After a Great Fall, a Greater Recovery

By Wes Irvin

I’m like Humpty Dumpty. Only after falling and shattering into so many pieces was I able to understand pain, suffering and the healing process. 

September 8, 2012, was our 13th wedding anniversary. My wife and I enjoyed a perfect Saturday with family. I never expected to be in the ER of my local hospital the next morning or in the operating room later that day. I had what everyone expected to be a simple procedure to remove Meckel’s diverticulum1. 

But I became very ill. Things continued to get worse, with a diagnosis coming too late to slow the necrotizing fasciitis2 destroying my abdominal wall. I was rushed to shock trauma at another institution and began what would become a fight for my life. 

I have been in and out of hospitals over the past decade. But I have learned to trust medicine again because of Cleveland Clinic. I finally have a closed stomach without wounds. I no longer have skin grafts. I’m enjoying life more with setbacks and ongoing challenges. I’m grateful to Dr. Michael Rosen, Dr. Raffi Gurunluoglu, Sandi Zampino and so many others, who — with more than 40 surgeries — put me back together again and gave me hope. 

I’m advocating today for better pain management and better bedside modalities like the ones Cleveland Clinic is using — things like reiki, art therapy, music therapy.

 

As a lobbyist and government affairs specialist, Wes Irvin hopes to change “the rhetoric and tone of American politics” with regard to healthcare.  

Notes

  1. A bulge, left over from the umbilical cord, in the small intestine.
  2. A disease caused by flesh-eating bacteria.