Over the years, I have had many readers ask me about my husband. They know he was in the Marines and lost his colon years ago. I have talked about it off and on the last five years, but I have never really told you the story.

Just the past few months, I have had so many people reach out on instagram about this.

Today, I would love to share with you the story of how my husband lost his colon his colon at the young age of 23.

The truth is, this is a long, unusual story. And my husband’s story is still being written when it comes to dealing with life without a colon.

I wish I could say he is 100% better now, but he isn’t. There have been some TOUGH journeys the last 10 years, even now.

We will save that for another time.

I keep my husband’s life more private than mine, so for today we will refer to him as Mr. Chemistry. The other night, I was laying in bed, in pain from arthritic issues. I decided, I wanted to continue to help people through suffering. Maybe to motivate or share my experiences. I prayed about it, and decided I would start with my husband. His story is unique, a little crazy, and inspiring.

The Story of How My Husband Lost His Colon at 23

When I met my husband, he was a young, healthy, full of life 18-year-old right out of high school. He was getting ready to head to boot camp for the Marine Corps. He was very strong, athletic, and excited about the future.

After boot camp, he was stationed in Pensacola, then briefly in Gulf Port to finish his training. Then, he headed over to Camp Pendleton in early 2007.

I was in college, so we didn’t see each other very often. During spring break 2007, I flew out to Camp Pendleton to spend some time with him. It was then I noticed something wasn’t right. He kept going to the bathroom one day. He would spend awhile in there, and then seem a little upset when he got done.

I finally asked him if everything was okay. He admitted to me he was having bleeding when he went to the bathroom, and wasn’t feel very well. I asked him how long it had been going on. He said it started in Gulf Port.

So, for months he had been dealing with some bleeding and diarrhea. I told him he HAD to go to the doctor ASAP. He went to the M.D on base who said he was dealing with stomach ulcers from stress. The doctor treated him for stomach ulcers.

Mr. Chemistry continued to get worse as the months went on. This medication and treatment for ulcers was not helping at all.

He came to Texas that May for leave and finally went to the local emergency room. The doctors ran some blood tests and stool samples. It cam back that he had a MASSIVE bacterial infection in his colon. They started him on heavy antibiotics right away.

After just a few days, he started feeling better. The bleeding went away and he was back to normal, for a little while at least. We got married that July, and I ended up moving to California a few weeks later.

Do you know what the interesting thing was? Before we got married, his friends and family warned him about marrying someone with a disease like mine. I had had rheumatoid arthritis since the age of 10, and was not doing very well during those first few years of college. Mr. Chemistry said he didn’t care about my disease, he wanted to take care of me and help me! Little did we know, the tables would be turning soon.

A Few Good Months

Life was sweet and simple those first few months of marriage, but my husband was not doing well inside. That fall, he admitted he was experiencing bleeding and discomfort again. He went back to the base doctor, but was finally referred to the gastroenterology department.

You see, that massive bacterial infection went untreated for so long, it caused lasting damage to his colon. Mr. Chemistry already had a predisposed susceptibility to colon issues with some family history, but the bacterial infection certainly triggered it.

The gastroenterologist ran some tests and did a flex sig on him. It came back that he had mild proctitis. This is basically ulcerative colitis of just the lower portion of the colon. She said it was very mild, so some suppositories would help treat it.

He began taking those, and they seemed to help a little.

In early 2008, he didn’t seem to be getting relief from those suppositories, so they tried enemas this time with some oral Mesalamine. They also did a colonoscopy which showed his proctitis had progressed a little.

The rest of 2008 seemed to be going well for him. I was taking college classes at the local university; he was doing good in the Marine Corps as a Corporal.

We found out that summer he was going to be deployed on a ship somewhere in the pacific. That fall he was going to go through three different work ups on the ship to prepare for his deployment. One of them was a month long! The only communication we had while he was training was email. And even then, the emails were delayed, so they were all out of order.

During his last workup, I got a phone call from him on the pay phone. He told me his health was not well, and he needed to go see the GI before he left on this deployment. I called right away to make him an appointment.

When Things Took a Turn for the Worst

Looking back now, it makes me wondered what happened to make him trigger like this, but this was the turning point for him. His health went from bad to worse in just a few short months.

He came back from the work up, bleeding and having pain. The GI got him  in quickly, and decided to start him on a different enema with a steroid in it. When his superiors found out about his health, they took him off the deployment. Mr. Chemistry was pretty upset about it. He was prepared to go and wanted to serve his country.

The next few months he continued to get worse and worse.  Keep in mind, during the first few years, he was trying everything health wise to turn this around. Special diets, supplements, stress relief, etc, etc.

By that spring, he was doing so bad, I was getting scared for him.

I remember the end of March 2009 so well. Mr. Chemistry was scheduled to go to the range and coach pistol shooting that week. This meant waking up at 3:30 in the morning and heading out to base. His health was so bad, he would spend hours in the bathroom before leaving.

He couldn’t eat at all without severe abdominal cramping. He called me from the range one morning and told me he wasn’t sure he could make it home. He had spent the entire day in the bathroom there. Throwing up, bleeding, diarrhea, and cramping.

I had to go pick him up.

We called the GI, but it just so happened she was out of the office for an entire month. They scheduled him for a colonoscopy on May 5, 2009. When I took him for the procedure that morning, he was so sick. He had lost a ton of weight, he couldn’t walk well, he just walked around holding his stomach from the pain.

When they started preparing him for the procedure that morning, they took his blood pressure and temperature. They asked him if he had been running all morning?? He said no, I am just sick as a dog right now. His blood pressure was through the roof.

The GI tried doing the colonoscopy, but his colon was swollen SHUT! She couldn’t even get the camera in, blood was spurting everywhere. They admitted him to the hospital immediately.

