Mekels Diverticulum

That's what the doctor said...

Mekels Diverticulum: a pouch on the wall of the lower part of the intestine that is present at birth (congenital). The diverticulum may contain tissue that is identical to tissue of the stomach or pancreas.

A Meckel's diverticulum is tissue left over from structures in the unborn baby's digestive tract that were not fully reabsorbed before birth. Approximately 2% of the population has a Meckel's diverticulum, and only 2% of those people develop symptoms.

Symptoms often occur during the first few years of life, but may not start until adulthood.

Matt had a stomach ache throughout the day on July 9th. When he got home, and was eating dinner, the stomach ache worsened. It progressively got worse and by the time it was bedtime, Matt had taken a percoset to help with the pain. It helped a little bit, and Matt was able to sleep for a few hours. When the medicine wore off, Matt took another dose, but this time it didn't touch the pain he was experiencing. By this time it was 2 in the morning. I convinced Matt that it was time to go into the E.R. Matt has experienced this once before, and when we went to the E.R., there wasn't really anything that they could do for him other than medicate him until the pain went away, so Matt really didn't want to go in.

By the time we got to the Jordan Valley Hospital, the pain had intensified so much that Matt was writhing in pain. The E.R doc examined Matt and requested a scan to see if Matt's appendix needed to be removed. While we waited, Matt was given the highest dose of medication possible to help with the pain that he was struggling with. It only helped a little. He was extremely bloated, looking like he was 6 months pregnant. Matt's blood tests came back normal, other than a small amount of infection (which made the doc further believe it was an appendicitis) After the CT scan, the doctor realized that Matt had ANOTHER bowel obstruction. This time was much more severe though. Matt's intestines were so tangled up, that the doctor said it would require surgery to fix.

 Matt had to wait until the following evening, July 10th, to actually have the surgery. Matt doesn't remember much of this waiting time because of the amount of pain he was in. While we were waiting, Matt's cousin's wife, Cassie was telling about her symptoms of something called Mekels Diverticulum, a very rare condition. Matt's symptoms were parallel. I decided to do a little more research on this Mekels thing, and was further convinced that Matt had it. He matched the symptoms to the T. Just before Matt went into surgery, I asked the doctor to look for the Mekels. He was kind enough to humor me. The condition is so rare, and the likelihood of me guessing it was very slim, but he said he would keep an eye out for it.
The surgery lasted about an hour. I was a complete mess while I waited in the waiting room by myself. There was an older gentleman watching tv in there, and I'm sure I made him uncomfortable as I bawled my eyes out. (It had been a long 48 hours and surgery is always a scary thing) I was such a mess that when I went to the cafeteria to get my first meal since Matt was admitted into the hospital, the lady let me have it for free. Bless her kind heart.
Once the doctor was done with surgery, he came to speak with me. He walked into the room, smiling and shaking his head. I was right. Mekels Diverticulum was what was causing all of Matt's recent problems, and problems that he has struggled with for his entire life.. something other doctors couldn't figure out. Go me!!
During the surgery, the doctor had to remove the Mekels, 5 inches of intestines that were completely dead from being tangled so badly, and an ulcer (caused by the Mekels). Matt stayed in the hospital for 6 days total. He was given strict orders to not lift anything over 15 pounds for a month, and to take it REALLY easy for the next several weeks. I was a single mom for a while, and boy, was it HARD! We made it through though, and Matt is feeling 100% again. HOORAY!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to an amazing ward for watching our kids those 6 days, and during Matt's recovery. You guys seriously are amazing! And THANK YOU for all the thougths and prayers that were in our behalf. We have amazing family and friends!