On December 19, I had to leave work early due to extreme abdominal cramping and pain. The drive home (35 minutes or so on a rather jam-packed Queensway) was interesting to say the least. My wife, Sharon, met me at the door. She's a physician and was very concerned about me. We had a Christmas Open House scheduled for the following evening. She said she was going to start calling to cancel. I protested and asked that she hang off a bit. I'd go to bed and rest a bit.

While I was in bed, she was on the phone.... plotting. She called her partner and between the two of them, we were off to get "bloodwork" done. When we arrived at the Urgent Care Centre, I was hustled into a room, poked and prodded and various tests and x-rays ordered. During this, the only position I was comfortable in was fetal. Anyway, x-rays revealed 23 inches of bowel inflammed and swollen. The docs diagnosed a partial obstruction at the very least with the possiblility of full obstruction very real. More poking and prodding and needles and IV's and the next thing I knew, I was in an ambulance on the way to hospital for a surgical consultation. [sigh]

I spent about 8 hours in the emergency department being examined, tested, scanned.... The surgeon decided that conservative would be best at this point (thank God... didn't want more surgery thank you very much). I was admitted for IV steroids and observation. After a weekend in hospital, I was released in time for Christmas and put off work for 2 weeks (well, there has to be an up side, no?).

I'm feeling better now. Bowels under control with no pain. Steroids have caused about 15 pound weight gain so I had to go buy new pants last night [chuckle]. I also will definitly not be competing in the next Olympics... wouldn't pass the testing. Needless to say, the party was indeed cancelled.

Like I say, Crohn's sucks.......