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Foreword
When I first asked John if he wanted to be
featured on our first ever MyoSpotlight my
intention was to write about what a great
bodybuilder he is and how MyoTrend products
have been a contributing factor to his success.
In fact, recently I asked John to send me
a list of his accomplishments and accolades
as an NPC National level bodybuilder. But
then all hell broke loose. Suddenly, as John
battled for his life with an uncertain future
these seemingly inconsequential battles for
titles paled in comparison.
I have known John for approximately 8 years
and I regard John as one of the classiest
individuals not in bodybuilding but life!
I am so delighted that this story has a happy
ending. I applaud John's courage and admire
the strength of his lovely wife Mary. John
is truly blessed.
During times like this one is tested as well
as friends and loved ones. During this most
difficult time John has received a tremendous
outpouring of love from those that mean the
most to him and my friends that is really
placing #1.
We all love you John.
John's
Story
This is my story of some pretty scary events
that left me with the ultimate appreciation
for life, and being able to do the simple
things!
2004 ended for me pretty well. I landed in
4th at the North American Championships, where
most had me pegged as the winner. I decided
to ride the momentum into the 2005 USA in
Vegas in late July. As my prep progressed
through May and June, I began to notice something
funny going on in my stomach. When I did my
morning cardio, I began to lose control of
my bowel function. Basically, I just had to
get to the bathroom within 5 minutes or.well
you know. Since I do all my cardio outside,
it made it tricky to plan my walking. I didn't
really think much about this at the time,
but looking back it was the first signal,
of what would come.
As late June and early July passed, I developed
a new problem. After eating, I would have
intense abdominal cramps, and bloating, not
exactly what you want approaching a contest.
All things considered though, I was at my
absolute best, and was nearly contest ready
at 230. I decided to remove the Orange Roughy
from my diet, as it has an indigestible oil/fat
in it, which I thought might be the cause
of my discomfort. Still even with this change,
the pain and bloating didn't stop.
In an effort to further generate momentum,
I decided to do the LA championships the week
prior to the USA. My friend Joey D and I headed
out west to hopefully show some east coast
dominance. It seemed almost immediately upon
my arrival in LA, the pain in my stomach following
a meal had increased 5-fold. I also had a
new symptom. I would feel stabbing-like spasms,
and feel the need to use the bathroom. I would
run to the bathroom, but nothing would happen.
It was strange, and the frequency of this
was getting worse and worse. I decided the
only thing I could do was make my meals smaller.
My 8-10 ounce portions of protein shrunk to
2 ounce portions. Unfortunately, it still
didn't help. Even with a 2 ounce meal, my
stomach would swell up, and the pain was tremendous.
I ended up finishing 4th, and was finally
starting to worry seriously about my health.
The following week things just got worse.
I stayed in LA to train at Gold's for the
week, and it got to the point in which I was
skipping protein every other meal, to get
some relief. This helped just enough to convince
me that I could make it through the USA the
approaching weekend.
I arrived in Vegas, and met my wife at the
airport. Another one of my friends, Chris
Dodson, had reserved a very nice house for
us to stay in during the competition. When
we got there, I just hoped I could make it
through the show. At this point, I was pretty
much eating ½ cup of oats or rice,
for my meals. That was all I could handle.
I had actually improved in condition greatly
since the LA, so I thought I might at least
be competitive, despite the fact that I had
lost significant muscle fullness. It turned
out that there were 42 competitors in the
class, which is typical. I ended up 13th,
which made me rather proud, knowing what I
was going through. With the shows over, I
looked forward to going home, and for all
these issues to go away - since they were
all stress and diet related..right?
I arrived home, and immediately Monday morning
went to visit my doctor whom most of you know,
Eric Serrano. He ran a battery of blood tests
on me, and guess what..everything came back
totally normal (pretty rare to have normal
liver, kidney, and electrolyte function immediately
after a show huh). The one reading that was
abnormal was my mercury levels, which were
indeed toxic. I was hoping that this was the
cause and that by stopping fish consumption,
I would be "healed".
As the week went by, the pain still didn't
go away, and I found myself in the emergency
room curled up in a ball on the floor, moaning
in pain. I ended up getting some CT scans
and x-rays done, but nothing seemed abnormal.
I did visit a gastro doctor, and a colonoscopy
revealed that I had acute colitis in the sigmoid
portion of my colon. I thought this was strange,
as I had none of the usual colitis symptoms
- no nausea, bloody bowel movements, vomiting,
etc. Well I did get some medication, but a
few days later ended up back in the ER, as
the painful spasms were now so painful I just
couldn't handle it anymore. Some more tests
were done, and the diagnosis was that I was
constipated. Hmm, pretty curious considering
I had not eaten a full meal in days! Two days
later, guess where I ended up? Yep, back in
the ER, this time by ambulance. My pain was
indescribable. This is where the long journey
starts.
