Levi’s Story

Site created on June 28, 2018

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Levi has been struggling with abdominal pain and other problems on and off for the past 6 years. On 6/4/18, we went in to Jamestown Urgent Care because the pain became unbearable. They drew labs to check for a few things and did an x-ray, showing he was blocked up; we were sent home and told to take magnesium citrate and schedule a follow-up appointment when he became more regular. He never did become regular but we scheduled a follow-up for 6/14. The morning of, Levi had begun throwing up and the intense pain was back in his abdomen. We went to our appointment and repeated labs and the x-ray; we were sent home and waited for the phone call. The provider called us about an hour later telling us to go to the ER; the blockage had not resolved and she wanted us to go in for a CT scan. 


We went and got the scan done; after a few hours of waiting the doctor came in and told us Levi was being admitted to the hospital for colitis. He was admitted to the hospital and the plan was to give IV antibiotics and treat the pain; after three days of this we were discharged and sent home with oral antibiotics. We got a phone call from our primary again telling us that along with the colitis, they had found a mass on his transverse colon. They didn't think it was cancer, but they wanted to rule it out. She told us to find a gastroenterologist and she would send off the referral. After many phone calls to insurance and medical facilities, we had a referral sent out; they contacted us and told us they would be contacting JRMC (our local hospital) and telling them to get us in for a colonoscopy as soon as they had an available opening.


In the middle of all of this, we decided to elope. We have an entire wedding planned for October 2018, but moved it up for a multitude of reasons. We were married at the Stutsman County Courthouse on 6/25/18. Later that same day, the hospital called and said they had an opening for 6/27 for a colonoscopy. We jumped at the chance and scheduled it. 


The day of the scope, Levi did well with the anesthesia and the prep work. The doctor came in to visit with us and gave us upsetting news. He told us that he hadn't been able to do the full colonoscopy due to an increased area of growth full of polyps in his colon. He biopsied a couple of the areas because they looked suspicious. He said that despite his best efforts, there was just no getting past that area of polyps. They did an x-ray to make sure they didn't perforate anything trying to get through and the doctor left. We were told that he would definitely need surgery.


He came back later to tell us that he did not like what he saw and he would like to do the surgery soon; he would be leaving town the next couple of days and referred us to a colorectal surgeon in Fargo. He made it for the day after at 10:00 and wanted us to do everything we could to be there. We both called in to our workplaces and left the following morning.

Newest Update

Appointments/Last Update

Journal entry by Samantha Koller —

So this will probably be the last update that we do, at least for a little while.

We went to Levi's follow-up post-surgical appointment this past Wednesday; Dr. Armstrong said that he looked well and was doing much better than he had anticipated. He said his wounds were healing up nicely and he had a little more color to him. We talked a little about what now, and he said that Levi was doing so well that he didn't think he 'needed' to come in after a month to do another follow-up unless we thought it was necessary. After a few questions we were on our way again.

Then Friday we had his gastroenterology appointment. We met with Dr. Hektner and we went over what sort of lifestyle changes we may need to make now that we know that it's a Crohn's diagnosis. She said that since they cut out all of the active Crohn's during surgery and Levi wasn't presenting with problems, we wouldn't really need to make any diet changes unless we noticed a certain food causing flare-ups. She said also since he wasn't showing symptoms he wouldn't have to start on any medication at this time. We did find out that Crohn's can present "outside" symptoms such as joint swelling and rashes (basically symptoms that occur on the 'outside' of the body instead of on the 'inside'). We found out that this could be why his ankle has been swelling so bad; she took a look at it and noticed the swelling. We will contact her if it doesn't get better and then think about doing meds if it hasn't improved; other than that, Levi isn't showing any active signs right now! We will have to do a follow-up colonoscopy in a couple of months and possibly some labs in a few weeks to look at Crohn's biomarkers, but we are basically out of the woods and he's doing so so well. 

Again we want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us during this difficult time and made it easier for us. We couldn't have gotten through this without such supportive family and friends.

Samantha & Levi
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