In the summer of 2003, my Colitis had taken a huge turn and was so out of control that it was killing me.
By this time, we had tried all of the possible medications out there. I had had severe pancreatitis from Pentasa, Salofalk, Imuran, 6MP, I had tried VSL 3 (back when it was in a disgusting powder form), the infamous Prednisone, natural remedies, I even went so far as to have my doctor look at Melaleuca to see if it would help. Nothing was working and I was running out of time.
So that summer, I was brought up to the Children's Hospital, my doctor did a quick sigmoidoscopy in the office with no sedation (it's okay, he actually did it that way almost every time I went to see him because things were that bad and it was easier for me to just roll over and get 'er done). I was then admitted into hospital and we prepared for emergency surgery.
Initially, the surgery was actually scheduled for August 14... Which is my birthday. I wasn't going to say anything, because I wanted to just take whatever date they had for me, but my mom, I think, said something, so they did the surgery a few days prior so that I could be recovering on my actual birthday.
Not only were they nice enough to change the surgery date, but I actually got this really nice birthday gift from one of the nurses who had wanted to observe the surgery. I remember her pretty well. She was extremely kind and completely fascinated. I think she is one of the reasons why I ended up being fascinated with medicine and procedures (which has truly helped me cope). I got stuffed animals and butterfly stickers and a nice card. I received other gifts too, the book Chromosome 6 (which really got me into reading medical mysteries), some gifts from family and a couple of friends, as well as the whole nurse's ward in U cluster... It sucked being in the hospital but they really did whatever they could to make me feel special. Another nurse even brought in a special bucket and washed my hair for me so that I could feel somewhat normal.
That was a tough year. Because of that surgery, we missed out on a family trip to Jackpot, Nevada (which was our common trip), I could not play volleyball in my grade 12 year, which meant that I lost out on scholarships, I scheduled all of my classes around my second surgery that was done in March the next year, and I ended up getting Mono in the fall, plus I had an ileostomy bag and was extremely allergic to the adhesive used to keep the bag on the skin. It was definitely a struggle, but the surgery was 100% necessary and I have never looked back.
I would not have survived that summer without having my colon removed.
And at 17 is not where my life was supposed to end. :) So my birthday present wasn't only little knickknacks and the kindness of the staff, but it was, truly, life. I owe so much to that hospital and that staff that I could never repay.
😊