The Backstory

Hey everyone, just decided to make this blog in case anyone is interested in my story up till now and afterwards.

Basically, I have something called Gardner's Syndrome. As a kid, I got small benign tumors on my body (4 in total - last one was when I was 10) and I have had tons of teeth problems and my parents have paid thousands and thousands in orthodontic bills. Many extra teeth, too (including my wisdom teeth being removed in December, I've had probably 16 teeth removed by my dentist). Since I was 6 or 7 (I'm not sure when I started), I have gone down to UCLA Medical Center every other year (lately it has been every year, though) to have an endoscopy and colonoscopy. Simply put, they stick a camera tube down my throat and up the other way to check out my digestive tract, removing polyps as they go.

My most recent set of these procedures was on Friday, January 4th 2008. That day, I went to see my friend who has been at UCLA for a little over a month (at the time). He is sick with Chron's Disease, which affects the digestive tract, and even has my doctor. When we heard he was at UCLA, we called his family here in my town, and found out that he had just gotten out of surgery - surgery to remove his colon. He was doing o.k. as far as I can tell when we got there, he was even sitting up watching T.V. My mom and I had gotten him a joke book in the gift store, and he seemed to enjoy it. We left that day and went home.

The next Tuesday, I went to my Boy Scout meeting. It was the first time I had attended in five months (I had been away at college). I decided to tell them, most of which were friends of my sick friend at UCLA, about my visit to him. Nothing detailed, like the fact he had his colon removed or that his face was puffy from the steroids his doctor put him on, just saying that he was doing well and he had grown his hair out, showing it to be a different color than it seemed when it was short. I also sent a card around for the kids to sign.

When I got home, my mother had some very bad news. My GI doctor meets with a board of related doctors at UCLA to discuss my particular medical history and the current biopsies. My doctor had called her that day (Tuesday) and told her that they recommended, for my health, that I have my colon removed. It was a total shock to me, and a very rough night filled with tears and anguish.

A little background on my family - both my father and brother also had Gardner's Syndrome. It did not affect my father as much as it had affected my brother - but both are now dead (my father did not die directly as a result of GS, though it played a part). They did not even diagnose the two as having GS until my brother passed. At about my age, he had large tumors in his abdomen, just outside his colon. He'd have surgery to have one taken out, then anothe would pop up... rinse, repeat a couple times. Eventually, his body just couldn't handle it, and he died when I was a couple years old. That's when they decided to keep an eye on me - and they were right to do so. They determined it was GS, and I started having endoscopies and colonoscopies. The reason the doctors want to remove my colon is that it is showing early signs of what happened to my brother. In order to stop that, they need my colon gone. So I understand it is necessary to keep me alive... but I don't like it :(.

There's the back story. But I'm hungry right now, so I'll take a break and start another post later.