It’s been a week since my follow up with Dr. G and I am still barely bringing myself to write about it. It’s too much. It’s just too damn much.
If you haven’t read my last post or two you should do that before you read this one. It’ll give you the back story and will explain why I was so shocked when I hung up the phone last Thursday after my telehealth. I burst into tears. I still don’t know what happened or how I even got to this point. I clearly was in post-sedation denial after my scopes because I swear I remember hearing some encouraging news.
Almost exactly a year ago (Aug 27th) I entered the hospital and after two surgeries and horrible complications, I came out three weeks later with an ileostomy. A month after that I went back in for a much more major surgery after my small intestine began falling apart and my ostomy fell beneath my abdominal wall. This was all so hard and devastating, but I made it. While I have not had the greatest time with this bag, I have been doing ok, until now…
Dr. G kindly squeezed me in last Thursday. He had been thrown into an unexpected week and was asked to cover the ICU. He could have easily requested that we reschedule, but he didn’t. He hopped on the zoom on his phone and through FaceTime we chatted for a good 30 minutes. I wish he had rescheduled.
Just as I said in my last post, I asked Dr. G not to sugar coat anything about my results. Well, he took that expression to a new level. First, after he looked further at my scope results, pictures of my colon as well as the peri-anal area he confirmed that even with a year of bowel rest, my Crohn’s has not stopped and I have crossed the bridge over into peri-anal Crohn’s. That is a terrible diagnosis. Once Crohn’s gets to the peri-anal area the complications and aggressiveness is too much to go back on if you have failed multiple medications. I have what they call “refractory Crohn’s.” I have failed nearly everything. Something in my body is resisting every single medication. So, while yes, some areas did improve (maybe 25% of my colon got better and great small bowel results) the first piece of bad news he gave me was that I have zero chance of reversing my ostomy. It would not be successful. Not only do I have peri-anal Crohn’s now, my sigmoid colon and below is so damaged that I would not have the muscle to be able to control my bowels. Liza will be with me forever. I am absolutely heartbroken. I have not even processed this. I don’t know how. I especially don’t know how when the next piece of news he gave me was even worse.
My colon needs to come out. I can barely even write that sentence without bursting into tears. I never in a million years even thought that would have to happen. There will be many more discussions around this and truthfully, I was in such shock when he told me this that I couldn’t even process any questions to ask him. But, I will briefly explain why.
I have a liver disease called PSC in addition to Crohn’s. These two together make my chances of getting colon cancer exponentially high. So high that a yearly, more advanced type of colonoscopy is required. Dr. G, for more reasons than me just not completing the colon prep could not see half of my colon. Biopsies were done blindly so the screening was compromised. Future screenings will continue to be inaccurate. The safest option is to remove my colon.
There is a lot more information around this that I am gathering answers for. Dr. G got called away to an emergency so we had to hang up, but that was ok. I was completely overwhelmed and need to process what to ask him. Right away his nurse scheduled an in person follow up for Oct. 4th. That’s a bit from now, but considering he’s usually booked 4-6 months out I appreciate that Carrie gets me in no matter what. In the meantime I do have an email out to him to ask a few more questions. Once I get those answers I will give an update. I need more explanation on what prevented him from seeing my whole colon, how long we can wait to do a total colectomy (praying a year or 2??), some numbers on risks, what happens with rectum, etc. I’m limiting too many questions until October, but hope to have the above answers soon. I can then explain more in my blog about PSC. I do plan to also ask for his colleagues opinions (just as I did prior to surgery a year ago), my surgeon’s opinion, as well as my liver doctors opinion.
So, I guess my “concern” in my last post about what I thought were somewhat crummy results came true. In even more ways than I ever imagined. I am absolutely devastated and overwhelmed. I am so sad. It has been a very difficult week.
Finally, you know how sometimes when you are thinking about something such as a new recipe to grill, a new mattress you want to buy, dog food… that your social media pops up with ads for this kind of stuff. So incredibly eerie. Well, the morning after I got the news…after a night of zero sleep I popped on my airpods and Spotify to walk the dogs. The very first song that came up on my Daily Mix that truthfully I have never heard before (or don’t remember hearing) was “A Little Too Much” by Sean Mendes. It brought me to tears on my walk. That was fun. Listen to it. It pretty much sums it up for me. This is not just a little too much, its too damn much.