Jimmy Dudley's Road to Recovery

Hi! My name is Anne Olaniyan. I am raising money for a kind young man named Jimmy Dudley. He is a Sycamore High School senior and has been accepted to the University of Cincinnati for their Occupational Therapy program. As a high schooler, he volunteered in Adaptive Physical Education (APE) supporting students on the autism spectrum in and out of school. I have gotten permission from his mother to share his story!

At the end of 2022, Jimmy became exhausted and then started having pain. He lost a ton of weight. He was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He tried a couple of biologic medications, but he failed them all. In March (after 54 days in the hospital) he had a total colectomy (removed colon). He then had a colostomy bag. In June he had surgery to create a jpouch, and still had an ileostomy bag. In October, he connected his jpouch and finally no longer had an ileostomy bag. This was supposed to be the start of returning to a normal life, but his jpouch never functioned properly. After an emergency surgery for a blockage on January 1, 2024, and then emergency surgery for a perforation in his bowels on January 20. He woke up from that surgery with an ileostomy once again. His surgeon thinks his height (Jimmy is 6’3”) is causing the problems as it was difficult to hook up the pouch the way they usually do. He now needs to see a specialist in New York. He will go in April for pre-op appointments. Then go back in June for a big surgery to redo his jpouch (6-week recovery). Then he will go back to New York again in 3-6 months to have the new jpouch hooked up. Jimmy turned 18 in October 2023 and is an amazing young man. He has taken many college classes in high school and despite missing so much school (over 100 nights in the hospital in 2023) will graduate on time. Due to all of the surgeries and the following recovery, he will most likely have to defer his admission for a year.

The money will be used for medical expenses, travel expenses, and lodging for the upcoming procedures in New York.