I do apologize if I was quick with conversation, but just made sure to reach out to everyone.  I did not expect that many people to show up so was some what overwhelmed.  It was very emotional in a positive way knowing all of you were there for me.  I know people were unable to make it and that is understandable because life brings us plans.  I know a lot of you that could not be there wanted to be there and have even still gave me donations.  I am so grateful and I hope everyone enjoyed the event.

Special thanks to Stacey Marchel and Stacey’s Surf Camp for making this happen.  She took time off to really make the fundraiser possible and such great success.  Thank you Stacey.

Also thanks to my family and friends who help set up the day of the event.  Thank you to everyone that donated for raffles.  There were so many great options for the people to choose from and I plan on getting thank you letters out this week to as many people  as possible because everyone deserves one being apart of my support group.

As for my recovery things are going great.  At the moment I am off all medications except for supplements.  Food digests so quickly through me that it is hard to keep all the nutrients in my body.  I am on a very strict diet, but I don’t mind.  It actually is very healthy.  During my recovery I tried to eat corn, which they say is not good because it is hard to digest, they were right.   I had a blocked up small intestine.  I spent almost 24 hours in pain while nothing was coming out of my stoma.  I knew it was blocked up, but nothing seemed to be working to release it so my mom drove me up to the ER at Penn and they admitted me just to make sure that was definitely the problem.  It was Easter morning and I was woken up by the nurse to have my vials checked and felt at that time a very warm and wet texture.  The blockage had passed through filling my bag up to capacity removing it from attachment.  Happy Easter to me!  It did feel good though and since then have been extra careful with what I am eating because I do not want to go through that ever again.

I am in the water again full time.  It feels so good to be able to be surfing again.  To have those sessions with your friends and getting a few good turns in really makes your day that much better.  I have worked hard to heal and get myself to this point.  I started doing yoga as soon as I felt alright stretching and have stuck with it going 3 to 4 times a week.  I have recently started a workout to get my strength back, but only using an exercise ball. I am surfing better than I have ever surfed before.  The stoma does get a little irritated from laying on it and the bag fills up, which can all be a little  frustrating.

For people that did not make the event I had pictures displayed of my body with the stoma.  I am now having them on my blog for everyone else to see.  The photos were taken by Trevor Moran.  He took about 300 and these are the 5 we chose for the display.  They are kind of graphic, but it is interesting to see the stoma and it shows a little of what I was forced to live with so that I didn’t have to be on medications, in pain and going to the bathroom 30 times a day.  I hope you enjoy and  there are some highlights of the fundraiser.

the Kevin RIchards as we know

the bag

look at that left hand barrel tattoo, oh yea and the stoma

hanging tough

the same Kevin Richards

so many raffles

pre-fundraiser help from Maddun

Much Love from PBL

and Timmy

Tyler joined a crew from up North to make it.

live music watchers

the event did clear out Maynards outside bar.

i guess Trevor passed over the camera

crazy eyes

PBL's biggest fan

Much Love from DJ Phoecus

palz

Charlie rounding up

raffle madness, thanks Matty

Jake getting down

beauties

Brad stop messing with that baby.

Bobby Fresh is pretty gangster, haha

these two, Rich and Jeanine

Scott, Zack, Jeanine

everyone

The story

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects the large intestine (colon) and rectum, at the age 12.  It was a difficult time for me from the start, since I was so young and dealing with all of the associated symptoms.  At that time, I was so scared of what my body was doing that I kept my symptoms from everyone, including my family and friends.  When you see nothing but blood in your toilet up to 10 times a day it becomes very scary.  (By this point in my life I had learned to surf and was entering surf contests and enjoying every second of those experiences).  It wasn’t until after withdrawing from a contest in hurricane surf that was easily double overhead that my mom noticed I was not looking like my normal 12 year-old, energetic self and finally took me to the hospital.  At the hospital I found out that my blood count was 5.4, while a normal blood count is around 12.  I immediately received two blood transfusions before being recommended to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia where I was ultimately diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.

During this process, I was subjected to test after test and medications after medication.  At one point I was taking up to 15 pills a day, with steroids being the main controller.  The medication gave me enough strength and energy to stay in school and in the water.  However, every time I would come off the steroids my inflammation would flare-up.  These flare-ups consisted of the worst pain and discomfort you could ever think of in your abdomen.

This roller coaster continued until I was 18 and by then residing in San Clemente, CA.

The summer of 2000 I had had the worst flare-up of my life.  Luckily, my mother happened to be out west with me supporting me at NSSA Nationals where I attempted to compete despite not feeling totally up to it.  I had literally just got an apartment that month, a signed lease and payments made, and now had to get a one-way ticket home to New Jersey to discuss my options with my family and doctor for the future. One option was to stay on the medication and increase the intake of steroids, while the other option was surgery.  My doctor at Children’s Hospital was opposed to the surgery because of my dosage of steroids.  He said, “People that take this dosage amount do not need surgery.”  I trust a lot of doctors, but when he had claimed that surgery was out of the question because of my dosage amount, something didn’t seem right and I decided it was time for a new opinion.

