Surgery Day for Kody

Hi all, Sorry for the long delay in posting. I promise to do better. Training is going well. I'm getting a good base level of fitness. The Crohns & Colitis Foundation's official training for the 1/2 marathon begins tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having my team, the "National Team," to help motivate me in terms of increasing my volume and efforts of fundraising, awareness and miles.

The big news for today is Kody's surgery. We have all been on pins and needles waiting for this day to come. Many of you know that he has had a very serious flare of Crohns for more than the past year and has twice been in extremely dangerous, life threatening situations. Just after Thanksgiving he was sent to Denver for treatment by specialists. They put him on a PIC line for TPN nutrition and sent him home on a careful plan to help him build up his strength, bulk up and get ready for major surgery. Despite some complications along the way, everything seems to have gone as planned. At 6'7 Kody's weight got as low as about 140. The TPN and medicine regime helped him to gain over 40 lbs of real body weight. He had more color and more energy last weekend when I saw him over Easter than he has had in probably 10 years. Still, he had four drains in his abdomen, the feeding tube, a PIC line.... but he was better than he has been...pretty crazy.

Anyway, surgery today lasted about six hours. They had predicted it would be between 3 and 8. Since he went in at 8:00 I was pretty anxious when 3:00 rolled around and I hadn't heard. But it turns out they didn't actually get started until around 9:30. Anyway, the surgeons didn't encounter anything they didn't expect. They worked slowly and felt like they were able to get Kody fixed up pretty well. I may end up amending this later, but my understanding is that they were able to fully fix one major fistula and repair the bladder independently. They removed a total of about 2 ft of bowel including the terminal ileum, ileal cecal valve and about five inches of colon. They were able to resect with no complications. He lost about four courts of blood so they transfused three courts and have him sedated with a respirator and fluids to try to slow his heart rate down a bit and get him through the next couple days. He'll be in ICU for a day or two. All told, the surgeons seem to have done a great job.

I had a similar surgery in 2oo1. I won't lie, the healing was pretty rough. However, the surgery was the beginning of a new life for me. That, along with a great doctor and staff, some naturopathic things AND some research breakthroughs have allowed me to be pretty well overall. Please pray for Kody to have a similar experience. He has been in so much pain and had so many truly debilitating side effects and complications over the last two years that he can't even remember what its like to be pain free or to be able to run and play with his beautiful children. This disease can be so cruel, robbing a person of his humanity in so many ways. All the prayers you can muster are truly appreciated.

Please pray also for research into this horrible disease to continue and grow so that SOON there will be a cure! I'm proof that good things have been accomplished in the past decade. Let's hope and pray, and work as hard as we can to make sure the progress continues!

THANK YOU for all of your efforts,
jd

Kody signing in Happy Easter

Well let's see, this is the first time i have ever blogged. Anyway I am currently back in the hospital, thanks to a staff infection of my pick line. Being 8 day's away from my scheduled surgery on th 31st of March I think I will probably end up staying here until then. I'm gaining wieght at a good rate and although my albulan level is a little low everything seems to be a go for a succesfull surgery. Hope all goes well and the healing is quick, let you know. later!!

Movin' Along

I'm proud to say that this has been a good week. Everyone is well and we are back on track. Sunday the kids and I went to the gym and shot baskets for a little over an hour and played some one-on-one. Monday I did the DOS workout, Tuesday I jogged for thirty minutes and felt great! Wednesday I rested my sore muscles and yesterday I did 10 minutes on the stepper, stretched really good and did another 30 minute jog - making it further than I did on Tuesday. Today I'll do the DOS workout again and tomorrow rest - hopefully go for a long walk or something. I feel good. It is nice to be moving again and I think Spring being on the horizon is helping alot. I'm actually itching to get on the trails. If you knew me when I was a kid you probably don't believe it, but I really and truly love to run on the trails around Bozeman. I feel so free and the stress and anxiety that can come from life just fades away.

Kody is getting closer to the surgery date and while his weight has increased and his overall strength seems considerably improved, he still has some concerns with numbers (albumin) so please pray for him. Kayla is having a great Medieval Festival at a school and he is so excited for her big day. I so wish I was closer to them so that I could enjoy the event with them. But, at least Mom and Dad and Julianne and Brody are there to help with preparations and enjoy the day. I'm really happy for Kayla and Tonii to have such a positive thing on the horizon. It can make all the difference.

Anyway, thanks for the support and have a great day.