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<div>Hey ya&#39;ll,</div> <div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;I&#39;ve been browsing the forum here for a few weeks and finally decided to share my short story. I grew up on a peanut farm down in south GA. I worked everyday with my dad from a super young age. I was always active and maintained a pretty healthy lifestyle. Growing up I had a bit of a nervous stomach. I would get so nervous when I would go visit my first &quot;girlfriend&quot; that I would throw up or continually feel sick. My grandpa was diagnosed with UC in the early 2000&#39;s. He had all kinds of complications. Almost died from his disease. My mother was scared that I may have something along those lines too. So, in 2008 I had my first colonoscopy. I was given a clean bill of health and for the time her fears were subsided. In 2009 I was a senior in high school. I did all the normal senior things, was having a great school year, but in November of that year I had a perianal abcess form. I had a procedure to drain the abcess, and then ended up having 2 more procedures to repair fistulas that formed from the procedure. When I graduated high school I started looking into college. From a young age, I&#39;ve always wanted to be an airline pilot. I was a horrible student in high school, I&#39;ve always hated school, but I knew I wanted to be an airline pilot and would do whatever it took to get there. I decided to attend a school up in MI to achieve my dream of becoming a pilot. I had no family in the north, had never even been there before, but it was my dream so I packed up my truck and off I went. Thank God, I lasted 4 years up in MI, never had any problems. When I graduated college, I only had one thought on my mind. I wanted to become an airline pilot. In 2012 congress passed a low stating that you had to have 1500 hours of flying time before you could be hired to fly for an airline. So, I got a job closer to home in GA as a flight instructor</div>

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

I apologize for all the trouble in posting this. Didn&#39;t realize the order would be all messed up.&nbsp;

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

That same afternoon, the nurses came in put in my PICC line. Wait a minute... This line goes all the way to my heart? This is how I&#39;ll receive my nutrition? The weekend I spent in the hospitable starting out on TPN was horrible... I was allowed ice chips and sips of water... I would start feeling nauseous and they gave me this nausea medicine that just made me feel angry. On top of that, it was Friday before Labor Day. I was planning to travel to Dayton, OH for airline training Sept 1. Friday we worked feverishly to set up the home health nurse and the infusion supplier, and then then we had to get a dr to follow me up there. Thankfully, my parents happened to go to high school with one of the hospital administrators up on Dayton. He took care of everything. That Monday I was discharged from the hospital and went straight to the airport to catch my flight to OH. Almost two weeks later, here I am. Staying in a hotel, attending training, and providing my own TPN and antibiotics care. I&#39;m a strong guy, I can handle this, but TPN is probably the worst experience I have ever had. On the plus side, I have all the energy I need. I&#39;m able to do whatever I need. The downside, I&#39;m so hungry! And angry! My stomach growls constantly... It&#39;s taking all of my Will power, but by the grace of God, I&#39;ve made it this far. I have 6 more weeks until surgery. Everything seems to be going great, but I&#39;m scared. I&#39;ve ready so many of the stories on here about surgeries. I doubt I can get my medical certificate if I have an ileostomy. I&#39;m scared for my dreams. That&#39;s all I have right now. I&#39;m scared, that I&#39;m this sick. Even when I first heard I might have Crohn&#39;s, I was still functioning normally. I just knew it was no big deal, just a minor inconvenience. Since then, I have been reading lots. The Tpn alone is enough to upset someone, &nbsp;but there has to be success stories out there...

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

That same afternoon, the nurses came in put in my PICC line. Wait a minute... This line goes all the way to my heart? This is how I&#39;ll receive my nutrition? The weekend I spent in the hospitable starting out on TPN was horrible... I was allowed ice chips and sips of water... I would start feeling nauseous and they gave me this nausea medicine that just made me feel angry. On top of that, it was Friday before Labor Day. I was planning to travel to Dayton, OH for airline training Sept 1. Friday we worked feverishly to set up the home health nurse and the infusion supplier, and then then we had to get a dr to follow me up there. Thankfully, my parents happened to go to high school with one of the hospital administrators up on Dayton. He took care of everything. That Monday I was discharged from the hospital and went straight to the airport to catch my flight to OH. Almost two weeks later, here I am. Staying in a hotel, attending training, and providing my own TPN and antibiotics care. I&#39;m a strong guy, I can handle this, but TPN is probably the worst experience I have ever had. On the plus side, I have all the energy I need. I&#39;m able to do whatever I need. The downside, I&#39;m so hungry! And angry! My stomach growls constantly... It&#39;s taking all of my Will power, but by the grace of God, I&#39;ve made it this far. I have 6 more weeks until surgery. Everything seems to be going great, but I&#39;m scared. I&#39;ve ready so many of the stories on here about surgeries. I doubt I can get my medical certificate if I have an ileostomy. I&#39;m scared for my dreams. That&#39;s all I have right now. I&#39;m scared, that I&#39;m this sick. Even when I first heard I might have Crohn&#39;s, I was still functioning normally. I just knew it was no big deal, just a minor inconvenience. Since then, I have been reading lots. The Tpn alone is enough to upset someone, &nbsp;but there has to be success stories out there...