I moved on to a local Gastroenterologist for another opinion and eventually decided to have surgery, but with his recommendation of a surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.  The surgery is called a Colectomy and my whole large colon was removed.  Some parts inside needed to heal so I had to have a colostomy procedure as well. With this the surgeon makes a small opening, called a stoma, in the front of your abdominal wall. The open end of your intestine is then pulled through the abdominal wall and attached to the skin. After the procedure, the body’s waste exits your body through this opening. An artificial pouch, or ostomy bag, is worn on the outside of your body, where waste material will be collected.  Although temporary, I had to endure this uncomfortable and difficult situation for a 10-week period.

The recovery was difficult mentally and physically.  It is not normal for an 18 year old to have an ostomy bag.  And unfortunately, the ostomy bag doesn’t cure the condition.  It does help with the pain from the inflammation, but it needs constant attention.  The bag is constantly filling up with no control throughout the whole day so you have to empty the bag more than a few times a day.  Then every 2 to 3 days you have to change the base of the bag.  This process easily takes an hour, with cleaning the stoma, cleaning your skin and attaching the base, which might not always work the first time around.  Obviously this can get very frustrating.  Luckily, I did have a nurse at first to help me until I was comfortable on my own.

I was out of commission for about a month or more, but was walking for exercise after that in hopes of getting my strength back. When I had enough strength I decided that I wasn’t going to let the ostomy bag and my situation stand in the way of my surfing, as it was my full-fledged passion at that time. I figured that if I wore a spring suit at all times in the water it would keep my bag secure. It was an immensely challenging time, but ultimately I went on to finish 2^nd place at the ESA East Coast Championships in Cape Hatteras just a few months after the surgery.  Meanwhile, I kept all of my procedures to myself and family so no one at the contest had any idea what I had been through or my new body attachment.

The reversal procedure to remove the ostomy bag came in October of 2000. I had been waiting 10 weeks for this reversal surgery.  They put the stoma back in my body while making a J-Pouch out of my small intestine to help slow down the digestion.  Recovery was taking care of the wound where the stoma was, which was weird because the wound had to heal from the inside out.  You could fit a golf ball in the wound, but instead you clogged it with saline drenched gauze and covered it like you would a regular wound.  I was back to normal using my rectum like everyone else only now making frequent trips to the restroom.

Now that everything seemed to be headed in the right direction I made my way back to San Clemente.  It was great, I had energy to surf everyday.  I was going to the bathroom like any normal person and I wasn’t losing blood.  Surgery was a success, so I thought.

A year had gone by and I was still out in California. One day I became sick and was in bed for a couple days.  I was able to get around the house, but had miserable abdominal pain.  I finally drove myself to the emergency room at the San Clemente Hospital.  They told me I had pancreatitis and I would have my gall bladder removed.  My new doctors learned of my condition in the past and reviewed my records and realized that the J-Pouch that was setup in my reversal surgery had become infected, which had caused the pancreatitis.  My father flew out to take care of me until I was fully recovered.  He bought his ticket back east once I was able to surf again.  During each recovery period I realized that my definition of being healed was when I could surf again.

Time went on like this for a while – a never-ending roller coaster.  I was off and on medications, including steroids.  My weight would be perfect at some points and then I would get sick and would lose 10 pounds over night.  I was so sick of the trips to the hospital and doctors at this point that I just began to learn to live with the condition and constantly being sick.  I tried to live the normal life as anyone I was around would.  As a surfer you plan whole days from before sunrise until sunset on where to surf, and often times are far from home.  I did this for a couple years, but was constantly plagued by the constant need to go to the bathroom.  I would have to go on the drive to the beach, right before I went surfing, right when I got out, before going back out and so on.  If I wasn’t around home that meant finding public restroom, which everyone knows is far from ideal.  Luckily I have good friends that know what I am going through to a certain extent (I still kept the most extreme details to myself).

I traveled to certain places such as Puerto Rico and found the relaxation to be very helpful.  In Puerto Rico, I actually extended my stay to enjoy something I haven’t felt in many years.

When I finally came home I decided that I wanted my health the best that it could be.  I went on a very strict diet and took better care of myself.  Unfortunately, despite this new focus nothing seemed to really help, which was very frustrating.  I started seeing a GI (Gastroenterologist) at the University of Penn, where I had my first surgery 10 years ago.  Again like my local GI he prescribed to antibiotics that did absolutely nothing.  On my last visit I was admitted to the hospital.  They ran many tests to see if anything was available before surgery, which was when they diagnosed me with Crohns disease.  The doctor had an idea I had it, but was unsure until I had the right test done.  I will not go into description of the test, but the outcome of the surgery was to give me another ileostomy bag while my J-pouch healed and they were going to look at the Crohns to see if that needed to be taken out.

