At the beginning, in 1989 I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, hated the doc's who were having support groups, who treated the disease but didn't have it, or knew much about it,in the time since have had all my intestines removed except just enough to be connected, for a time, I had an illeostomy, but after 18 months, I was once again connected. Now I am having what is called the Step Procedure, its done in Pittsburgh,it's actually a transplant, but it uses your own intestines! I know thats not possible, but what they do is cut your intestines,small of course, open and select a length of intestine and cut you in a way that before they started lets say you had a 6 in diameter, and was 18 inches in length, they cut each side of your intestines in a series of 7's, so when your put back together, you have half the diameter you started with, but you are now lengthened, I had to have this done as I couldn't take the anti-rejection drugs which go along with a full transplant, and this was my only option. I had been on iv bags for years cuz of short bowl syndrome, but after my first step procedure, they were able to take the Hickman cathetere out of my chest,so no more daily iv bags.I am retired due to the Crohn's. I know a ton about Crohn's, I've been operated on here in Dayton, Ohio, and at the Cleveland Clinic, several times, and also at the U.P.M.C. aka University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I am, as every doctor who has seen me says,the worst of the worst, they have never seen anyone who has Crohn's worse than me,not counting car wrecks or war, I've lost track of all the bowl resections, implants for pic lines, bowl removal, transplants, I've had it all. Dam, feels good to finally get this out, my x wife was trying to get me to do this for years.I had, before this all started many years ago, a very successful body shop and used car lot, I sold all that off years ago, and I still do work on cars, trucks, boats, and yes Harleys!!! I have taken a 1995 Sportster and turned it into a Baby Fat Boy, my rear tire on my bike is wider than most cars rear tires, its a 300 series width, just under 12 inches wide, after being mounted of course, got some cool pics if anyone might be interested, neway, let me know what part of country ur in,if anyone reads this, cuz within next 2yrs, after customising my truck to haul my Harley and me, I plan on traveling all over the U.S..If you may have any question about Crohn's, cars boats, or bikes, I would be happy to help if I can. BTW It was called Waylo Body Shop and Ollie's Car Sales . Well gotta go fix lunch, and get back to work, I work out my back door, my 2 1/2 car garage is on my side street, and my garage is out my back door. Can send pics. C-Ya HarleyDave
