Bowel Resection Surgery Scheduled at the Cleveland Clinic 11.29.2017

I found myself alone in the car with my mom for three and a half hours on Sunday. [The remaining part of this paragraph has been redacted.]

We met Taylor for dinner on Sunday and even though dinner sucked, it was great to see her! I felt obviously distracted. I was there, but my mind was somewhere else. [Portions of this paragraph have been redacted and/or revised]

Sunday night and even Monday morning, I felt overwhelmed just thinking about the appointment. It was tempting to cry myself to sleep. I hate crying and I especially hate being vulnerable in front of my mom. I'm somewhat of a pro at suffering in silence. No wonder I have a disease to my gut. No wonder this disease is considered invisible. Hell, even I was surprised how many people stood up when the speaker at the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's Crystal Ball asked everyone in the room with IBD to stand up.  Most people just see the parts we want them to see, the strength, the bravery, the perseverance to keep moving forward, the appearance of being as normal as possible. We make it too easy for others to think it's going to be okay for us. Personally, I don't like talking out loud about the struggles and I use jokes as a twisted coping mechanism. It is what it is and life is a comedic tragedy.

When a mom expressed to her son that she would take on this disease if it meant he wouldn't have it anymore, the son knew his mom wasn't strong enough to endure it. That's a true story I heard at lunch on Monday with my Team Challenge friend, Bonnie. After lunch, I did my series of enemas in the hotel room to prep for my appointment at the Cleveland Clinic. Before I knew it, it was time to head to my appointment.

Upon climbing the stairs to the second floor of the Cleveland Clinic, we were greeted by the sign above that stood as tall as me. I checked in and we were called back on time. Before Dr. Second Opinion became my new current colorectal, I spoke with three nurses to give them my medical records and talk about my history with Crohn's disease. In the process, I learned that one of the nurses has Crohn's and another nurse's brother has Crohn's.  Next, the Fellow, aka Follower, came in the room and reviewed my records and asked more detailed questions about my current symptoms and most recent procedures.

The moment we've all been waiting for: Dr. Wexner came into the room. After a brief conversation, I dropped my pants and he performed a sigmoidoscopy. He was able to see my strictures and diseased ass! He did a lot of talking when I had my pants down and that made it difficult to concentrate and remember what all he said...especially with the scope up my ass. He mentioned that he reviewed my records and MRI results. He said my other Dr. stopped ordering tests and jumped straight to scheduling surgery. While he agreed that surgery is indeed required, he explained that he wants me to get a colonoscopy, cystoscopy, ECG, e-rays, pre-op clearance, stoma marking, and lab work prior to surgery because he wants to know the most he can about the area requiring surgery before I'm on the operating table and he wants to confirm that I'm fit for surgery. Why didn't the other Dr. think of that? The other qualifying factor was that he was more optimistic in that if an ostomy is required it'd more likely be temporary.

I didn't even have to tell him he was hired. I had just finished buttoning my pants when he pulled out his calendar to start discussing surgery dates. I scheduled surgery for Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Florida.  And, just like that he became my new colorectal!

The appointments I have scheduled currently are:

• Prep for Colonoscopy - Monday, October 23, 2017 (awaiting prep instructions)
• Colonoscopy - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at 12:30PM (I'm still traumatized from the last one)
• Chest X-ray - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 10:30AM
• Pre-op Clearance (ECG, lab work, and other testing) - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 8:15AM
• Pre- op Stoma Marking at the Cleveland Clinic - Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 1PM
• Bowel Resection Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital - Wednesday, November 29, 2017