My third time in the ER was indeed the scariest
moment of my life. Something inside of me
ruptured, and blood started pouring out of
my backside. As the blood continued to gush
out, I felt my body start to tingle and shake.
I knew that I was going into shock, and that
I would bleed to death any second. My wife
ran to get a nurse, and within a few minutes
I was on a gurney headed into emergency surgery.
I said my goodbye to my wife, and started
giving her last messages to others I love,
as they wheeled me away.
The next thing I know, I woke up in the ICU,
questioning whether or not I was alive. With
all the tubes, drains, etc attached to me...
I remember being thrilled and overjoyed to
be alive. The doctor came in to tell me that
I was indeed minutes from dying, so he had
to act quickly, and had removed my entire
large intestine. I was now the proud owner
of a new ileostomy. Those are the bags attached
to your side, when you have to rest your rectum.
Seeing my ileum outside my body was pretty
freaky, but hey I was alive. The doctor said
that we would be reversing this procedure
in 3 months, and that then everything would
start to get back to normal.
My rehab from this proved to be very good.
10 days after going home, I was back in the
gym (at 180 pounds), and playing with the
pretty pink 5 pound dumbbells. By the time
my re-connect surgery time arrived 13 weeks
later, I was back to a muscular 217, and feeling
good. Everybody told me that the re-connect
would be a piece of cake, so on November 14,
I headed into surgery feeling great.
Unfortunately, after the surgery, I developed
a blockage. This was the worst thing you can
imagine. My stomach swelled to the point that
my incision staples started coming loose,
and I was constantly vomiting my food back-up.
I was back on the all too familiar ice chip
diet, and had a NG tube inserted into my nose,
down into my stomach. The NG tube was the
single-most horrible part of the whole experience.
This was not something I would want to do
again but it did drain everything out.
On November 25th, I went through a second
surgery to fix the blockage. It was successful,
but shortly before I was released, I began
to get fevers, cold chills, hot sweats, and
a feeling of lethargy. Well, I went home anyway,
but following a few days with a 102+ fever,
I was back in. More tests were done. This
time, I had developed a massive abscess in
my stomach, which would need to be drained
and treated with antibiotics. I had two tubes
inserted into my stomach that ran down into
the abscesses (it turned out there were 3).
Another 10 days in the hospital, and I finally
went home the day before Christmas, with my
tubes. Slowly but surely, the infection had
drained. On January 6th, the tubes were pulled
out of me. It was great to finally get some
good news, and 2006 has started off on a positive
note. I still have some bandages on my incision,
and where the two drains were, but I am now
feeling much better, and will be going back
to the gym for the first time this afternoon.
My guess is that you are wondering - so what
caused this? Well, here is what I know. After
my first surgery in August, they had determined
from a biopsy that the mesenteric veins in
my sigmoid had thickened to the point where
no blood could pass through. This is what
caused the hemorrhaging. This closely resembled
ischemic colitis. The problem with that is
this form of colitis is most prevalent in
the elderly and heavy smokers, neither of
which applies to me. We had an angiogram done
to check all of my veins and arteries in my
digestive system, and they all appeared to
be perfect, further adding to the confusion.
We then tested the theory that a blood clot
had traveled to my intestine and lodged itself,
with a Trans Esophageal Electro Cardiogram.
Again, all was normal. We brought in a hematologist
who examined my blood for any unusual genetic
conditions.again, nothing was found to be
abnormal. It was really scary leaving that
first time, because all of the doctors were
just as baffled as me.
Finally, we had a breakthrough. All my information
and biopsies had been sent to the Mayo Clinic.
They did have a diagnosis, and indeed it made
sense. There is a pretty rare vascular disease
called "Idiopathic Myointimal Hyperplasia
of the Mesenteric Veins". This is what
they said I had. It typically occurs in middle
aged healthy men, and for some reason, those
mesenteric veins in your sigmoid (this is
specific to your sigmoid) just get thicker
and thicker, until they are removed. It made
sense to me, as I never had the typical colitis
symptoms and no specific kind if foods seem
to ever bother me. There is information about
this condition out there on the internet,
if you want to read further about it. For
now, it appears I am cured, as this area was
removed, and there have been no documented
cases of this affliction coming back to affect
others areas. I hope and pray this is true
for me!
Well, that's it for my story about my near
"dirt nap." What's next for me?
Well, I just want to get healthy. My stomach
is still achy, but I know that all will be
well. Thanks to all my family and friends
who helped me get through this. It was amazing
how much love and support I had. I am truly
a blessed man.
Happy 2006,
John Meadows
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