In his own words…

2019 for my family and I was a big year.  At the beginning of the year, my wife Stefanie and I received the wonderful news that we were to be parents for the first time.  For anyone remembering we all know the excitement of preparing for the first child, work-wise, things were looking good.   

For years I had gut and intestinal issues.  I always thought it had something to do with my service in the Army having been an infantryman who living on ration packs on field exercises which stop you from being regular.  I had bleeding from my bowels not long after I had turned 40 which I assumed was haemorrhoids (I had some removed when I was in my twenties).  So I had a colonoscopy which uncovered I was not suffering from haemorrhoids but was actually had ulcerative colitis.          

Then a week after Anzac Day and whilst getting ready to go away with Army as the Australian Defence Force finance lead on the major Australian-US military exercise, my ulcerative colitis flared significantly.  So significant I was hospitalised with medications that normally controlled it not working.  I went into Concord Repatriation Hospital in my mind I would be home after an overnight stay.  But I didn’t go home,  My colitis got worse by the day and within weeks I lost 20 kg, was being “PICC line being fed” (I was being fed fluids and food directly into a patient’s bloodstream through a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC line) because I couldn’t eat orally and and was told that the aggressive nature of the colitis meant that the medication I was taking would mean I was almost certain to have bowel cancer in ten years.  One way or another I was losing my bowel.   

My world had turned upside down.  Suddenly I was staring down the barrel of being medically discharged in my two jobs, having no income just before a baby was born and having cancer by the time I was 50.  I started researching whether I could still be in the Army and the police force with a stoma bag.  These were dark days.  

They talk about angels who walk amongst us.  Well, my angels were in the form of the Concord Hospital Stoma therapy team of Ian Whiteley, Anne Marie Lyons and Roger Riccardi.  Ian was the first one I met and he told me about this thing called a J-Pouch.  I have to admit that initial meeting I was still stewing about having a stoma bag and it wasn’t until he mentioned I could actually down the track lose the stoma, that I started paying attention.  It wasn’t for the faint hearted when he described the 3 staged surgery (a three stage proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis) including rebuilding a bowel from my small intestine, but in the back of my mind, I had hope.  I had hope I could have some normalcy (ie no bag).  Without hesitation, I asked Ian, “When can we do this?”        

In the meantime, I received calls and messages from as far as Afghanistan and the UAE from my ADF brothers and sisters.  The common message apart from get well soon was “Geez Lammy, I’ve heard of ways to get out of a field exercise but having a bowel removed takes the cake.”  The police messages were similarly tongue in cheek including a bullet proof cover for my stoma.  But aside from these wonderful messages, when I explained the J-Pouch, I received assurances from my respective commanders that I had a job in both the Army and the police force. 

With this in mind, I gave myself a goal to be well enough to drive my wife to the hospital for the birth of my daughter in August, which was only 2 months away.  Over the next few days, Ian, Anne Marie and Roger prepped me for the surgery and what I need to do when I got my stoma.  The surgeon, Associate Professor Matthew Rickard explained to me that after the surgery he wanted me sit up and watch the State of Origin that night as part of my recovery.  The day arrived and when I woke up I was covered in tubes and there was the stoma with the bag that I had feared.  I tried to follow A/Prof Rickard’s instructions but the drugs kicked in and I lasted halfway through the first half of State of Origin 1 (probably a good thing as NSW got pumped that night).     

I then started my rehabilitation with the help from my angels in blue scrubs from the Stoma Therapy team and the staff from Colorectal Department at Ward 1 East.  It is a humbling experience for someone who ran 5 km every day having to learn to walk again with all the tubes attached but my angels helped me through the good and not so good days.  Like everything I knew there would be sacrifices along the way including any ambition to be a competitive eating champion.   My ADF friends asked me to pick a sport I could compete in the Invictus Games during my rehabilitation (I picked ping pong) and it helped with my mindset that I could not fail.   

