Holly's Healing: Overcoming Surgery Setbacks

Hi, my name's Holly and as some of you may know, I've been getting Diverticulitis every year for the last 6 years, with my most recent hospital stay back in August of 2024.

Fast forward to January 8th, 2025, I was finally approved to have a resection done of my colon to hopefully put an end to getting Diverticulitis ever again. I was so excited to finally put an end to all the pain and the amount of episodes I've had of this. I had 6 inches removed and stayed 4 days in the hospital at St. Luke's in Milwaukee, WI, and was off work for 3 weeks.

After that, I was feeling great and decided to return to work on Feb 4th. On my 3rd day back, I started to experience a lot of pain and extreme pressure in my pelvic area as well as my right and left sides of my abdomen. I had gone to the ER early Friday morning, and they ran numerous blood tests and a CT along with a rectal X-ray with Barium contrast to see if I may have had a leak in my colon or some kind of infection, and well, that's exactly what had happened. I had a very small leak where my incision was on the inside along with a lot of inflammation and was transferred from Aurora Medical Center in Sheboygan to St. Luke's in Milwaukee so I could be closer to my surgeon and to receive the care that I needed. I spent a total of 6 days in the hospital, was on heavy antibiotics, and was on an NPO diet (nothing by mouth) in hopes that the antibiotics and diet would heal the leak. I had an additional CT ran on Monday, February 10th, to see how I was healing. The antibiotics and diet worked, but I still had quite the inflammation around my incision on the inside and remained on that diet until Wednesday. I then was advanced to a full liquid diet which sat well, then that Thursday I was advanced to a soft diet and was released February 13th to come home and start the recovery process all over again. Not something I had planned for.

I then was sent home with antibiotics and other meds to help with my pain and other symptoms that I was still having. After all that was finished, I still continued to have some very minor left-sided pain and they just had said to remain on the soft fiber-restricted diet and if things don't improve to get some lab work done on Feb 25th to see what my WBC count is. Today, Feb 24th, I'm feeling alright, so hopefully things look good.

With being off work the last 6-7 weeks, having this surgery along with the complications has really taken a toll on my life physically, mentally, and well, financially. I still have not returned to work but am hoping to go back on March 3rd if this next week goes well. Although I do receive short-term disability, that still hasn't been enough to cover my bills and other finances. I don't ever ask for much, but your kind donations would definitely make things a little easier on me.

I appreciate your time in reading my story, thank you, and have a wonderful day.