Those were some long weeks for us. We didn’t live anywhere near family, and Camp Pendleton wouldn’t allow visitors to stay the night at the hospital. So, every night, I had to drive back to Vista where we lived. It was a very lonely, and scary time.

After two weeks of IV steroids and fluids, Mr. Chemistry’s symptoms had not improved one bit. His inflammation levels were still dangerously high.

His doctor came in and said she couldn’t treat him anymore; she was going to be sending him down to San Diego to the Naval Medical Center to be seen by their GI team.

They loaded him up in an ambulance, then we headed down to San Diego. The GI team at the balboa hospital was amazing. They immediately switched up the IV steroids, putting him on a heavier more powerful dose. They also started him on some supplements and a different diet. Within another week, he was well enough to go home.

A New GI

His new GI, Dr. Keller, was an awesome guy. He really cared about Mr. Chemistry getting the right treatments. He sent him home with prednisone to slowly tapper from, then the possibility of starting a more long-term treatment for Ulcerative Colitis.

It was June 2009 when we got back home. He had a few good weeks, then he started getting really bad again. This time it was uncontrollable diarrhea along with bleeding and pain. It got so bad, we raced to the ER at Camp Pendleton. They said they couldn’t help him since he was in the care of a GI at Balboa. So, we raced down to Balboa. Taking a 45 minute trip with uncontrollable diarrhea is pretty rough.

Dr. Keller immediately ran tests on him, it cam back he had C.Diff (Clostridioides difficile) which is an overgrowth of bacteria in the colon. He was admitted to the hospital right away. Luckily, this hospital was a great place for military. They were so kind to me and set me up at the Fisher House so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth every day.

He was started on strong antibiotics to get the C.Diff under control. Dr. Keller said since he had such bad colitis all those months without treating it right, he got an overgrowth of bacteria.

Pancreatitis

Shortly after that he started getting pancreatitis so bad! It was one of the most painful things he experienced. We made another trip to the hospital.

We finally got this under control, and were able to go home a week later.

Mr. Chemistry started on a new medicine for U. C treatment Called Imuran. This is also used for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. We were excited to get some long term care going!

This all took place in July 2009. After trying out Imuran for many months, it was clear this medicine wouldn’t work. Mr. Chemistry continued needing heavy doses of steroids to go to work or even take a trip to the store.

The Imuran didn’t make any difference. So, Dr. Keller said it was time to try a biologic. I was very familiar with this type of medication since I had tried them for rheumatoid arthritis for years. They helped me, so I knew this was good news for Mr. Chemistry.

He started taking Remicade infusions. About six weeks in, he saw some improvement. After multiple infusions, we were seeing some results!

They started taking him off prednisone because it was crucial, he get OFF that medicine.

We were feeling thankful for answered prayers that this medicine was starting to help. It was December 2009 now; we took a little trip to Big Bear Lake for Christmas. We didn’t go home to Texas or anything because we wanted to stay home and recover.

Things seemed okay, but they weren’t. On the way home from Big Bear, Mr. Chemistry had to stop multiple times to use the bathroom. The bleeding was back in full force along with severe pain.

2010

By early 2010, he was in BAD shape. They did another colonoscopy in early February because he was doing so poorly. He couldn’t even wait in the waiting room without having to lean over in the fetal position due to the horrible cramping and pain.

Dr. Keller walked into the room after the procedure and looked at us with a little sadness. He said the colitis was very inflamed. Full pan colitis, but he was already seeing the beginning stages of colon cancer and precancerous polyps everywhere.

I saw the photos and the report, I was shocked how bad it had gotten. He tried all types of medicines, but wasn’t responding to anything.

The bottom line was his health was deteriorating fast, now he was facing precancerous polyps in his colon!

Dr. Keller said he was referring us to a colon surgeon. She was right down the hall, Dr. Robinson. She was another fantastic doctor who was very kind to us.

She sat us down and explained that removing a colon was a very intense surgery, but they would create a J-pouch internally, then he would be able to have everything reattached. He would only need an ileostomy bag for a few months.

Dr. Robinson saw the reports and photos and recommended we really think about a total colorectomy.  Especially with the cancer issue already appearing.

We prayed about it for many weeks. We knew it had to be done.

The Surgery

So, on April 15, 2010, Mr. Chemistry had his entire colon and rectum removed.

He said he had some doubts before surgery…is this really the answer? What if this is a mistake?

But as he sat on the hospital bed, getting prepped for surgery and getting his epidural, the urge to go to the bathroom was so intense, they had to bring him a bed pan. His legs were already numb, so he had to hold himself up with his arms to use the bed pan.

He said it was incredibly humiliating, but also a blessing because he KNEW this surgery had to happen.

The surgery took over 8 hours. I waited and prayed the entire time. My mom came to be with me, and I was so thankful to have her there.

Finally, Dr. Robinson personally came into the waiting room with tears in her eyes and a smile. She bent down and patted my hand. She said the surgery went perfect. The J-pouch went in perfect. His body sucked it right into place, like God put it there. She said it couldn’t have gone better.

They rolled him out of recovery, as I waited for him the hallway. He looked at me, smiled, gave me a thumbs up and said, “I did it!”

The Battle Had Just Begun

Mr. Chemistry’s battle with UC was finally over, but it was the start of a new, different, and rough journey.

He still faced another surgery to reattach everything plus years of recovery. Not to mention, unexpected complications years down the road with his pouch.

I will save that for another post, but today I wanted to share with you his journey to losing his colon.

Sometimes we wonder, if he never had the bacterial infection, would the UC even have shown up? Or if he had received treatment right away, would things have been better?

It is hard to say what really happened with his body, but I do know Jesus gave us strength at such a young age to go through this time in our lives, and it also strengthened our faith.