As most of your know I had an interesting few weeks after the trip to Auastralia in late April. After returning I had to have reconstructive surgery on my jaw and then just a couple of weeks later I ended up in the ER with peritonitis from a fistula that had burst form the Crohns disease. I ended up having 20cm of my small intestine removed which should reduce the affects of the disease for a while.
During the scans for the fistulas they did note a 2cm mass on my right kidney which fortunately the results from a followup MRI did come out as a benign simple cyst that requires no followup. That's good as Im not sure I was ready for one more thing.
I had asked my doctor why the Crohns was still active and this apparently was an area of fistulas that had been forming prior to starting any treatment with the Imuran for both the Crohns and the CC last October. The fistula acted like a diverticula which if bacteria is trapped in can get infected and burst.
What was encouraging is that when my blood was checked the evening I went into the hospital my immune system had no problem rallying to fight the infection even while taking the immune suppressant Imuran. Both my overall white blood cell count and neutrophil counts were quite high and actively dealing with the infection.
I was surprised at how much the symptoms of fatigue, joint pain and D returned as I had to significanly reduce the Imuran dosage over the past few weeks during the recovery time from the surgery. I was able to late last week begin taking the higher dose of the Imuran and within just a few days the pain fatigue and D started to improve dramatically.
Regarding the upcoming move to Australia, that will be delayed somewhat while I recieve my release from the DOD in relation to the type of work that I do. In 6 weeks time there will be arbitration meetings in relation to my case. Overall this should not impact my new job as long as it does not drag out too long. This probably works out quite well as I doubt I would have been up to the house hunting trip this week.
I have been trying to catch up with everyones posts and would like to say thanks again to everyone here for your support.
Time to return to my PP ambassador duties
Joe
I have a friend in in his early 40's who is a pilot for Alaska Airlines. He recently got re-certified to fly after a traumatic bout with throat cancer. And he's about as healthy as anyone I know--gluten-free, athletic, and everything. This came totally out of the blue. I know how excited he was to get the okay to do his work, and I know you will be too, Joe. I hope everything goes well. 
