Hello Jim!

My name is kat, I’m 42 and have about 23 inches of my small intestine left. I spent a whole month in the hospital and been home for 2 month now. I am still on TPN but down to 1000 ml. I started with 2000 ml. I have seen my doctor three times since I been home and he reduced the TPN twice within less than two month. I saw him again Thursday and he said I was doing so well that he is going to stop the TPN for the next five weeks. If I do well without it, then he is going to take my feeding tub out. He said that I really surprised him with my fast recovery.

When my husband took me to the emergency room on May 30, 99, I was in severe pain (stomach). The ER Doctor put me on IV because I was very dehydrated and sends me home with pain pills thinking I had some kind of flue. The next morning at about 5 AM my husband took me back. My body temperature was 93 and in shock and of course very dehydrated from vomiting all night. I was taken immediately to the operating room for exploratory surgery. The doctor explained to my husband that I am in critical condition and have a fifty – fifty chance to make it.

A blood clot was lodged in the main artery to the small intestine and blocked all circulation towards the small intestine. When I was admitted May 31, I already had 10 foot of dead intestine. I had no clue about it since I never had any symptoms what so ever. Since my body was in such a bad shape the nurses could not get any needles in to my vanes so the doctor started the central line. Here I was on the operating table squirming from pain bagging them to put me out of my misery and the doctor is trying to put the central line in to get me ready for surgery. While installing the central line, the Dr. had punctured my lung and it collapsed 50%, So they put a chest tub inside me too. I spent a whole week in ICU. I had a colostomy bag for three weeks. Thank God the doctor was able to reverse it.

After 4 weeks and 4 surgeries I am at home now and doing extremely well considering the circumstances. At first I was very depressed to be so sick and to have this condition for the rest of my live, and the Doctor telling me that I will be on TPN for 6 month to a year did not help much either. I was in denial with the SBS and did not want to deal with it, but knew that I could not’t change a thing.

Well our aunt came to stay with us for a while. Michelle and I were surfing the Internet to find out as much on SBS as possible. That is how we found your web site. I have been visiting your web site frequently and find it very educating and very interesting. I have read everybody’s stories and it helped me to deal with SBS. It changed my attitude about myself and I knew that I could get off the TPN and eventually go back to work. I am a very active person, I love to swim, hike and hang out with our friends, and it is no fun having to stay home all the time. A trip to town to see the doctor was very tiring, actually everything was very tiring. I felt so week all the time.

I also started looking into alternative medicine; I was ready to try anything to get back on my feet. I was determined to get back to normal as I can get, and I wanted to be off the TPN within at least six months. My aunt brought her juicer and I started juicing vegetable everyday. It is amazing what fresh vegetable juice does for your body. Every vegetable does something different, for intestine, digestion, kidneys etc. I also eat about five small meals everyday. I used to love to eat hot spicy foods and now I have to be very careful with what I eat and drink. Besides the juicing I also use DMSO mixed with folic acid, B12 and multi vitamins and I believe it has helped me to recover as fast as I have.

Right now I feel strong enough to take on the world but if I overdue it I will be hurt for days. My frequent trips to the bathroom have slowed down enough to where I can go places for a little while. I am ready to go hiking but my husband thinks I should not push it yet. Mountains and lakes surround us but I won’t be able to go swimming until this tube is out of my chest. I guess I have to wait until next year.

I have read Marks and your story and I can totally relate to you. I also read about the People with Crohn’s Disease. My sister in law suffers from Crohn's decease and her doctor was talking about taking out some of her intestine. She has been using alternative medicine (DMSO) and she is doing so well now she even gained some weight. I have lost so much weight during my hospital stay but now weigh more than what I did before I got sick. My body is digesting a lot more food too. It is getting better all the time.

 The best get well wishes to each and everyone out there

Love
kat