In December of 2008, Glyn was a healthy 16 year old young man without a care in the world. He excelled in all his athletic pursuits with an uncanny natural ability particularly in football and baseball. That Christmas he went to Texas for three weeks to spend some time with family. While on vacation - far from mom’s watchful eye - he ate the “typical American diet” full of sugar, trans-fats, pre-packaged and micro-waved foods. However, being the athlete that he is, he found a way to stay fit and active by running every day - IN THE SNOW! He got sick for the first time in years. It turned out to be pneumonia for which he was prescribed a very strong antibiotic.
It is interesting to note that the dramatic change in his diet lowered his immune system, allowing the pneumonia to “set up house.“ What he didn’t realize - what none of us realized - was that the way we had eaten his whole life had been “protecting” him from the debilitating symptoms of his disease.
From here , he went into a downward spiral. Not wanting to admit to his mom he was having blood in his stools - a lot of blood - he was bleeding internally. Eventually, he was also throwing up blood and when he did blood was also coming from his ears and nose as well. Realizing things had gotten exponentially worse over the course of nine days, he finally mentioned that he needed help. On Friday, January 6th we went to the ER where a CT scan showed blood in his colon. We were told to see a GI doctor on Monday. The GI doctor we saw on Monday wanted to order tests, etc……Well, by Monday night, the 9th he was back in the ER with him having lost so much blood that he was transported from one hospital to another by ambulance where he could have more specialized attention. It was at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, AL, in the very capable hands of Dr. Jeanine Maclin, that he was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. And, to make matters worse, he had C-Diff - an overgrowth of bad bacteria that is highly contagious and can be deadly to immune compromised individuals, infants, and the elderly. He was placed in a room with its own ventilation and you had to be gloved and gowned to enter the room. It seemed that almost overnight he had lost close to 40 pounds. That was a lot for a 5’6” tall, 170 pound cornerback! His percent body fat was next to nothing already.
This was only the beginning of his “hell.” From January of 2009 to August of 2009, he was hospitalized five times. On two of those occasions, he had to receive blood transfusions and blood clotting agents. The family was told both times the dire consequences should the treatments fail - death. The massive amounts of drugs they had to give him to stop the bleeding and get the C-Diff under control caused severe pancreatitis which resulted in permanent scar tissue to the pancreas. In order to “shut down” his pancreas (both times), nothing could go into his mouth - no food, no ice, no gum, no candy, just a couple of sips of water. They did the only thing they could do - doped him up to try and keep him comfortable. All in all, during this time period he had gained and lost 71 pounds.
All of this was excruciating, but nothing hurt so bad as when they told him they were going to do surgery and he would have a colostomy bag. Then, came the most crushing blow, they told him he would never play ball again. In the midst of this Glyn lost his beloved grandfather. He was heartbroken. One of Glyn’s favorite quotes says “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” (Edmund Burke) He decided, sitting on the front row, at his grandfathers funeral, he wasn’t going to do “nothing.” His grandfather was not hard-wired that way and he was not hard-wired that way. He got stronger spiritually, mentally and physically. And, he played football that 2009 season as a starter. That year they won a Division 3 National Championship.
By the following season, he had been “trouble free” for several months and was rip-roaring-ready-to-go!!! One morning in early August, he woke up with a sore throat that just got worse and worse. And, due to the fact that he is now immune compromised, it got really bad, really fast. He was back in the hospital again. This time with strep throat. His throat was so swollen that his blood oxygen level kept dropping into the low 80’s. The following week he was back at practice. This time they walked away with the 2010 State Championship title for our division and proceeded to compete at nationals. They lost in an agonizing double-overtime defeat.
December of 2010 held its own surprises! Early on he had a UC “crisis” and then, 4 days before Christmas, he broke his ankle in 2 places while skateboarding with friends.
In January of 2011, during an infusion treatment of Remicaide, he had a severe anaphylactic reaction and quit breathing which meant we had to find a new direction to go in for treatment. He was put on Humera and Ultram (a drug used to treat pain). He had also now been diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis as a result of UC. He had been on and off Ultram a number of times over the previous two years. However, by now his tolerance for drugs was scary so taking Ultram was like taking candy - or so he thought. On April 16th, he had a massive seizure from taking too much to control his pain. He was unresponsive for nearly five minutes and spent the next two days in Intensive Care. During the process of having the seizure, he tore the labrum and cracked the shoulder socket. He had a successful repair of the labrum on June 1st but was told he could not play football during the 2011 season.
After a time of intense personal growth with some truly deep, dark struggles, he decided that this disease - this setback - was not going to define him. He was going to be in control of his future. He was going to define this disease and its place in his life. It was out of this “breakthrough” - this “aha” moment - in his life that this vision to help others with Crohn’s and Colitis was born. Once again, he decided that doing “nothing” was not an option.
It is our desire that you learn from our mistakes, our failures, our successes, our sorrows, our joys, our wins, our losses, our pain and our progress. Understanding that this is a life-long process is crucial. We all have our share of roadblocks and hurdles. The important thing is that we do not have to let them define who we are!!! With family, friends and most importantly, in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ you can be an overcomer!!