A few days after going home, I was back at Ward 1 East because I developed a nasty infection which mean a second wound to drain the infection. But I remembered the mantra of “don’t get bitter, get better” and like everything that was thrown at me, my now very pregnant wife, my friends and family and the Concord angels made sure I stayed the course and in August, the first goal I set was achieved when I was able to drive my wife and I for the birth of my daughter, Alexandra.  

There were times where I saw Ian, Anne Marie and Roge more than other members of my family for wound management and other complications that come with getting ready for such a large surgery.   

In my second surgery to rebuild my J-Pouch (which included a night in ICU from a bit of internal bleeding), it coincided with being in hospital for Remembrance Day 2019.  Knowing my military background, the nurses did a really good job of hiding all the tubes and all the equipment I had attached to me so I could actually get dressed in a suit with my medals and attend the service at the hospital memorial with my wife and my three-month-old baby daughter. 

And then the final surgery to remove the bag and I became what my police colleagues called me Detective Dyson as I was now bagless.    

I can happily report that I am now “rollin’ with no colon” and the new plumbing is still working.  The J-Pouch has given me a second chance which I grabbed with both hands.  During the rebuilding process I was notified I was deemed suitable for promotion in the Army and not long after I second surgery in the presence of my long suffering wife and baby daughter, I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and it did not take long before my Army team and I were called upon to deploy as part of  ADF responses to the 2019-20 national bushfire emergency and COVID 19 pandemic, which I considered a career highlight.    

In 2024, my J-Pouch was functioning well enough for me to be able to deploy overseas as part of the ADF assistance to the Solomon Islands Elections in Honiara I was healthy enough and fit enough to deploy with the rest of the force element.  My colleagues didn’t even realise that I’d had the amount of surgery that I’d had, the amount of treatment that I actually did have, which is a testament to the care that I received from the Stomal Therapy and Colorectal team at Concord. 

In my police job I was fit and well enough to be promoted to Detective Sergeant, taking command of one of the investigation teams at the NSW Police Cybercrime Squad.  

The family has expanded with Nicholas aged 3 joining Alexandra aged 5 and I have been able do all the Dad things (both good and bad) with my Lam Chops thanks to my Concord friends.   

My ADF duties take me back to Concord for representational duties at the nearby Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway.  Last Remembrance Day, five years after I hobbled down with my tubes all hidden to attend the service, I came back in full ceremonial uniform, with the medals for the deployments I received after my surgery.  I made sure I visited my angels in blue and thanked them for giving me that second chance and all the opportunities I have been blessed with since I to the hospital with a crook gut.   Not all heroes wear capes, but my heroes wear blue hospital scrubs. 

—     

Andrew Lam was born in Sydney in 1978 and grew up in the small town of Moruya on the south coast of NSW.  Andrew enlisted in the Australian Army Reserve in 1996 and has served in finance and logistics roles and is a Lieutenant Colonel at Headquarters 17th Sustainment Brigade at Randwick Barracks.  

Andrew has deployed on peacekeeping, combat and humanitarian operations at home and abroad, reflecting the operational tempo of the Australian Defence Force has been engaged in recent times.  Lieutenant Colonel Lam has deployed overseas to the Solomon Islands twice (2010 and 2024), Timor Leste (2011-12), Iraq (2015) and domestically within Australia during ADF response to the 2019-20 national bushfire emergency (2020) and COVID 19 pandemic (2020-21). 

Andrew is a criminal investigator with the NSW Police Force since 2000 holding the rank of Detective Sergeant. He has been posted to the Eastwood Local Area Command, South East Asian Crime Squad, Gangs Squad, Homicide Squad and is currently posted as the Cyber Dependent Specialist Investigations Team Leader within the Cybercrime Squad, State Crime Command.        

Andrew is married to Stefanie, who is an IT system specialist at the Sydney Opera House and they are parents to a daughter, Alexandra (5) and a son, Nicholas (3).

June 2025