Four feet less..

One of these things is not like the other.....one of these things just isn't the same Ben was diagnosed 6 months ago with ulcerative colitis. This is a chronic, often genetic, condition that is an inflammatory bowel disease. There will be periods of time when it will be in remission and not bother him at all, and then there are periods of time when it will flare up and cause him extreme discomfort and all kinds of unpleasant side effects.

We think he has actually had UC for several years now, but, since doctors are invincible, or at least they like to think they are, it took a really rotten flare up and a persistant co-worker to finally convince him that he needed to be seen.

About 8 weeks ago he started in with another flare up and it just got progressivley worse, despite Ben's and his doctors best efforts to treat it. We knew that at some point in his life this disease would require surgery but we felt like we would exhaust all medical treatment options first.

After swallowing about 17 pills per day, several very unpleasnt scopes, and 3 trips to the ER in a matter of 8 days with no relief in sight, Ben was admitted to the hospital here locally until a bed became available at the Cleveland Clinic......12 hours later he was on his way.

The doctor who performed his surgery is literally one of the best in the country. He was one doctor of a small team who pioneered the procedure about 10 years ago at the clinic.

The whole process will occur in three steps, the first (actually removing the entire colon and the rectum) took place on Thursday. After a 6 week recovery he can return to work.

The last two procedures will occur in about 6 months. Hopefully then Ben will remember what it means to feel good.

Here he is sleeping comfortably with the little man about 2 hours before surgery.