Surgery today

It's been a whirlwind since Friday, so I didn't have time to update our blog yet.
John is having surgery today!!! Yes, you read that right. It surprised us too! We just found out on Friday. We didn't even know there was a surgical option until about a week ago.

Let me back up............
John can't take most of the meds for Ulcerative Colitis bc of a sulfa drug allergy. So, he's been on Prednisone for about 14 months. (!!!!) He went on a new medicine that was supposed to replace the Prednisone, but they had to overlap for about 2 months until the new one would kick in. Well, after about 3 months, it still never kicked in and he had a bad flare-up. There's no way he should be having flareups on that much medicine. So, they sent off some blood work to the Mayo clinic about 2 weeks ago. It came back and showed that the medicine was NOT working at all for him and any more would be toxic.

The doctor mentioned that there was one more medicine they could try or he could talk to a surgeon and see what his options were there, if he was a candidate, etc. John did not want to deal with anymore meds and live on them for life.

We got in with the surgeon on Friday and they have the surgery scheduled for just 4 days later!!! Today!! Can you believe it? Wow! I guess it's better that way. Just do it and get it over wtih.

It is major surgery and we could use prayer. The biggest concern is infection. Especially since he's been on steroids for so long. (They suppress the immunity.)

The doctor will be removing his entire colon and creating a J-pouch out of the lower part of his small intestine to hook back up to the lrectal muscles to replace the colon. Then they will give him a temporary ileostomy to use while that heals. (external bag) He'll have the ileostomy for about 8 weeks. After it heals, they will go back in and reconnect everything to run through the small intestine normally and will close off the ileostomy site. Today's surgery is about 4 hours long and the 2nd one is only about 40 minutes.

The good news is that this is a CURE for Ulcerative Colitis and once it's healed he can do anything physical he wants to do with no concerns. He'll be like the old John again. lol He can play sports all he wants. I can't wait! The kids are really excited to have their daddy back too. Faith is taking it pretty hard and was emotional last night about him leaving for the hospital. She was also concerned if he would be able to do things with her again. It's really taken a toll on them, I think. They've been troopers and haven't said much, but now that they know it might be back to normal, I think it's kind of overwhelming to realize how different it's been for the past 14 months. They love him so much and are so used to him playing with them and just having fun together all the time. It hasn't been so fun for a while. : )

We're getting ready to leave for the hospital in about an hour, but I wanted to update the blog.
If you think of us, we would appreciate prayer for no infection and a smooth surgery and recovery.

I'll keep you posted.......