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Banks wins battle with ulcerative colitis
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[06/22/08]
By Ernest Bowker
Trey Banks walks gingerly as he gets up to go to his car. A bandage hiding a fresh surgical scar peaks out above the waistabnd of his shorts. It’s hard for Banks to hide the physical signs of what he’s been through the last three years, nor how he feels now.
“I feel great,” said Banks, 24, an assistant soccer coach at Warren Central. “This is the best I’ve ever felt, ever. For three years I was sick and now I’m not sick.”
Banks, a WC graduate, was a student at Ole Miss when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2005. The disease, which affects as many as one million Americans, causes ulcers and inflammation in the lining of the large intestine and rectum. Ulcers form where the swelling has killed cells in the intestine, and can also cause severe cramps, weight loss, diarrhea, bleeding and pus. The disease is not fatal, but if left unchecked it can lead to complications that require major surgery.
That was the case for Banks.
For months, he had felt rundown and lethargic. He played soccer in high school at Warren Central — he graduated in 2002 — but after a couple years at Ole Miss Banks didn’t have the same kind of energy he once did.
“He was very active. When he was in town he’d wake up and meet the Mexican boys and play soccer,” said Richard Banks, Trey’s father. “Then he got to the point where he was too tired. He’d just come home and go to bed, and he stopped all outside activities.”
At school, Trey would often come home from class and head straight to bed. He chalked it up to being out of shape, as well as worn out from going to school and working a part-time job as an assistant soccer coach at Oxford High School. Then, in November 2005, he woke up and realized it was far more than that.
“It was hard to get out of bed. I got in the shower and was just sweating. That made me dizzy, and when I looked in the mirror I looked like a ghost,” he said.
Banks went to the hospital to get checked out. It turned out to be a decision that saved his life.
Over the course of several months, the colitis had caused most of the blood to seep from his body. Banks had four pints of blood left in him, about a third of what a human body normally holds. He needed a 30-hour blood transfusion to replenish his supply.
“I got lucky that I went that day,” Banks said. “I had all the signs and I ignored it. I thought I was just out of shape. If I had gone a couple weeks earlier it wouldn’t have been as bad.”
After two days, Banks was diagnosed with pan-ulcerative colitis, which affects the entire colon rather than less severe forms that attack only parts of it. Pan-ulcerative colitis is the most severe of three types of the disease.
For the next three years, Banks fought the disease with medication. He went to Jackson regularly for steroid treatments that left him just as run down as before, and also posed long-term health risks. Facing that prospect, Banks finally opted for a surgical procedure to remove his intestine and create a pouch on the outside of his stomach. In late May, he went to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Memphis for the operation.
Once on the operating table, however, doctors realized Banks was in a small percentage of patients that the procedure cannot be performed on. They also saw devastation in his colon.
“After he got me on the table, he told me my colon was nonfunctional. I was on the brink of cancer, basically. My colon was black,” Banks said.
The surgeon also noticed something else — the disease hadn’t affected Banks’ rectum. That allowed the doctor to switch gears in mid-operation and perform a different procedure. Rather than create an opening in the stomach, he simply removed Banks’ colon and stretched the small intestine all the way through his body. The end result was a normal, healthy, functioning intestinal tract and the end of his long battle with ulcerative colitis.
“I just got lucky that that part of me wasn’t infected,” Banks said, adding with a smile and a happy, almost wondrous tone, “I’m going to live a normal life with no disease.”
Banks is still recovering at his home in Bovina, but expects to be ready to return to his teaching job at Warren Central when school starts in August and be back on the soccer field when practice starts in October. He’s also urging people who have the same symptoms he did to get checked out. Ulcerative colitis runs in families and most often strikes people between the ages of 15 and 30. Banks was diagnosed when he was 21.
