Tom's Story

I am 38 yrs old and was really healthy - I don't smoke, don't drink - until 1997 when diagnosed with crohns. I had an emergency ileostomy in June 2004. Previous to that I had only had one hospital stay in 1997 when I was diagnosed (I thought I had food poisoning and didn't seek medical advice for weeks).

I had been on all the usual drugs over the years but nothing seemed to make much difference. I wasn't really sick apart from the runs and some bleeding occasionally and never had any pain. Then one day at work in May 2004, I sprained my wrists and my doc gave me some anti-inflammatories. That's when I became really ill and was admitted to hospital to intensive care where they did a few tests scans etc. I was in for a few days then went into septic shock. They told me I would not live 24 hours if I didn't have my large bowel removed so I signed to have it done. They did the operation and kept me in a drug induced coma for three days.

When I did come round, my wife (also named Sharon) was there and I asked her when they were going to do the operation. I didn't believe her when she told me I had been asleep for 3 days and the operation had been done, then I saw all the tubes sticking out off me and I knew it was true. I also had a really large abscess in my liver which is why I had all the drain tubes. I had about 80 stainless steel staples from my chest all the way down to my groin.

Anyway, things seemed to be going pretty well after a few days and they removed the drain tubes. I started eating jelly etc, got up and was walking around. About 7 day after the operation they removed the staples - that was on the Saturday - on Sunday night I felt really ill again and started to throw up lots of bile. They done some blood tests and scans and told me they had to open me up again as I had a bad infection. I had to have the tube down my nose to my stomach while I was awake - that was horrible - but the pain I was in was incredible.

They opened me up again, put in more drain tubes and another 80 staples and I was taken back to intensive care. I was there for over a week. I was really sick. My wife told me later the doctors didn't think I would live. I was being fed through a tube in my neck and went down to 60kg from about 90kgs but I pulled through again and had the staples and tubes removed. Then I got pneumonia because I couldn't get out of bed for about 3 or 4 weeks but I managed to overcome all that and left hospital after nearly three months after which I went to a rehabilitation hospice for four weeks. I had months of physiotherapy and, with the help of my beautiful wife, went back to work in November.

I saw the surgeon a few weeks ago and he couldn't believe his eyes. He told me I didn't have crohns and that it was more likely to be colitis so he has told me I can have it reversed but I told him I like things just fine the way things are and I have not had any problems since leaving hospital. I have been on holiday to the Gold Coast and take my son fishing, take my wife out more, go bike riding etc. Now I feel great. A special thanks to my wife and the nurses at Flinders Private Hospital in Adelaide. Thanks for your great web site I have gotten some really helpful tips and advice. I'm not really good at putting down in words what happened to me but this is roughly what happened.

...Tom

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