home (4 hours) with my mother and my legs and pelvis started to swell. We stopped at a costco half way home and I crapped myself as I was running to the bathroom (this was the second time, I did about a week before going into the hospital in a pharmacy parking lot). We got home and called the doctor who told us to go to the nearest hospital in case it was a blood clot. We went and it turned out to be a Albumen deficiency, I was starving literally.

I was sent by ambulance back to my GI and was back in the hospital by 8am the day after I was released. Around this time I found out I had C diff form all the antibiotics I was on before. I wouldn't get out until August 2nd. During the month of July I recieved 13+ blood transfusions, had a pic line and tpn fluid nutrition, cyclosporin, and got a healthy tolerance to pain medication. I spent a week and a half at French hospital in San Luis Obispo and the remainder of the time at UCLA. July 21st I had my sub total colectomy and perferated in surgery so I was right at Toxic megacolon.

In the days after my surgery I was tapered off the Pred too quickly and what was left of my colon flaired the flair of all frairs and I started passing apple sized blood clots(plural). I didn't know you could fit an apple in 12 cm of colon. My blood pressure skyrocketed and spent a week in the ICU where I got 6 of my 13 transfusions in one night, and some blood plasma. By August 2nd they got my to all oral meds and I went home. A 5-6 hour drive from UCLA. Didn't feel good on the bum.

The rest of the story is pretty short. From march to august I had dropped from 200lbs to 139 and at 6'2" 139 looks bad. I turned 21 two weeks after I was released and after 4 months I had gained most of my weight back and was at 180. November 30th had my colectomy completed and j-pouch constructed. In the time till now I had a couple abscesses, 2 procedures under anesthesia for drains for those abscesses, and now finally getting some cuffitis under control fingers crossed.

As soon as that happens I think I may put off the take down and go back to work for a few months as I've been out for 8 months now and could use some normality for a while, even if it is with an ostomy. I'm a welder so I'll need to ease into it as I lost a lot of strenght.

After my takedown its back to school for Wildlife Biology so I can spent the rest of my days in the enjoying the wilderness and fit in bushcraft in there somewhere as well. Hmm quarter after four, time to try and sleep again, I have a Doctors appointment today.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KeithO,

A true story of a survivor is what you tell above. Although you've been through so much at such a young age, you still sound positive and looking forward to your future. I know many people hold onto that ostomy for longer because they enjoy being healthy. I know with Mark we definately talked about not rushing into the takedown surgery because life was so good with the ostomy overall. And Mark did work in construction and wood working with the ostomy and just eased back into work slowly until he had the strenght and stamina to go full steam.

Keep us posted,
Megan