After many doctors appointments and several costly surgeries Tim is doing much better. But the Wilson's are having trouble keeping up with all Tim's medical bills. We are hoping to help them achieve their goal and take some of the stress off by helping them with their medical bills. Any amount is helpful. We appreciate it so very much.

-Kristen Drummond & Kristi Bruno

Here is a little history of Tim's journey:

Tim was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2009 and kept it under control for the most part with medication until 2013 when he experienced a severe flare up that medication was not helping. He was in and out of the hospital multiple times in 2013 including having an appendectomy in April 2013. He had a hard time being able to eat anything, sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time and staying hydrated was also a challenge. The doctors tried a few different types of medication for ulcerative colitis and probiotics as well as vitamin supplements (approximately 25 pills per day) which did not alleviate his symptoms. The doctors then put him on steroids for approximately 8 months to no avail. The next trial of medication for him was Humira injections, which also did not touch his symptoms. We were at the end of our rope and met with a GI specialist in San Francisco; a 5 hour drive from our house. The last ditch effort to keep his large intestine was a drug called Remicade which is infused over a 2 hour period every couple weeks for 3 infusions when it’s first started. The starting of this drug was delayed due to an intestinal infection, which was found after all the pretesting for Remicade during his stay at UCSF. He was sent home the next day and was able to start the Remicade 2 months later when the infection cleared; fortunately near where we live this time. He only had 2 of the 3 preliminary infusions when it was clear this wasn’t working for him either. Surgery was now his only option. July 2014 Tim had his large intestine removed at UCSF, but the surgery was postponed a week due to another intestinal infection. Two weeks later he was able to leave the hospital and started feeling better besides surgical pain and learning to live with an ileostomy bag. The home care nurse was very helpful during this time and especially after his second surgery. The second operation was done December 2014 and was a very rough surgery. The surgery itself took upwards of 6 hours with an additional 4 hours in recovery. The days following were also very rough, but I’ll spare you all the details. He also had an abscess from that surgery that we were treating at home with the assistance of the home care nurse. It took at least a month for that to heal up and then he was ready for another surgery which was done in March 2015. This surgery was the smoothest of them all and was done at UCSF’s new hospital facility, which I must say was very high tech and comfortable. This last surgery was to basically put him back together so he would no longer have an ileostomy bag.  After all these hurdles and surgeries Tim hasn't been able to work since October 2013. Which makes catching up on medical bills near impossible. Tim’s life has been forever changed by this challenging experience, but his attitude during the entire process is truly an inspiration to all his family, friends and other patients he’s met along the way.