Ruth's page
My name is Ruth and I just turned 50 yrs. old. I live with my husband of 30 yrs., Bruce, in Cleveland Ohio with our 10 yr. old miniature dachshund, Misty. We have 2 sons. Bart (Crohn's Survivor) is 29 and lives across town. My youngest son, Ryan (U.S.M.C. Survivor) is 27 and lives in Va. with his wife Janelle and our new baby Grandson, Caleb.
Bruce (my husband) Bart (Crohn's Survivor) and me with my eyes shut!
Beautiful, happy, Baby Caleb - our pride and joy!!!!!
Misty on "her" deck
I am an Assistant to the Business Manager at a large University here. Bruce and Bart are Machinists in another city and Ryan is a computer guru in Va. I have had IBS for about 10 yrs. now but our whole nightmare with Crohn's officially started with Labor Day 1998. I 'm sure Bart was sick long before he was first admitted but never said anything, just attributed it to old age (26?) We were in Pa. visiting my parents who both just got out of the hospital, when he called to say he was admitted and they said it was his Crohn's. We never knew he had Crohn's. The gastro thought it might be when she did his first colonoscopy, but retracted it later. She never put him on medicine and he never went back to see her.
This started the numerous trips to the ER and being admitted. Two days in. Four days out. Go back to work for a week. Leave and go to the hospital. He was on Flagyl, Asacol, Zoloft, Predisone, Demerol and many other pain killers. The calls in the middle of the night for help, get him to the hospital-fast! None of us had a life. One day I went to see the gastro with him because I had so many questions to ask (thanks to you great folks). I saw a son I never knew, in so much pain, so nasty to me, just begging for painkillers. She said on a scale of 1-10 his Crohn's was a 4. But his pain needed to get under control, that was a 9. I asked if this is how they treat Crohn's with painkillers to cover it up and she acted like I slapped her. I told her I was going to get another opinion. And I did! This all happened between Labor Day 98 and the end of Feb. 99. In and out of hospitals about 7 more times. He got out on Sunday, his appointment was Thursday, he called me at work on Wednesday saying he was so sick, please help him. He was so doped up on painkillers he couldn't even drive. I was determined he was not going back to the quack hospital and he was not going to miss the new appointment with the Crohn's Specialist I left work, flew to the hospital for his records, picked him up and had him down here where I work to the ER in 45 mins. Nine (miserable)hours later he was taken in to a bed and eventually admitted.
The new Gastro saw us first thing in the morning.
A week's worth of testing showed negative signs for Crohn's. The Specialist was stumped. But in trying to prep for the colonoscopy the golytely wasn't coming out. Keep in mind this is what we were trying to tell everyone. He was reduced to eating baby food and water. We agreed that exploratory surgery was the next step because we needed our lives back. So, for his 27th birthday he got a picc line, a balloon and ice chips and went in to 7 ½ hrs. of surgery the next morning. When the gastro came out to tell us it was Crohn's only it was on the outside of his intestines and could not be detected by any inside tests, but they could visually see it when they cut him open. He had 5 fistulas wrapped around his small and it had perforated, along with an abscess on part of his colon and part on his ileocecal valve. They removed that and the rest of the 86 cm of small was completely blocked. He had a temporary ostomy bag for 7 mos. until his colon healed properly. The gastro said he was a real mess inside.
Everyone knows the gory details of recuperating from surgery so I won't go into that. Seven months after surgery he had his take down for the ostomy. Everything went well with that. But he ended up with a hernia (actually 3 after they got in there) and that was repaired in July, 2000.
Just as a footnote I want to say that before he got sick he was close to 475 lbs. And a couch potato. He starved off 100 before surgery and the rest he has been working hard on by exercising daily , something he never did before he got sick. He just weighed in at 280 and still working on it. He is in surgical remission and just takes Imuran and Flintstones.
I just want to thank all the great people I met on this board who helped me thru all his surgeries and answered my sometimes stupid questions. I never could have made it without you.