So this forum has helped me feel not so alone, as I'm sitting in the hospital right now I decided that it was time to join up and share my story. I started having diarrhea about 2 years ago now and knew something was wrong but didn't do anything about it. About 1 1/2 years ago I started to have pretty severe stomach problems where I could not eat anything without it coming back up. I still have issues with certain foods not sitting well and coming back up, to date over the last 1 1/2 years I have lost a total of 200lbs (without trying to lose the weight). Now to my more immediate issues. I first noticed that I had a pain in my perianal area about 2 months ago, did alot of research and figured out that I had an abscess. It hurt more than anything I could have ever imagined, but stubbornly I did nothing. It burst by itself about a month ago and the pain almost completely subsided. Well about 2 weeks ago the pain came back and my wife MADE me come into the hospital last Thur. (Oct. 31st), I had a ct scan and the surgeon came in and told me I had 2 abscesses and that I needed to have them drained and packed. I had surgery on Fri and found out that the abscess on my right side was the size of a softball and I had another the size of a golfball. I was in surgery for about 6 hours and also had an ileostomy because my wound is so large my doc said it would never heal if I was having normal bm's. Sorry to ramble on and on but I just feel so alone right now, sitting in the hospital by myself, kids and wife at home Thanks for reading, I would love to talk to anyone about this so any ?'s feel free to ask. I'm sure I left out some details (pretty tired right now).