Man finds love with stranger just weeks after getting anus removed and sewn shut

Pickleball champion Rob Nunnery, 41, traveled to South Africa just weeks after undergoing surgery that removed his rectum and permanently closed his anus. The article says he made the one-way trip after two months, deciding to meet a woman he had connected with on Instagram despite uncertainty about his future. Nunnery had lived for years with perianal Crohn’s disease, beginning with a painful abscess in 2022 and progressing to recurring abscesses, fistulas, and severe infections around the anus and rectum. Specialists at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville diagnosed the condition in May 2023, and he tried medications including Remicade, Rinvoq, and Skyrizi without success. By February 2025, surgeons performed a colostomy to divert waste, but drainage returned, and new fistulas and fevers developed. Despite professional play, including 19 pro titles since 2022 and a Dubai Open win in 2025, he faced a “stark choice” by early 2026: a complete proctectomy. Surgeons at Mayo Clinic performed the operation in January 2026, and the recovery was described as harder than expected.