Instead of spending a week relaxing in Myrtle Beach we are spending our vacation at a hospital in North Carolina.

Most of you know the story of what happened but for those of you that don’t, here’s the story…

On our way to Myrtle Beach, Matthew was experiencing a little bit of abdominal discomfort and a whole lot of gas. (If you know Matt, you know that’s nothing new, so we thought nothing of it.) Our original plan was to drive straight through to the beach but last minute we decided we would surprise his sister in North Carolina and have lunch together.

Shortly after arriving to his sister’s place Matthew started feeling really ill. Increasingly severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and very short of breath. He couldn’t sit or walk without excruciating pain. We took him to the emergency room and within an hour of having his CT scan, we were told he had a bowel obstruction and he was taken back for emergency surgery. The surgery went as expected with 80 cm of twisted, ischemic bowel removed.

They are hoping he will be discharged from the hospital after 5 days, if everything goes as planned. Matt has a long road of recovery ahead of him. He has strict lifting restrictions for a minimum of 4-6 weeks that he must adhere to or he will end up back in the hospital resulting in further surgeries.

With these restrictions Matthew will have to put some projects on hold and unfortunately this is going to hit our family pretty hard financially. We hate to ask for help, but every last penny will make a difference.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers and support.

Matt, Cassie and Lucas Achilles

(I Noah Guy, his wife and his son)