Off to Cleveland

First and foremost I want to thank everyone that read my story and reached out in support! It made me feel extremely loved and encouraged to continue fighting. Which is exactly what I needed considering the first week at home did not go to plan. The first few days I felt relatively ok at home. I was able to eat, shower, and hang out with family. I didn’t feel great but it was just a little bit of discomfort that I could power through. Then things took a turn for the worse. I started having intense stomach pain throughout the day and night. I was unable to sleep because of the pain. It finally got to the point that I called my GI doctor and he told me to go to the ER for some imaging. I had a CT scan done that showed a pretty severe small bowel blockage. This meant that the food I was eating wasn’t passing and instead just building up. The scan also showed swelling in my colon from the Crohn’s disease. During my first stay in the hospital, the team here consulted with the Cleveland Clinic to assist with my case because of the severity and progression of my disease. The Cleveland Clinic teams initial impression was that my colon should have been removed in the first surgery, but since it wasn’t, we would give remicaid a try before moving forward with the full removal. With this severe pain, I’m going to Cleveland. I’m going to have their team look over everything one more time and give me options. It’s a little scary needing to be transferred hospitals but I have complete confidence in the team in Cleveland and I will be listening to whatever they suggest. For now, I’m waiting to be transferred to Cleveland. I‘m not excited about being back in a hospital gown. I AM excited to have a new set of eyes on my case and hopefully get this taken care of! And the little bit of time I got at home was well spent with this cutie!

With love,

Andy