Hi Everyone, this is actually Shawn's wife posting this message. He's in the hospital! I'm not completely sure how long it's been since he posted, so I'm goin to try and catch you up on him. A month ago he spent a week in the hospital because of his flare, well, he's now been in the hospital for two weeks. This past Monday his internal med doc did a CT scan, not expecting to find a whole lot. Well, a 10mm abscess showed up near his rectum. Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday and he had 8-12" of his bowel removed. They attempted to go in laproscopically to clean things up, but, as his surgeon said, it was a mess in there and they had to
open him up. He's got two drains and a colostomy bag now which he'll have (the bag) for the next six months. He attempted to eat solid food for the first time today, and his bowel doesn't seem to have "woken" up completley yet. They've given him meds for that, and since his white count is still elevated (possibly due to steriods) they have taken him off the steriods, and have him on 4 different antibiotics. He got a little depressed today to realize that he's got to take a couple steps back in the progress of eating, but his nursing staff has been awesome to assure him that this is common.
We're trying to get an internet hookup in his room so he can come back here, because I know he was drawing a lot of support and information from everyone here who has posted. I'll try to com back on in a day or so and answer any questions I can, and "pass notes" back and forth if I need to.
Take Care,
Kathy Tackett