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

That same afternoon, the nurses came in put in my PICC line. Wait a minute... This line goes all the way to my heart? This is how I&#39;ll receive my nutrition? The weekend I spent in the hospitable starting out on TPN was horrible... I was allowed ice chips and sips of water... I would start feeling nauseous and they gave me this nausea medicine that just made me feel angry. On top of that, it was Friday before Labor Day. I was planning to travel to Dayton, OH for airline training Sept 1. Friday we worked feverishly to set up the home health nurse and the infusion supplier, and then then we had to get a dr to follow me up there. Thankfully, my parents happened to go to high school with one of the hospital administrators up on Dayton. He took care of everything. That Monday I was discharged from the hospital and went straight to the airport to catch my flight to OH. Almost two weeks later, here I am. Staying in a hotel, attending training, and providing my own TPN and antibiotics care. I&#39;m a strong guy, I can handle this, but TPN is probably the worst experience I have ever had. On the plus side, I have all the energy I need. I&#39;m able to do whatever I need. The downside, I&#39;m so hungry! And angry! My stomach growls constantly... It&#39;s taking all of my Will power, but by the grace of God, I&#39;ve made it this far. I have 6 more weeks until surgery. Everything seems to be going great, but I&#39;m scared. I&#39;ve ready so many of the stories on here about surgeries. I doubt I can get my medical certificate if I have an ileostomy. I&#39;m scared for my dreams. That&#39;s all I have right now. I&#39;m scared, that I&#39;m this sick. Even when I first heard I might have Crohn&#39;s, I was still functioning normally. I just knew it was no big deal, just a minor inconvenience. Since then, I have been reading lots. The Tpn alone is enough to upset someone, &nbsp;but there has to be success stories out there...

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

I was devastated... I couldn&#39;t contain my emotion, tears started to run. I had always feared a diagnosis like this. I had done some research awhile back, and had found Crohn&#39;s disease as a condition that would cause you to loose your FAA medical certificate to fly. That ER visit resulted in a 3 day stay in the hospital on high powered antibiotics and liquid diet. I couldn&#39;t have Crohn&#39;s! I had a colonoscopy back in 2008... I needed to see the best more experienced DR I could find to A) determine if I really had Crohn&#39;s, , or B) get me back to health as soon as possible, so I could get back in the air. We travelled to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonviile, FL. Scans, MRI&#39;s, blood, urine, stool tests were performed. Eventually, a colonoscopy was done the last Thursday in August. After the colonoscopy, I was handed down the official diagnosis. Aggressive Crohn&#39;s.... I met with a colorectal surgeon that afternoon. He informed me that he had been working all along with my GI, and the plan of action after seeing the colonoscopy was to perform an ilectomy and small bowel resection. He wanted me to prepare for the surgery and in order to cut down on the inflammation, he wanted me to have 8 weeks of bowel rest. The plan sounded great to me! I had 6 weeks of training for my new job scheduled for 6 weeks. I could just rest my bowel during those 6 weeks then have my surgery. &nbsp;He said they would put me on TPN (IV nutrition) for the weeks and then have the surgery. No big deal. I was admitted to the hospital that same day to start my IV. My spirits were high. We had a plan finally!&nbsp;

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

In August, I travelled to my first interview. I couldn&#39;t eat anything that morning. I had been experiencing the stomach pain for about 2 weeks, but kept pushing it out of my mind. I knew the interview would be over before noon and I would just fly home, &nbsp;but the process dragged on and the interviewers wanted to grab lunch. I forced myself to eat and &quot;be normal&quot; around these guys. An upset stomach would not keep me from my dream. Thankfully, the interview was successful. I was awarded a position with an invitation to attend training on Sept 2nd. I was so excited I called all my family, posted it on Facebook. I was gonna realize my dream! That weekend I traveled with my mom for my grandmothers birthday party. The whole weekend I was in pain and just didn&#39;t want to eat. I couldn&#39;t hide it from my mom. She forced me to go to the ER. They did a CT scan and a few hours later the doctor came up and pulled up a seat. He proceeded to tell me that I had an abcess on my terminal ileum, which needed to be treated immediately with aintibiotics, possibly surgery. Then, he said the words I never wanted to hear... Previously that weekend, when I was driving with my mom, I told my mom I had an upset stomach but it was no big deal. She told me that she wanted me to visit a GI dr. I told her I was scared to see a GI dr. I told her I was afraid I might have Crohn&#39;s disease. She kind of chuckled and said that was a very unlikely possibility. That was Saturday morning. Here we were in the ER, late Sunday night, and the dr looks me in the eyes and says, &quot;This abcess of the ileum and subsequent inflammation is a very common indicator of Crohn&#39;s disease.&quot;

 Reply posted for gcpilot90.

I flew feverishly for 1.5 years as a flight instructor to build my time. In July of 2014, I finally met all of the requirements to become an airline pilot. I was elated! I had finally completed all the requirements to make the next stop in my journey. I had sacrificed my social life, skipped out on family vacations, missed holidays. You name it I became enslaved to my job. I started applying to airlines all around the US, they all were hiring, I received email after email inviting me to job interviews. I was so excited! Then, one Monday morning, I woke up very early. I felt like I had to pee, but I couldn&#39;t. I laid back down in my bed and I started feeling worse. Eventually I was just doubled over in pain. My roommate rushed me to the ER. I had a kidney stone... I was sent home on pain meds an intended to pee it out. That never happened, and a week later I went through a procedure to get it removed. It sucked, but I figured it was just due to not drinking enough water. I quit soda after the kidney stone, turned over this new &quot;healthy&quot; leaf. I got my interviews scheduled, and informed my company I was seeking other employment. My boss was very pleasant, and knew this was my career goal. He also valued me as I was involved in management at the time, and didn&#39;t really want me to leave just yet. The stress was building up between leaving my current job and preparing for airline interviews. It started as some light stomach pain. Not really pain, but just a dull ache. I was slowly starting to eat less and thinks didn&#39;t feel right, but I had work to do. I couldn&#39;t afford to be sick.&nbsp;