Honorees
Team Challenge Presents
2009 Honorees for the ING Miami Half Marathon
Scotty Gringauz
For many years the signs were there,
No one ever suspected Crohn's; it is too rare.
At 9 years old the symptomps were no longer mild,
Something was terribly wrong with our child.
What could it be, maybe a bug?
Scotty is only 9; he is too young.
We went to the doctor, expecting the best,
The labs were abnormal, we needed a rest.
Hospital procedures and lengthy stays,
Confirmed the diagnosis, Crohn's was not going away.
Abscesses, steroids, and pain were so much for our child,
Why couldn't his case be more mild?
Dr. Andrew Edelstein held our hand,
He is the best doctor in the land!
One never knows what life will bring,
After 11 months Scotty is so healthy and happy, we want to sing!
-Susan Gringauz, Scotty's mom
Tyler Kalbac
Tyler Kalbac was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis last year at the age of 15. After his first surgery last year, his doctors told him he had the most inflamed colon they had ever seen. They weren't sure if he had Crohn's Disease or ulcerative colitis. He had never been sick a day in his life and he was being told that he had a chronic illness that required him to stick to a restricted diet and to take huge doses of anti-inflammatory medicine possibly for the rest of his life.
Upon recovering from that first surgery, he started Prednisone and some other medications. He was finally able to go home after two weeks in the hospital - and he was ready to fight this disease. The day before leaving the hospital, he was diagnosed with bilateral blood clots in the major veins of both of his arms. He had developed Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in his legs and life threatening blood clots in his lungs. It turned out that he was in the 1% of people who contract a hypercoaguable state along with his illness. He spent another two weeks in the hospital and was placed on even more medications.
Over the next few months, Tyler went from medication to medication trying to find the one that would work best for him. It turned out that his only option would be to have a total colectomy and eventual j-pouch construction and attachment.
Instead of getting his driver's license on his 16th birthday, Tyler was begging for surgery that would help him live a normal life. The day after his 16th birthday, he underwent the first of what was supposed to be a 3-stage curative surgery. He woke up feeling great and was discharged from the hospital ahead of schedule! Two months later, Tyler went back for his second surgery without any complications. He was then scheduled to come back for his third surgery two months later.
Before Tyler's scheduled surgery, he developed an excrutiating pain and was rushed to the Emergency Room. It turned out that he had a complete obstruction of his small intestine. After 40 hours of pain medication, a doctor finally realized what was going on. Tyler awoke two weeks later in the Intensive Care Unit with stitches from his sternum to his pelvis. That was the result of 140 centimeters of twisted small bowel and five surgeries in ten days.
Today, Tyler is proud to say that he is cured of ulcerative colitis due to the first surgery and he is returning to the life he had before last year. He hopes to have his final surgery of 15 total surgical procedures this December.
Billy Costagliola
At the age of thirteen, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Crohn's disease is a chronic condition that affects the entire digestive tract. Putting aside all of the medical lingo, it's as if somebody constantly had a hold of your intestines and squeezed them until they became swollen and unproductive. Nutrients aren't absorbed well and food has trouble passing through, which can cause severe pain.
Normally, I have been one of the healthier ones with the disease, but lately things have just gone downhill. I missed out on the last two weeks of summer, the first month of school, and the first two weeks of the second semester because I was stuck in the hospital with the most pain I've ever felt.
In January of 2007, I had a major surgery in which nearly 12 inches of my lower intestine were removed. It was very painful but worth the trouble; for the next couple of months, I was feeling the healthiest I had felt in a long time.
Months later, the pain started to come back. In my junior year, things continued to go downhill. I was in the hospital continuously throughout the year and my medication proved unsuccessful. My doctors tried to find an alternative treatment for me and we came upon the idea of tube feeding. It's not as bad as it sounds; I've been doing it since December. It has kept me very healthy and in great shape.
People often wonder how I can still manage to continue doing everything I am used to, despite the disease. How can I find time for baseball, the school's sporting events, and just hanging out with friends? How can I even get through school? To simply answer those questions, I say that I accept all of life's challenges.
Looking in the mirror, I don't see a pitiful kid who doesn't have a reason to smile. Rather, I see a kid who has been through a lot and still continues to live regularly. I don't look at Crohn's as a disability, but as a challenge. If I give up, Crohn's would be getting the best of me. I'm not going to let this control my life.
I'm just a regular kid with some unusual insides, but that's not going to stop me from living my life.
-Billy wrote this article for his school newspaper
Zachary Lewison
Zachary was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) when he was 14 years old. His doctor suggested that he get a colonoscopy and the results came back that he had Crohn's Disease. At the age of 15, Zachary went out of the country, on vacation, and came back with shingles that led him to have a flare-up of Crohn's. He spent one month at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital undergoing tests so he could be properly treated. For 3 weeks, he was receiving IV nutrition and could not eat any food. It was recommended that he start to take Remicade and he immediately started to feel better. It has been 2 years since his last flare-up and he feels great!
Stephanie Paredes
Stephanie has been living with Crohn’s Disease for 11 years. She started noticing symptoms when she was just 8 years old. Doctors never properly diagnosed her so she could never treat the pain she was living with. At times, her doctors thought she was severely anemic. In fact, she was given a total of six blood transfusions! She suffered from two mini-strokes during the time she waited on answers from her doctors. Stephanie lived through misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis. She was told she had leukemia and then she was told she had Celiac Disease. Finally, she visited a pediatric gastroenterologist who ran some more tests and determined that she had Crohn’s Disease. After trying medication after medication, Stephanie finally found the one that works best for her. Now for the first time in her life, she feels that she can live a normal life!
Updated 8/19/08