So, what has been going on in the Krodel Family?

Hello All! I started this blog back in June and as you can see...I haven't kept up with it. Guess I am not the most consistent blogger. But, I have been busy. Our lives have been very full over the past months. Then it occured to me. Our lives have been very full over the past months...

Maybe I should be sharing some if what's going on with my family and friends. =)

So, here goes.

In the past 6 months two major things have occured in my life. First, I gave birth to our 7th child, Gabriel James. He has been such a huge blessing in my life. And when I say huge, I mean huge. He is a BIG BOY (pictures to come).


Second, my husband Scott has been ill. I have found that nothing can affect a family more profoundly than the birth of a new baby or serious illness of a loved one .


Scott has always had health issues. He suffered from Ulcerative Colitis for many years and eventually had a colectomy (removal of his entire colon/large intestine). He had a ileostomy for a while but the surgeon who removed his colon did a wonderful thing. He realized that Scott was a good candidate for a relatively new procedure called Ileoanal-Anastomosis. During the surgery he left Scott's rectum and sphincter muscles intact thus enabling him to have this new procedure done in the future. In a just a few months we were scheduled to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and have the operation. Actually, it required two operations, two phases so to speak.


During the first procedure, the surgeon takes about 3 feet of small intestine and constructs an internal pouch which will serve to replace the external ileostomy. The pouch is connected to the rectum. Then a temporary "loop" ileostomy is created to divert stool until everything inside is healed. During the second procedure, the loop ileostomy is reversed. This allows a person to, well, to go to the bathroom like a normal person would.


Scott had this all done 18 years ago. He has had a few complications over the years, suffered some other setbacks in his health as well, even had to have a kidney removed, but overall we would say the operation at Mayo was a success and has enabled him to have a much better quality of life than had he not had the procedure done. That is, up until this past June when everything took a turn for the worse.....Part 2 to come soon......