ANNOUNCER: Finally, doctors told Lexie's parents she needed surgery. Her parents sought second and third opinions. They were all the same.
THOMAS A. ULLMAN, MD: Surgery is oftentimes required really to get that durable remission that's needed. Kids lose too much time from school with multiple hospitalizations, with side effects of therapy, even with doctor visits as well. And, oftentimes, surgery is really a meaningful therapy and has to be used.
ALEXIS S.: I visited with my doctor and he told me that I was going to have a bag and the only thing that I thought of was like a Ziploc bag or a sandwich bag; I had no idea what that meant.
THOMAS A. ULLMAN, MD: So the surgery that Alexis underwent is something called a subtotal colectomy with the placement of an ileostomy. What that really means is that the colon, to the extent that it can be removed, usually with a little bit of rectum left behind, is removed from the patient, and a loop of or a segment of small intestine is brought out across the abdominal wall and what's called a stoma is then created. And then the fecal flow is then across this area on the abdominal wall and captured by an appliance.
ALEXIS S.: I remember looking at my ostomy for the first time, and more than the stoma or anything, I noticed like the railroad tracks from the staples, looked like railroad tracks to me. And then there were sutures around my stoma. I wasn't afraid to look at it. An ostomy nurse helped me change it the first few times there.
