Just last week Mr. Lixy had to be hospitalized to find out what was wreaking havoc on his body.

He had been under the care of our family physician for a week prior and was taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection which led to a rectal abscess which led to a perirectal fistula. His lumbar was affected which made walking extremely painful. He was running a low grade fever and had abdominal pains and at least 20 loose bowel movements per day (more if he would have been more diligent in counting them). He developed bumps on his shins which resembled being kicked or running into something hard, but he hadn't hurt himself that he could recall. They were very warm to the touch. His arms ached and he had chills all the time. The only time the pain would subside was when his fever broke.

In 2001 Mr. Lixy had to be taken to the emergency room with an atypical appendix imflamation. I say atypical because at the time Crohn's was discussed, but upon emergency exploritory surgery it was discovered that his appendix ruptured and instead of bursting outward, it imploded and infected the lower end of his colon which got infected and exploded. A right hemi-colectomy had to be performed in which they resected approximately 8" of his lower/large bowel (colon). They sent the resected bowel to a lab for a biopsy and no cancer or Crohn's was detected at the time.

Ever since the above mentioned operation we thought his bathroom habits would never be normal (or as close to what you and I know as normal) again. He even mentioned his frequent, emergency urgency visits to the bathroom to our family doc who suggested that due to his type of operation (doc had a similar operation) Mr. Lixy would have to learn what not to eat and how much and when to eat what he could. Till this month, we had no idea that his abdominal pains and frequent potty visits could be anything else but a side effect from the colectomy in 2001.

Lo and behold, after a week's stay in the hospital and every test under the sun, Crohn's was diagnosed. Crohn's is an attack on the immune system. A Crohn's sufferer's body thinks the bacteria found in the bowel is an infection and sends white blood cells to attack and clear up said "infection". In turn, the white blood cells have nothing really to do and so end up screwing up an otherwise healthy bowel. That's the basics of it anyway. No one knows why it happens and there is no cure, but it is treatable. The treatment is different for every sufferer. We are learning more every day.

Mr. Lixy is home now and pain free. He takes several meds and will be weaned from some and maintain others for a lifetime. The fistula is healing without surgery (so far) and he'll need to regain his strength. He's lost about 40 lbs. from all of this, since his D.O.T. physical in February.

Anyway...I was wondering...do we have anyone living with Crohn's here at Pixie's?

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~