I’m Keeping My Colon! For Now...

The Cleveland Clinic. Known for being one of the best hospitals in the world lived up to the hype. I finally got to Cleveland at 2 am on Thursday and was in the operating room at 2 pm. They were able to assess the problem on a CT scan and moved immediately to fix it. It was a simple procedure that essentially just expanded the hole in my stomach so my stoma wasn’t being choked off. This provided immediate pain relief and allowed my system to empty what was stuck in there for who knows how long. By Friday night I was eating dinner comfortably for the first time in weeks. I was extremely anxious about food again but the team in Cleveland was so confident and assuring that I went for it. It’s weird, being a former lineman, my food anxiety went from “I didn’t eat enough, no way I’m going to maintain weight” to “there’s no way I can eat that, it’ll cause me too much pain”. I went from eating anything and everything in sight, to being scared of grilled chicken. Crazy. But I kept going because the team knew I could. I had breakfast Saturday morning, and lunch Saturday afternoon! It was the most I had eaten in weeks and it was so soon after the operation. But no complications! And even hospital salmon doesn’t taste THAT bad when you’re just so happy to be eating pain free. I will forever be grateful for the amazing surgeon that not only found the issue, but hurried to fix it. The whole experience in Cleveland just felt more confident and clear. I’m grateful for my GI doctor in Columbus who referred me there when he no longer felt confident in his ability to care for me. That takes a lot from a doctor and it means a lot to me. And because of that I’m home eating comfortably with my family. Awesome.

For now. Isn’t that a funny saying? I’m confident, for now. I’m happy, for now. Things look good, for now.That’s what I’ve been saying so much recently. Everything in the hospital, good or bad, came with “for now” at the end of it. I’m sitting here typing this and all I can think is how great I’m feeling... for now. There’s so little lasting hope in earthly things, that I’ve even lost some hope in my body. That’s pretty crazy. But it makes it that much more evident how confident we can be in an everlasting hope. Romans 5:3-5 says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” So I’m going to focus on rejoicing in this valley. Because I know what is to come and I can find hope in that. I wasn’t cured in Cleveland. One thing the GI team in Cleveland wanted to be abundantly clear on is that I’m not “out of the woods yet”. While my colon looked better than it did 3 weeks ago, there is a very real possibility that this medication will fail and I’ll still need it removed. There’s a lot of things my body still needs to get over before we can really be out of the woods. It’s going to be a process. But that also can come with a for now. This valley won’t last forever! And the endurance that it is building in me will.

Avery got to have fun with her cousin Harper while daddy was in the hospital!

With love,

Andy