{"id":220864,"date":"2024-11-27T07:15:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T12:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=220864"},"modified":"2024-11-27T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T15:02:17","slug":"patient-returns-to-active-lifestyle-i-would-always-go-to-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/11\/patient-returns-to-active-lifestyle-i-would-always-go-to-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient Returns to Active Lifestyle: \u2018I Would Always Go to UConn\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beth Grenham of West Hartford is ready for the holidays, now that she’s fully recovered from a problem from nearly a year ago that landed her in the hospital days before Christmas.<\/p>\n

She credits her care at UConn Health for not only healing her, but also for helping her back to her active lifestyle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Everybody knew what was going on because everybody talked to each other. I can\u2019t say enough about them. — Beth Grenham<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/span><\/p>\n

Eight days before Christmas 2023, Grenham, then 64, had started to notice growing abdominal discomfort. Four days later, she was in the UConn John Dempsey Hospital Emergency Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had children without any anesthesia, and this was nothing like that,\u201d Grenham says. \u201cThis was so much more painful. During the week it got progressively worse. It started on Sunday, and by Wednesday, I was in very bad pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Houman Rezaizadeh is a gastroenterologist who heads UConn Heath’s Esophageal Diseases Center. (Photo by Tina Encarnacion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem was a sigmoid volvulus, meaning part of her large intestine was twisted. This causes obstruction, can hinder the blood supply, and potentially could lead to sepsis.<\/p>\n

Dr. Houman Rezaizadeh<\/a> performed an emergency colonoscopy, which revealed the tissue was still viable, and corrected the problem during the procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince she had a volvulus, if she did not come to the hospital she could have had a bowel perforation, which is very serious and potentially life-threatening,\u201d Rezaizadeh says.<\/p>\n

She woke up relieved of the severe pain, but with a new concern: The nature of her anatomy was such that she was susceptible to having a repeat problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the colon gets unkinked, it\u2019s still lax, so they have to remove that part of the colon because it\u2019s just a matter of time before it does it again,\u201d Grenham says.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Alyson Cunningham is a colorectal surgeon at UConn Health. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s when she met Dr. Alyson Cunningham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there\u2019s a relatively high risk of it recurring, and it could be compromised if it does recur, our recommendation typically is to have a formal colon resection: the surgery to remove that part of the colon that is redundant, during that hospital admission before the patient leaves,\u201d Cunningham says.<\/p>\n

Grenham did not need much convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not going through that again,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a unanimous vote that I could just stay in the hospital and have that part of my colon surgically removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a colorectal surgeon<\/a>, an open sigmoid resection is well within Cunningham\u2019s expertise. The surgery was an unequivocal success.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe recovered remarkably well,\u201d Cunningham says. \u201cShe left one day after surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Dec. 24; instead of a hospital bed, Grenham was able to sleep in her own bed on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nurses and Dr. Cunningham said, \u2018If you take it easy to recover for two weeks, you\u2019re going to be fine; but you\u2019ve got to put the work in on the front end,\u2019\u201d Grenham says.<\/p>\n

For her, that meant stopping herself from her active tendencies. She had to limit physical activity and eat a restricted diet.<\/p>\n

Over several weeks Grenham gradually worked her way back toward being the active person she is. At a follow-up appointment in April, Cunningham told her she doesn\u2019t need to see her until 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would always go to UConn,\u201d Grenham says. \u201cThe gastroenterologists, the surgeons, the dietary people, the nurses \u2014 the nursing care there is phenomenal \u2014 everybody knew what was going on because everybody talked to each other. I can\u2019t say enough about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very blessed with all the people who came through, all the residents, the interns. The fact that it\u2019s a teaching hospital is very important to me, because you get all the young blood in there, and everybody really has that love of learning. They\u2019re glad to be there and they want to make you feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham describes Grenham\u2019s recovery as \u201csmooth and relatively uneventful,\u201d and sees this case as a teachable moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she had not come in at that point, there was a risk of disease progression and then potentially a need for emergency surgery and complicated surgery, and more complicated recovery,\u201d Cunningham says. \u201cIf you\u2019re feeling significantly different than yourself, then it\u2019s worth getting checked out. We\u2019re here and available to evaluate and support people.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learn more about UConn Health\u2019s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergency colonoscopy revealed need for a resection; \u2018I\u2019m very, very blessed\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":220863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2193,2231,1868,2294,2235,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-220864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hartford-county","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-all-surgery","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 15:41:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220864"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221821,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220864\/revisions\/221821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/220863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220864"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=220864"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=220864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}