When I watched Mikey Steele take himself off the mound for Rock Memorial Post 283 in the District 13 American Legion baseball tournament in Ste. Genevieve earlier this month, I chalked it up to some normal kind of injury.
Then I read Brandon Haynes’ story (accompanying this column) about how Steele has battled Crohn’s disease for several years and it floored me. My first thought was compassion for Steele, knowing how the autoimmune disease of the digestive system is incurable and will require a lifetime of treatment.
I know this because a couple of months after I turned 30 (I’m 57 now), I awoke one morning bathed in sweat and didn’t know why. Soon I developed a pain in my abdomen that wouldn’t go away and when I ate something, it hurt even more. The final straw was when my wife and I returned home from a Cardinals game on Memorial Day and I was doubled over in pain.
A trip to my primary care doctor led to a visit to a gastroenterologist and the inevitable diagnosis of Crohn’s autoimmune cousin, ulcerative colitis. I had a nasty case that enveloped my entire colon. I had never heard of the disease and was told that it, too, was incurable and I would be “managing it” with medication for the rest of my life.
More immediately, learning to live with it was hell. I was in a perpetual haze from high doses of the steroid prednisone and was also taking sulfasalazine in the form of four large sulfur pills. Avoiding pain medicine, I lay awake at night with horrible pains in my side. I couldn’t sleep or eat. I thought I was going to go crazy.
Then my doctor changed my medication, and my condition improved immediately. He explained that the new stuff was a topical drug that bathed my colon to reduce the inflammation that was running rampant through my body. My appetite came back, but anyone who’s suffered from UC understands that until a flare-up subsides, you stay close to the bathroom.
Years went by and the four pills a day kept my condition under control. There were mild eruptions here and there, but for the most part no other treatment was necessary.
Then at the end of 2018, I had an episode that the pills couldn’t control anymore. My doctor explained that it happens when the body becomes immune to the medicine. The next treatment was a biologic infused into my bloodstream through an IV. That worked for a couple of years, and then it didn’t.
Starting in the summer of 2021, I bled internally for five months. The steroids, pills, infusions – none of it was working. It was the worst time of my life. I hadn’t had a colonoscopy for a few years and didn’t know what was going on inside of me. I was reduced to wearing Depends at night. The bleeding was so severe, I was hospitalized and received medicines through an IV, to no avail. The doctors were stumped. I was thinking the worst.
Finally, I got a colonoscopy, a procedure I’ve had more than a dozen times, and it revealed that 60 percent of my colon was inflamed. The good news was the dozens of polyps in my colon were benign, not malignant.
Another type of infusion was prescribed, and the bleeding suddenly dried up and I was feeling better by Christmas that year. The next summer I had an allergic reaction to the different infusion drug and switched to taking one small pill a day. I’m told this attacks the problem at the cellular level, before the inflammation can take hold.
It’s been a miracle drug for me. As I’ve written here before, I’ve made many positive changes in my lifestyle to be healthier as 60 rapidly approaches. But nothing works unless my colon does.
Ulcerative colitis is a deeply personal ailment, embarrassing to live through and talk about. And I have a very public job, which has made it more challenging to manage. But as I write this column, I’m enjoying the sunrise, drinking my coffee and watching my dog Ranger go about his business. We walked about five miles yesterday before it got too hot. When we crest the hill on our street heading home, I always look at the tops of the trees in the distance and take in the beauty of this world, glad that I’m still in it.
I wish Mikey Steele all the good health I’ve had since going into remission. I am a huge fan of his for the way he’s handling his Crohn’s.
Speaking of Rock Memorial, Dan Sigman coached his last game for Post 283 when they were eliminated from the Zone 4 Tournament by Jackson.
Sigman was at the post on Sunday, preparing the field for upcoming tryouts that will fill Rock’s 2024 rosters. Seckman graduate Davis Mason is taking over for Sigman, who noted that this summer was the first time Rock fielded teams at all three levels, A (freshman), AA (junior) and AAA (senior).
Sigman’s club gave Festus Post 253 its best game of the zone tournament, falling 1-0. Post 283 was the only team in District 13 to beat Festus during the regular season. Rock pitcher Nick Daugherty and Post 253’s ace lefty Ian Brown gave fans a pitcher’s duel they won’t soon forget. It was the type of competition that keeps Legion baseball alive and well in our county.
“It was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time,” said Sigman, who will stay with Rock as its general manager. “We had our ace against theirs and unfortunately Festus came out on top. This one is haunting me because of the things we could have done with runners on base.”
“I didn’t think Ian had his best stuff; his fastball didn’t have the normal zip. But a good pitcher finds a way to be on his game and that’s what he did. We talked all year about playing clean baseball, but unfortunately mistakes allowed the one run. Other than that it was clean baseball and the best game Festus had seen since our 3-2 win against them.”