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Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Near Death
5/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 16, 2002
By Robert Cohn
Boca Raton News
She grabs either end of her baggy shirt and pulls up the cotton fabric just enough to reveal a series of intertwining scars along her abdomen and the lower sides of her belly.
There are no tell-tale points indicating where one wound begins and another ends.
"What do you want to know? Ask me anything," FAU junior third baseman Michelle Shirah says.
In the FAU softball team's media guide, there is an asterisk next to Shirah's 2000 description with the words "red-shirt". More investigating provides that Shirah played in four games, starting one before red-shirting to have surgery.
Surgery?
Shirah was coming off a stellar (emphasize) healthy freshman campaign in which she started 60 of 67 games in 1999 and hit .311 with 60 hits and 10 home runs while earning Atlantic Sun Conference All-Tournament Team honors.
"Ask me anything," she says again.
So where is that missing year?
In August 1999, Shirah, a self-proclaimed "country girl," rejoined FAU for what was supposed to be her sophomore campaign.
A month later, she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the lining (mucosa) of the large intestine (colon) and rectum.
"I got here in August, and we went to the Cleveland Clinic on Sept. 13." She said. "I had been going to a gastroenterologist. But that wasn't doing any good. So I did some research and found the Cleveland Clinic. At the time, there were only two in the nation. And one happened to be down here (Ft. Lauderdale). The doctor came in with the people he was schooling and did a little checkup. Two minutes later, he said, "This girl is going into the hospital. She is on her deathbed."
Shirah went through 10 days of treatment at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital to replenish lost fluids and blood (four pints).
On Sept. 23, 1999 the ill effects of the disease forced doctors to perform a colectomy --- the removal of the entire large intestine.
"In the process, my rectum was deteriorating sotheyhad to give me a ileostomy (bag)," Shirah said. "For six months, I wore it."
Ulcerative colitis, which affects an estimated 35to100 people per 100,000 of the United states population, according to the Cleveland Clinic, usually begins in the rectum and spreads to other segments of the colon.
One of the "most frustrating" aspects of the disease is that patients can go into remission and have sudden flare-ups.
"I was fine up to that point," Shirah said. "I was riding the bike, practicing when I could practice."
On March 1, 2000, Shirah went back for reconstruction of her intestine and rectum.
That's when they took my small intestine and hooked it up to my rectum so I could go normal again," she said.
A day later, Shirah was running a high temperature, vomiting and could not complete a bowel movement.
It turns out, there was a pinhole in the reconstructive connection so small that you couldn't see it.
"But, I was still leaking in my stomach," Shirah remembers. "Because of that, I got gangrene."
Shirah went back into emergency surgery to again deconstruct the intestine from the rectum and was re-equipped with an ileostomy.
Doctors found out where they made the connection. The rectum was not strong enough yet to hold the intestine.
And on July 26, 2000, Shirah had a third reconstructive procedure.
Now she has Crohn's disease---by-product of a year spent suffering through misdiagnosis from her former gastroenterologist.
Crohn's disease is a chronic illness in which the intestine (bowel) becomes inflamed and irritated (marked with sores). Along with ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease is part of a group of diseases known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It can occur at any age, but it is most common between the ages of 15 of 30.
"I have asked why us so many times." Said Shirah's mother, Susan. "She always has been a great kid. She loves life, she loves being around people. And I have always wondered why us?
"When they were pumping the gangrene out of her to save her life, it was truly tough to see a young person that age going through something like that. But she has always been a fighter. She has always got to the end of the road somehow. For her to go through this, and what she has been through, she has become an entirely different person. Being through this has not only made her stronger, it has made her appreciate life more."
Having between 30 to 50 rectum test will do that.
Having to go through six surgeries and four hospital stays will do that.
Having gangrene, a kidney stone and 2 2/1-inch hole in the stomach will do that.
Having to adjust to life with an incurable disease that can flare up at any time can do that.
Having to face death at 19 will do that.
And having to miss out on your life's passion most certainly will do that.
If I didn't go that day to the Cleveland Clinic, tow or three weeks later, I would have been gone. Gone. Gone. Gone," Shirah said, her mother trying to stay strong beside her.
"The whole time I was in the hospital, I kept a Bible next to my bed. I kept a remote control next to my bed. And I kept my (softball) glove with me the whole time. That would have been my 17th year playing softball. I was playing since I was four, so I can't say I didn't get sad."
Shirah rebounded in 2001,starting 50 games while hitting two home runs.
This season, she has appeared in 57 games and is batting .217 in 120 plate appearances with 10 RBIs and two home runs. She is second on the team in stolen bases with four.
"Michelle is a little ball of energy," FAU coach Joan Joyce said. "What she has gone through personally in the last two years is hard for anyone to understand completely. But, she is starting to get it back."
She definitely went through a lot," teammate Nikki Myers added. "I can't imagine having to take a year off like she did. I think she is more confident now. In the beginning, when she first got back I don't think she was very confident. But you can see she is coming around again."
And even the process to "get back" has been a story within itself.
Shirah went from 146 pounds as a freshman to 107 a year later because of extensive steroid use in an attempt to stop the illness from spreading.
She had excessive hair growth. Her face blew out to double its size.
These days, she has to take 12 Pentasa pills as an anti-inflammatory precaution.
she now has control of her bowel movements. Has strength. Has gotten back to a normal weight. And it may sound excessive to use the restroom eight to 12 times a day, but that is in sharp contrast to two years ago, "when I would have to find the bathroom first, no matter where I went."
I would have to wear diapers sometimes," Shirah said. "So this is control for me. I used to have a weak stomach, but not anymore. There is nothing like having the bag pop or waking up in the middle of the night and the bag has come off accidentally and you are all messy."
People with Crohn's disease experience periods of severe symptoms, followed by periods of remission that can last for weeks or years. There is no way to determine when a remission will occur or when symptoms will return.
The cause of Crohn's disease is unknown. It is likely that Crohn's is at least partially an inherited disease that causes an abnormal response of the immune system in the gastrointestine tract.
Even though it cannot cure Crohn's disease, surgery sometimes is needed for patients whose symptoms do not respond to medications. Surgery can be performed to correct perforation, blockage or bleeding in the intestine. Crohn's disease often returns to the area next to where the inflamed part was removed.
Shirah will live the rest of her life knowing there is a 40 percent chance that, by 45, she will have to have her small intestine removed and wear a permanent ileostomy.
"People ask me all thetime if I regret it," Shirah claimed. "I don't regret it at all. I'm glad I'm Michelle Shirah. I'm glad I have Crohn's disease. I'm glad I'm stronger. I'm glad I'm now healthy. Yeah, I have a disease, but I know I'm healthy, I'm a very happy person with Crohn's disease."
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