“Don’t be ashamed of it. Don’t ignore it. Go to the doctor and tell them how you’re feeling. This is something you have to take seriously. I don’t want someone to end up like me,” he said. “If you feel sick and crampy and not wanting to do anything, go to the hospital and get it checked. You might be catching it in the early stages.”
“I feel great,” said Banks, 24, an assistant soccer coach at Warren Central. “This is the best I’ve ever felt, ever. For three years I was sick and now I’m not sick.”
Banks, a WC graduate, was a student at Ole Miss when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2005. The disease, which affects as many as one million Americans, causes ulcers and inflammation in the lining of the large intestine and rectum. Ulcers form where the swelling has killed cells in the intestine, and can also cause severe cramps, weight loss, diarrhea, bleeding and pus. The disease is not fatal, but if left unchecked it can lead to complications that require major surgery.
That was the case for Banks.
For months, he had felt rundown and lethargic. He played soccer in high school at Warren Central — he graduated in 2002 — but after a couple years at Ole Miss Banks didn’t have the same kind of energy he once did.
“He was very active. When he was in town he’d wake up and meet the Mexican boys and play soccer,” said Richard Banks, Trey’s father. “Then he got to the point where he was too tired. He’d just come home and go to bed, and he stopped all outside activities.”
At school, Trey would often come home from class and head straight to bed. He chalked it up to being out of shape, as well as worn out from going to school and working a part-time job as an assistant soccer coach at Oxford High School. Then, in November 2005, he woke up and realized it was far more than that.
“It was hard to get out of bed. I got in the shower and was just sweating. That made me dizzy, and when I looked in the mirror I looked like a ghost,” he said.
Banks went to the hospital to get checked out. It turned out to be a decision that saved his life.
Over the course of several months, the colitis had caused most of the blood to seep from his body. Banks had four pints of blood left in him, about a third of what a human body normally holds. He needed a 30-hour blood transfusion to replenish his supply.
“I got lucky that I went that day,” Banks said. “I had all the signs and I ignored it. I thought I was just out of shape. If I had gone a couple weeks earlier it wouldn’t have been as bad.”
After two days, Banks was diagnosed with pan-ulcerative colitis, which affects the entire colon rather than less severe forms that attack only parts of it. Pan-ulcerative colitis is the most severe of three types of the disease.
For the next three years, Banks fought the disease with medication. He went to Jackson regularly for steroid treatments that left him just as run down as before, and also posed long-term health risks. Facing that prospect, Banks finally opted for a surgical procedure to remove his intestine and create a pouch on the outside of his stomach. In late May, he went to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Memphis for the operation.
Once on the operating table, however, doctors realized Banks was in a small percentage of patients that the procedure cannot be performed on. They also saw devastation in his colon.
“After he got me on the table, he told me my colon was nonfunctional. I was on the brink of cancer, basically. My colon was black,” Banks said.
The surgeon also noticed something else — the disease hadn’t affected Banks’ rectum. That allowed the doctor to switch gears in mid-operation and perform a different procedure. Rather than create an opening in the stomach, he simply removed Banks’ colon and stretched the small intestine all the way through his body. The end result was a normal, healthy, functioning intestinal tract and the end of his long battle with ulcerative colitis.
“I just got lucky that that part of me wasn’t infected,” Banks said, adding with a smile and a happy, almost wondrous tone, “I’m going to live a normal life with no disease.”
Banks is still recovering at his home in Bovina, but expects to be ready to return to his teaching job at Warren Central when school starts in August and be back on the soccer field when practice starts in October. He’s also urging people who have the same symptoms he did to get checked out. Ulcerative colitis runs in families and most often strikes people between the ages of 15 and 30. Banks was diagnosed when he was 21.
“Don’t be ashamed of it. Don’t ignore it. Go to the doctor and tell them how you’re feeling. This is something you have to take seriously. I don’t want someone to end up like me,” he said. “If you feel sick and crampy and not wanting to do anything, go to the hospital and get it checked. You might be catching it in the early stages.”
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