A meeting of minds

Yesterday, Kenny and I spent some of our holiday time off together meeting with a new surgery friend.  In the midst of my work day, we met with my surgeon. The good news is that nothing in our meeting together was new information. He was very nice and kind and very well informed. We both liked him a lot and felt very comfortable with him.

All to be said, come the middle of January, I will be receiving surgery. I will be having an ileocecal resection. Below is a picture of the colon and small intestine. Basically, inside of my terminal ileum is an area that has either scar tissue or inflammation that has made my inside plumbing like a gunked up water pipe. With this area so narrowed and almost blocked, there's not any medication that can reverse the stricturing. ( There's no magic drano for this situation. The boy offered to have me try to drink a draino cocktail-- but I decline).  So, like a plummer might, my surgeon will go in, remove the narrowed and bad area and reattach the plumbing back together.





Medically speaking, the surgeon said that from the previous studies, there appears that there's about 5 inches of my ileum that look bad. He'll remove this area and a little bit extra in order to get to healthy tissue. He'll also remove a portion of the colon ( and the appendix). Then he'll sew up the edges of the ileum to the colon.... and I'll go into recovery. 

I'll schedule the surgery next week, and he's scheduling into the middle of January.  My surgeon operates on Thursdays.... so I will be likely spending a 4-5 day period in the hospital starting on aThursday. I'll keep everyone updated on surgery day and it's quick arrival. 

So far, I'm at peace with the decision to go ahead with surgery. I have been feeling better on the low-residue diet, but i still am not feeling at my best. I want to be able to go in, take care of this and move back to a healthier Ashley. My hope is that this little surgery will remove the last crohn's from my body. There will be this wonderful, beautiful moment after surgery where all bits and pieces from this inflammation disease will be gone! I will have no more evidence of disease!! It will be a day for much jumping, dancing and celebrating !! (I will join in this celebration.... but it may take a few days till I'm strong enough to dance/jump!)


That's it from here! Happy New Year's to everyone! Here's to a happy 2013!