It is very uncommon for someone to have Ulcerative Colitis and Crohns in one lifetime, but my body has found a way for that to happen.  I was ready for whatever had to be done and agreed to the surgery that was performed at the end of March.  The ostomy bag is attached, which does take away from the pain of my J-pouch, but has its own inconveniences.  The bag must be emptied as it fills up, which has been up to 5 or more times a day.  The bag has to be changed every three days, which takes a good 30 min to an hour depending how the stoma reacts.  The stoma is the piece of small intestine that is pinched out of your skin where the bag covers to catch your bowels.  No fun.

I am now in recovery of the surgery and getting used to my new routine with the bag.  The treatment for Crohns will begin in May, which hopefully will become a success.  Thanks for reading up on my story and hope you learned a little about me.

Finally yesterday we had some swell.  Nothing epic, but enough to get excited about.  I actually was more amped than usual.  I made my usual calls of making plans to get a session in with the boys.  I made a call to Jamie M only to get sent right to his voicemail.  I knew he was thinking about getting a ticket to Mexico, but never heard a definite answer.  When he didnt answer his phone the night before I knew he had gone.  Damn him.  Joining Zack and Rich, I knew they were going to score some real barrels.

Brad took the place of Jamie and we dawn patrolled  with Rob Kelly.   Joe Reighn joined us to shoot some photos before he had to go to school.  It was cloudy with a little north wind bump, but it cleaned up fast and was super shallow.  It was nice to get some beach break mini barrels again.  Water was still a little chilly.  You didn’t need gloves, which is a huge plus with body movement.  It makes it easier just to catch waves and conserve some energy while paddling.

I have been under the weather since I have been home so I was only able to surf once.  I still managed to surf over two hours and catch a shit load of waves.  It was crowded first thing, but that just comes with this time of the year.  Everyone is finishing school and the water is warming up.  Luckily it was a southeast swell with northwest winds so it was super peaky and waves were breaking everywhere.  Spreads out the crowd.  Hopefully waves will start to come in more consistently.

photo.joe.reighn

Surf Shed

Mango Madness

Road to Paradise

It is walking distance to the beach!  Just down the road a about 100 yards sits a beautiful beach.  There are no waves here, but the reef is absolutely amazing.  I have snorkeled most reefs down the shoreline of Rincon and out front of my shed is probably the best.  Sea turtles surround the reefs and can be seen with almost every swim.  People that have not experienced swimming with sea turtles are really missing out.  It is a wonderful thing.  I have gone out for a swim that lasted up to two hours.  There is much to see in the underwater life.

Photos don't compare

Wear a helmet surfing groms!

Urchin the size of your HEAD..wear booties too!

When the waves are good the shed is not too far from them.  When it is small, it is a mission.  This is talking about without a car.  I can easily walk the beach and be to Tres Palms in about ten minutes.  Since Tres needs to be big to break I have to keep walking about another five minutes to Dogmans and just a little farther to Marias.  If I wanted to I could make it to Domes, but haven’t made that journey yet.  I can usually find a ride because everyone surfs!

Right handers everywhere!

continued..

Now at this time the partying had mellowed out and it was all about the surf and relaxation.  We had a bunch of fun little swells with minor crowds because it was on the windy side.  When I say on the windy side, I mean 5 mph with a little side chop.  You can get pretty spoiled here with all world class surf, but a little wind in New Jersey would be epic so we were always out there.  Now funds were getting really low and I made the decision to sell my only board, that was working insane.  There wasn’t much for swell in the forecast so I thought hell with it, I need to eat.  I sold it to a local that had been hanging with us for a lot of our trip.  Carlito is from San Juan who moved to Rincon to get in the surf scene with his friend David.  These kids are classic and good surfers.  Carlito had a piece of shit log that was so excited to have a white, light board and that was cool to see his so amped.  So I am officially in PR to surf and do not have a board.  I wasn’t stressing because I am still in PR and love everything else about it besides the surf.

At this point we lucked out with Stefen asking Warls to watch his house while Summer, the baby and him go to Florida for a couple days.  I was invited to join Warls so we could give Jacques and Cora some alone time at their apartment.  Stefen and Summer’s house is amazing and Warls and I appreciate to accommodations.  During our stay there I was able to talk Carlito into leting me use his old board until I figured out what I was going to do about a board.  He was all good with the idea so I was ready for the next swell.  A swell eventually came and it was really fun.  They called the waves to be pretty big, but came up a little shy.  It was still overhead, clean, warm, and sunny.  The reason for me staying here!!  We shot photos with Mark Buondonno.  It was hard to get good ones because this board, I shit you not, weighed about 50 lbs.  I managed to get a couple though and had a blast trying to make this board work.  I had a good turn on what should have been my wave in, but was too excited and needed one last wave.  DUMB.  I bashed my ankle on the board or reef.  It scraped it up a little and it started to swell instantly.  I was again out of the water with an injury.

