Saying goodbye to a diseased colon...

For those of you that don't know, my wife has been dealing with ulcerative colitis (inflammation of the colon) for the past 7.5 years. It has been the most difficult thing she's ever had to deal with and it has dominated her life for most of the time we've been together. We'll... as of Friday, May 22nd she no longer has that diseased body part thanks to the wonderful surgeons at Piedmont Hospital. This is an account of our last week in the hospital:

pre-surgery visit from Em and the girls



sunrise over Peachtree



happy couple



colon



Liza's colon (pix from her colonoscopy before surgery). White = inflammation



Post-surgery with new hardware (that's an ileostomy bag she'll wear for 3 months). A link to the "J pouch" surgery she had can be found here- great illustrations.



building up that lung capacity!



spit bath



mom visited from Georgetown



first solid meal



first meal dance



Beauty in nature- to say that I was stressed out and worried during the past few weeks would be huge understatements. The little things in life like these beautiful flowers around the hospital grounds really helped me to see the brighter side of things during our hospital stay.







Things get better and better each day and we expect to be back at home within the next 24-48 hours. Thanks so much for all of your thoughts, prayers, help, and kind words. We couldn't do it without our amazing friends and family!!