Before Now

Considering that there will be several different types of people reading this blog I have been encouraged to write a brief summary of my medical/life story. Hopefully it will help, and if there are any more questions or you would like a more medically in depth description, feel free to ask me. You can email me at paxmanbenjamin@gmail.com

I was born with my medical complications, although they did not discover this in detail uttill 2007. At that time they saw a 270 degree twist in my small intestine (small bowel) causing an obstruction. They assumed that my intestines had been twisting and untwisting for the majority of my life, and that is what would cause my "episodes". These episodes would consist of severe pain, nausea, vomiting and distention. At this time they performed an emergency surgery to remedy the obstruction.  I spent eight days in the hospital and was discharged being able to resume the life of a normal 13 year old boy. Sadly a few short months later I would find myself back in the hospital with another obstruction. Another surgery with some slight variances, like the removing of an 18 inch section of my small intestine was performed to remedy the situation. This lasted close to a year and a half, but alas I would end up returning for another stint in the hospital; sadly this time I would spend around 22 days in the hospital after recovering from a more in depth surgery. I was not even close to out of the woods yet, because just a few short months later I would go in for my most extensive surgery up to that point. The fourth surgery consisted of the tapering my entire small bowel and resecting some areas of both small and large bowels. After this fourth surgery I would encounter an intense infection in the form of a near cantelope sized abscess above and between my bladder and spine. With this additional complication I would spend close to 26 days in the hospital and be sent home with two tubes going up my nose and a port-o-cath for intravenous nutrition.

 After I was discharged from the hospital I would attempt to return to my sophomore year in high school with tubes and all. This did not go very well and I would finish the majority of that year doing home and hospital study, a teacher would visit me 3 times a week and I would get all my work to do at home. After several events transpired the tubes were removed and I was able to get semi healthy before the start of my junior year. I sadly was still considerably behind the growth curve being a tiny 5'2" and 83 pounds. (tiny I know).  Following the taper of my small intestine, I finally began to grow. I ended up growing 5 inches and gaining 50 pounds before my graduation from high school.  The summer after my high school year it seemed we had hit another break through as I seemingly grew without control.  Finally growing to 6 foot and 183 pounds! I would then go on to serve mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) speaking Spanish in Indiana.

Throughout my blog I will discuss more stories from these past times in my life, as well as the events currently happening with my health, treatments, family and life. I'm sorry for the brief overview, but I promise it is indeed the very VERY condensed version.

During my mission I would end up being sent home early due to losing a very large portion of my blood by the means of a small intestine bleed. This would turn out to be a great blessing and adventure in my life, even though it was one of the hardest things I had done. Included in this was the decision of returning to finish my mission. I was fortunate to even serve a tad longer than the standard missionary, but this hiccup in my health would mark the coming of more health difficulties.

After being home for nearly a year and a half from my "second" mission, I was going to school, working and living a fairly normal day to day life with minor episodes here and there.  I contracted CDiff and needed to take some very heavy duty oral antibiotics. This would prove to be a major issue. The antibiotics caused complications which led to extreme distention and pain, until I conceded and went to the hospital. After several separate week long stays I would eventually have another surgery in march of 2017. I would spend more than 30 days in the hospital recovering and much more time than that recuperating at home.  After ten months of being at home while on TPN (Total Parental Nutrition- which is pretty much all the nutrition that is necessary for life, but given through the blood), and having a Gtube the option for transplant would become a reality, and the adventure which this blog is named for would begin.

 Again I would like to state that this is a very brief back story, and as you read the blog, you will probably hear more in depth stories of my past, as well as my comings and goings as of the present. I hope this tab helped you get just a small taste or piece of the beginnings of my story, and I hope you will continue to read as we post about life, adventures, emotions, fun, and everything in between.