No waves were in the forecast for about a week so my ankle was able to heal without any stressing on wanting to surf.  By this time I received word from Monica that she was coming back for a visit and was going to bring a board for me from home.  It was perfect to think she was coming back down to hang and was bringing one of my boards that I knew would work.  Thanks Mon, you’re the best!

Old boards suck

Old boards still suck

Now this vacation, in my mind, was to surf when there were waves and relax, relax, relax!  It has been over  a coupe years since I have been in the tropics.  I have been Jersey bound to long, which is not good for anyone’s mental, physical and emotional health. When you are from where I am you know exactly what I am talking about.  I’m sure this is expressed at anyone’s hometown if you are there to long at one time.  Anyway, this was my time for a break and I was taking full advantage of it.

It all started on the plane.  I actually slept the first flight to Orlando, but my friends started the party right away.  Drinks in hand as I wake up, so I didn’t want to miss out anymore and joined the journey.  We met up with the others in Orlando.  We met them on the plane and flew to Ft. Lauderdale in a heartbeat.  I think we were able to suck down one cocktail.  Now in Ft. Lauderdale it was late, but we were all pretty fired up.  The final flight to Aguadilla we met to guys on a one-way trip, but on the same mission at that point of the night as us.  Lets get drunk!  They were able to bring a bottle of  whiskey that they generously shared with all of us.  Thank god because Spirit over charges drinks on there flight.  By the time we arrived, getting yelled at more than once, all of us were feeling great and clueless to how the hell we were getting to where we needed to get.  Warls took charge and pretended he knew Spanish making up words to get a taxi driver.  It worked!  We were on our way.  I believe there was a party that night in Rincon because we couldn’t get a hold of Jacques or Cora, who have been here in PR since November.  They slept right through our calls, but thanks to Warls again we were able to find Stefan at 3:30 am (sorry brotha, but thanks again!) who took us to Jacques to finally crash out.  Well most of us.

We woke up to little Sienna wondering who the hell was all over her floor.  I’m pretty sure she loved all the attention though once we were up.  This is the daughter of Jacques and Cora, who is the most adorable person alive.  I think we had a day or so before we checked into our place in Corcega.  Quez and Cora were amazing to take all of to the beach and let us stay with them until we were settled in.  Good stuff!  The waves were small, but still really fun.  Warls and I spent the whole day in the water, which was amazing, so warm.  The sun attacked us, especially Matt, not putting any sunscreen on.  It was ok though because I would rather be red going on tan than pale.

The next couple days were classic.  The waves were super fun, trade winds, but sizable and ripable beyond belief.  Rights!  You were able to sneak a couple lefts, but if you wanted a good one, go right!  I guess because of it being a little windy, for here, there were no crowds.  We must have surfed 3 or 4 days with just our crew out at times.  There would be a little wobble, but you could just get around it and the next section would be a perfect bowl, then the next, and next and next.  A good vacation with waves always involves cold beer after the long surf, even before the surf too sometimes.  Either way we were on the beach enjoying life.  My friends and I are all good at making this happen.

In Corcega, our place was pretty amazing.  It was a little trendy, actually very trendy, but perfect.  We all fit comfortably and were ready to settle in.  Somehow we met a little Irish fella, Enda, I think the first night, and he was at our place hanging the very next day.  He joined us with most of outings along with Tina, Kim and Whitney, who joined us later also.  At this point it was full beach out party mode.  We did get our surfing in during the day, but ended with a good night out either at a bar, Jacques and Cora’s or at our rental.

This will definitely be trip that will not be forgotten.  I could not have asked for a better crew of people to come down here and have the time we experienced.  When it was time to leave, Warls extended his ticket, and we were all packed up to go.  He drove us all to the airport to find out our flight was cancelled.  We were pissed because it was late, but stoked because we had two more days in PR.  Who wouldn’t be excited to HAVE to stay in PR.  During this time we spent time at a hotel where I met Koren.  She was bartending the day we were supposed to leave.  We talked the whole day and I came up about my thoughts on wanting to stay.  She then mentioned she was going to have a room available a week later.  That was what I need to hear.  I cancelled my flight to stay down here with no return flight.  Was this a good decision?  I still don’t know, but I am enjoying every moment of it.  Money is short, but that’s life.  I have stressed over money most of my life so I might as well do it somewhere I love.