Mother of two battles disease which has no known cure

Published 4:02 am Tuesday, December 6, 2005

DASHER — Karen Lee of Dasher had never been sick a day in her life. Since July, she’s been in the hospital 10 weeks, had two major surgeries and three minor ones, suffered seizures and strokes, and hasn’t eaten solid food for 2 1/2 months.

The 26-year-old mother of two is bravely battling Crohn’s Disease, an incurable autoimmune disease for which there is no known cause.

The disease, which affects an estimated 500,000 Americans, attacks the bowels, causing abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea and rectal bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health. In severe cases, damaged bowel sections must be surgically removed.

Earlier in the summer, life was looking pretty good for the former Karen Yeomans and her husband, Severin, who works at C.C. Dickson wholesale heating and air. They had paid off their vehicles and were looking forward to buying a home. They had a 3-year-old daughter, Elaina, and Karen was expecting their son.

“When I was 7 months pregnant with Connor (in July), I experienced severe abdominal pain in my upper abdomen and constipation,” Karen said. “I went to SGMC one night doubled over in pain. They said it was my pregnancy. I kept telling them I was having upper abdominal pain, and I knew it wasn’t contractions because I had had a baby before.”

Karen said the cramps sent her into labor because they were so severe. She was given medication to stop the labor and later sent home.

That scene was repeated four more times before she was finally admitted to the hospital, she said. On her fifth trip as hospital personnel were getting ready to send her home, she became violently ill, providing evidence of a blockage in the intestinal area. A gastrointestinal physician was called in. Other complications arose.

“The contractions had started back again,” she said.

Things weren’t looking good for the baby or for Karen. Karen’s heart was racing and her blood pressure wasn’t what it should be, so the physicians decided to take the baby at 35 weeks.

After the baby was delivered by C-section, Connor was sent to Shands for a week because he was having difficulty breathing. It was six days before Karen would see her newborn for the first time.

Following the delivery, a gastrointestinal physician searched for the cause of her violent vomiting and found a six-inch blockage between her colon and small intestine.

“Nothing was getting through,” Karen said. “A surgeon removed the blockage, and said it looked like Crohn’s Disease, but they had to send it to a pathologist.”

The local pathologist could not diagnose it, so they had to send it to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.

Crohn’s can be very difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are similar to many other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, appendicitis, diverticulitis, peptic ulcer disease and inflammation of the gallbladder or pancreas.

Mayo Clinic diagnosed the disease as Crohn’s, and Karen was told it would take a year to get it under control with surgeries, medication and not eating. The only thing that goes down her throat is about 25-30 pills a day with some water. She wears a 15-pound back pack which carries nutrition from a bag through a tube to a hole in her chest called a life port. Despite that, Karen stills feels hunger when she smells food, so none can be cooked at her home.

Karen had a seizure one night in September; a neurologist who was called in ordered an MRI and EEG.

“They found spots on my brain that looked like strokes,” Karen said. “The EEG showed I had a seizure.”

Karen was sent to Medical College of Georgia in Augusta where physicians determined the seizures were caused by reaction to an antibiotic she was taking called Flagyl. They were unsure of the cause of the strokes.

“The only side effect I have had from the strokes is short-term memory loss,” she said.

“This whole experience has been very rough for me. I was a sick puppy. I almost died several times. My hemoglobin dropped to 6 (normal is 12), and I had to have a blood transfusion.

“My weight dropped to 108 pounds. I looked really bad. I was white as a ghost.

“Usually women with Crohn’s do better during pregnancy, but I was completely opposite. Nothing has been statistically by the book with me.”

From researching Crohn’s, Karen said many people are walking around with Crohn’s and don’t know it.

“My advice to them when they are diagnosed is don’t give up,” she said. “So many times during the ordeal, I just wanted to give up. It seemed no matter what I did, I got sicker. It’s a bad disease. Things do get better. It just takes a long time.

“Don’t be afraid to have a second or third opinion because it took that to find out what was wrong with me. Sometimes it just takes new eyes.”

Crohn’s disease may cause sores, or ulcers, that tunnel through the affected area into surrounding tissues, according to the Web site for National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC). The tunnels, called fistulas, are a common complications and often become infected.

At the time of this writing, Karen is recovering from surgery Tuesday at the Mayo Clinic to repair where her bowels are leaking and to close two fistulas.

“Just about every church in Valdosta has been praying for me (when they learned of my illness),” she said. “It’s been wonderful.”

As for the expenses, Karen said, “My doctor advised me to apply for disability because I won’t be able to work for a year.”

Her last job was at Southland Church as nursery assistant, and she previously worked at the YMCA because she could take her daughter to work with her on both those jobs.

“So far, we’ve been really blessed. We have gotten donations from members of our church (Southland), from family members and customers of my husband at C.C. Dickson. Thanks to everybody who has helped me.”