A Tale Of Two Ostomy Heros

Rob Hill

Rob Hill con­tin­ues to pur­sue his pas­sion for moun­tain climb­ing, even though he suf­fered from Inflam­ma­tory Bowel Dis­ease and is an Osto­m­ate. At 23 years of age, Rob was a strong, healthy ath­lete who had never been sick in his life. Then, con­fronted with daily diar­rhea and sus­tained, stab­bing abdom­i­nal cramps, he was even­tu­ally diag­nosed with Crohns dis­ease and ulcer­a­tive colitis.

As his con­di­tion grew worse, Rob lost 80 pounds and a year and half later his large intes­tine was removed. “When it came down to los­ing my colon or los­ing my life, it wasn’t a hard deci­sion to make.”

Twelve years later Rob is mid­way through a five year cam­paign he calls “No Guts-Know Glory!” Rob is the first Osto­m­ate to climb the Seven Sum­mits. “To think that I have made it to this point is a dream come true. Once I could barely climb up the stairs from the debil­i­tat­ing pain of liv­ing with IBD. Climb­ing moun­tains was some­thing that was hard to imag­ine back then.”

For his inspi­ra­tional efforts, Rob was rec­og­nized by the Crohns and Col­i­tis Foun­da­tion of Amer­ica. Rob con­tin­ues to break down bar­ri­ers for peo­ple liv­ing with intesti­nal dis­eases. “I let peo­ple know that it is okay to talk about these con­di­tions and we shouldn’t hide behind them.”

Rolf Benirschke

Rolf Benirschke is another Osto­m­ate who has per­formed amaz­ing feats. At one time he was an up-and-coming place kicker for the San Diego Charg­ers, earn­ing a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the most accu­rate kick­ers in NFL his­tory. But then a lit­tle under­stood intesti­nal ill­ness turned his life upside down.

He tells his story through his book titled “Alive and Kick­ing.” Despite four major abdom­i­nal surg­eries and wear­ing an Ostomy pouch, he sur­prised his med­ical doc­tors and his Charger team­mates by return­ing to the NFL for seven more sea­sons. Rolf’s story is one of fear and faith. It is a story about the indomitable human spirit that lives in all of us. If you are suf­fer­ing from Crohns or you are plan­ning to have Ostomy surgery this book will be very encour­ag­ing to you.