Sean’s Story

Thanks to Dr. Al-azzawi’s Care I’m Really Looking Forward to Getting Past This, Back to Work and Back to Riding on the Motocross Trails.

I thought I had food poisoning when I was admitted to the emergency room. They diagnosed me with diverticulitis. When they did the scan of my belly they saw I had a lesion on my colon. The lesion was actually what was making me sick and I had to stay in the hospital. That’s when I was referred to Dr. Hayder Al-Azzawi by a family friend who described Dr. Al-Azzawi as the best to see for this type of ailment.

The symptoms I was having from the lesion on my colon included nausea, diarrhea, pain and discomfort. This lasted for four to five consecutive days. When Dr. Al-Azzawi came in to observe me, he immediately knew what it was, that I had a lesion on my colon. He talked with me and explained exactly what needed to be done to fix it, which happened to be surgery. Dr. Al-Azzawi also explained to me the alternatives to surgery. We came to the conclusion together, that surgery was the best option.

I had surgery on a Thursday, went home from the hospital on Friday, and was back to the work the following Monday. I had surgery at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Having never had surgery for anything before, I wasn’t scared, I was actually confident. Having Dr. Al-Azzawi was nice because his bedside manner is pleasant. He is just really a nice guy. Dr. Al-Azzawi is really a very kind guy, who made me feel comfortable.

Dr. Al-Azzawi had to remove a section of my colon. He described the surgery to me up-front, exactly what the procedure was going to be, what to expect, and literally prepared me 100 percent. Dr. Al-Azzawi did the surgery robotically using the da Vinci Xi Robotic Surgical System at Good Samaritan Medical Center. I just had some really small incisions on my stomach which are almost completely gone now, just a month later. Dr. Al-Azzawi even did the incisions in the creases of my stomach, cosmetically, which wasn’t that important to me, but showed me he was really paying attention to detail. The biggest benefit to robotics, in terms of surgery, was the recovery time was cut down. I needed to get back to work. This surgery helped me get right back to work during the busiest time of the year.

I have already referred some family and friends to Dr. Al-Azzawi. He’s great!

If this want’t treated in a timely manner, I could go septic in that area. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection. Sepsis happens when an infection you already have in your skin, lungs, urinary tract or somewhere else – triggers a chain reaction throughout your body.

It (sepsis) can actually be fatal. That’s why Dr. Al-Azzawi said that this is not something (my lesion) that’s going to repair itself.

Today, just a short time after my surgery with Dr. Al-Azzawi, I feel normal again. I ride motocross so I’m looking at getting back into that; I went riding my dirt bike just over a month after the surgery. I ride dirt bikes in motocross recreationally, and thanks to Dr. Al-Azzawi’s care I”m really looking forward to getting past this, back to work and back to riding on the motocross trails.