As some of you who know my sister and brother-in-law may know, my BIL, Brett, has been in the hospital since last Saturday. He spent that morning into late afternoon in increasingly significant pain. Those of you who know Brett know that he's a tough dude and he doesn't really complain or seek medical help for pretty much anything. Well, when he was yelling in agony and said, "call an ambulance," my sister knew something was very wrong.

At the hospital, he of course had labs, as well as a CT. They received a diagnosis of severe diverticulitis with perforation. They were hopeful with IV antibiotic treatment and no food or fluids by mouth that he could possibly heal on his own. Otherwise, he could need intervention or major surgery. So he was admitted and they started treatment. After a few days, a repeat CT was done, which showed his condition to have actually worsened. The small perforation had formed an abscess. He now needed intervention, so they performed a procedure to put in a drain with a 50/50 chance of avoiding major surgery. It's now been a few days and while the outcome is still guarded, his condition has been stable. He is finally getting some relief from pain and they have begun to allow him to intake liquids. Moving forward, if his condition stays stable and he is improving, he could be sent home early next week. At that point, he will be homebound for probably at least two weeks as he could possibly still be on an IV during that time, will still gave the drain in place, and will have to go to the doctor (out of pocket) for continued treatment. If not, he will likely need the surgery and that will be a much longer road to recovery. Obviously, he and all of us are hoping he continues to avoid that.

During this time, he has been out of work and unfortunately doesn't currently have medical insurance. So you can imagine the stress and uncertainty he and his family are feeling right now.

If you know Brett, then you already know this, and if you don't, I will tell you... he never asks for help. So let's just go ahead and help him out when he could really use it....because he won't ask.