While giving up food is an option to lose weight you may have to ditch the chips with the cookies, imagine being told that you had to get up food in order to live.
"When you are told not to eat, that goes against nature," said Don Young, a TPN patient.
It's natural, tell someone to give up a certain food and suddenly that food is the only thing they want. Don Young spent most of his life not eating -- anything.
"I knew that eating would cause blockage," Don said.
The intestinal blockages Don Young has experienced were caused by Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease which causes painful inflammation to the intestines, resulting in potentially life threatening infections. In Don's case his bowel became diseased and needed to be removed.
"They cut me from stem to stern; they took out 18 feet of small intestines," Don said.
Left with only a few feet of intestines there was only one way to get his nutrition.
"I got all my nutrition from an IV bag -- about 3 liters of fluid, and I would take that over 12 hours," said Don.
It's called TPN, total parenteral nutrition, which means he's fed through an IV. Liquid nutrients are fused directly into his bloodstream. Don's the second-longest survivor on TPN in the United States, and it has taken its toll.
"I'm not the happy person I was before, it's just the shear duration of the time," Don said.
Because his case is so rare -- support is limited.