Mayo Trip 3 - Day 1 or 2

Well by now if you are reading this you have most likely already read on Facebook that my test went well this morning.

We arrived in Rochester yesterday (Monday) in order for me to take the preparation for the colonoscopy I had to have this morning. I won't bore you with any details of that other than the prep was awful tasting. It is this nasty bitterness that you have to drink four glasses of. The first two glasses go down somewhat easily even though they don't taste very good. The third glass is a struggle because by now your tastebuds are telling you this stuff isn't any good. The fourth glass is a joke. The gag reflex has kicked in and doesn't want you swallowing this crap anymore. That is really the best way I can describe the taste.

So I had to do that at 6 p.m. and then basically sit around the hotel room. I am still not sure what was more difficult, the drinking of the nastiness or the not being able to eat solid food all day. I woke up this morning for the test feeling like my stomach was going to eat itself because I was straight up depriving it of food.

But after going to bed, I had to wake up at 3 a.m. in order to do a second round of the prep stuff. Yes, another 4 glasses of the nastiness at 3 a.m. I was struggling just to keep my eyes open long enough to drink the stuff and it was even harder to get down the second time.

Woke up at 5:30 a.m. to head over to the hospital for the procedure which went well.

The only bad thing was the doctor was unable to get as far as he wanted to into my small intestine due to the way it was attached when I was a baby after having my surgery. Where they connected the intestines it is in the shape of an L which limited the doctor from getting the camera through there.

Basically what he said was the camera is flexible, but not flexible enough to make it easily through the part that was connected which had its own set of potential problems. By forcing his way through he would risk tearing my bowel which is not something we wanted to deal with. I won't go into detail of what would have happened, but just know it would not have been good and my trip would have been extended for quite some time. So thankfully we had a doctor that knew what he was doing and he decided it wasn't worth the risk and he stopped when he couldn't get any further.

But what he did see he said looked normal and healthy. Which means that my anemia is not being caused by anything in my digestive tract. If you want more details of what was found (and nothing bad was found) just ask me. I don't know that everyone reading this wants to know. LOL. But I have no problem sharing/explaining. Just ask.

After the test I was in recovery for about 40 minutes just to wake up and then back to my room where I got some chicken noodle soup and water and I was on my way.

I was then finally able to get some food which was splendid and that was the end of the day.

Now on Wednesday we go back to see the GI doctor that we met the first time we were here and the one that ordered the colonoscopy. He hopefully will have something to tell us that can get us another step on the road to figuring this out. He will have results from the hematologist as far as the blood work she took.

Remember she was saying she thought I had red cell breakdown somewhere along the process of my red blood cells becoming red blood cells. She had a few ideas of what could be causing the anemia and severe blood loss, and she took 14 vials of blood last time I was here. So tomorrow we get to hear those results and see if they found the cause and maybe a treatment. I am not getting my hopes up, but I am hopeful that we will continue to make progress.

In addition to seeing the GI doc we are also seeing a Nephrologist for my kidney stones. After seeing the Urologist last trip he suggested seeing the nephrologist so we decided while I was here I may as well get everything I have looked at and see if there is something we are missing somewhere.

In all it will just be a bunch of office visits with doctors. I am not sure what else they will have me do if anything, but we will find out tomorrow.

That is it from here for now. Hope this has been helpful in letting you know a little bit of what is going on here with me. While I am happy to be at a place that i feel is making a difference, I am getting tired of having to come up here. I am hoping they figure it out and this could be my last trip up here. I don't like being away from Kayla for days at a time and my bed is much more comfortable than the hotel bed. But at least I have the company of Dad and Bernie. They keep things fun around here. They are good at keeping my spirits up and taking care of me.

They are just another piece of the awesome support I have. I know they are my dad and stepmom so they are supposed to be supportive, but between them and my mom and Kayla and Kayla's family and the rest of my family and all my friends (which all of you are considered my family) you guys certainly make this easier to handle. Cause I won't lie, it hasn't been easy. It has been difficult, but I have kept a positive attitude and kept my eye on the prize or the light at the end of the tunnel. I know there is a light there. I know there is an end to this journey somewhere. And there have been times when it would have been easy to stop traveling the road and give up, but I keep fighting along and know that we will get there soon enough.

So again, as I have said so many times in these blogs and I will continue to say as long as I write them and talk to those of you reading, THANK YOU!! I can't really put it into any other words that sum up my feelings other than thank you and it means the world to have the support.

I hope this finds you all well!!

Until tomorrow...

Mayo Trip 2 - Day 1

As most of you know I made a return trip to the Mayo Clinic today (Tuesday, July 5).

This trip was to see a urologist and a hematologist to see if there was anything going on with my blood loss that tied in to my kidneys or just a problem with my blood completely.

After meeting with the urologist they went through a bunch of CT scans and all my previous blood work to check everything over and determined that they couldn't make a determination without further examination. So it was on to get an MRI for a better look at what was going on with my kidneys.

The urologists were pretty confident though that my kidneys were working like they should and the problem was elsewhere. Either way, it was good to get one more thing looked at and checked off the list.

After the urologist it was on to the hematologist (doctor that studies blood). She was just as nice and helpful as every other doctor we have met here at Mayo. She also had some ideas as to what could be going on.

One thought was that there is a breakdown in my red blood cell process. She said as a body makes red blood cells sometimes it can create antibodies to our own blood causing us to have a breakdown in the process of creating new blood. Hence why my blood count would keep dropping as opposed to increasing as it should be.

She explained it as each blood cell having a protein attached to it and in some cases that protein disappears and then the cell basically gets discarded by the body.

Option two was kind of a two-piece thought. The first part was that my body doesn't know how to use my iron supply correctly which then allows my body to discard iron through my urine. By losing iron it makes me anemic and causes problems.

The second piece of it is that my body doesn't absorb certain vitamins (as we are aware because of my short bowel syndrome) and therefore the iron isn't being used properly. She said there are numerous vitamins that work with other vitamins and parts of the body to make sure iron and other things are used properly or to the fullest extent.

Each of these things are tested through blood work which I will be having done Wednesday morning. Fixes for each of the problems seemed easy enough as she said it would be medicine through an IV. That is easy enough. But first things first, we need to diagnose the problem.

The positive thing was that each doctor once again had the attitude of finding a problem and then curing it. Each doctor has said there is something there that needs to be diagnosed and I get the feeling that they won't stop seeing me until the diagnose the problem and fix it.

So it was a pretty positive day overall. I feel good with what took place. No answers but seemed like we took a pretty good step in the right direction.

I have some more tests tomorrow and then we will see what happens after that.

I do know that I am coming back July 25-27 for sure. That visit will include the balloon assisted colonoscopy as well as more blood work and four doctor appointments. It will be a busy three days, but I am confident and hopeful that it will be a visit that may finally get me on the track to recovery and opposed to still on the track of searching for some answers.

For those of you still reading I say thank you for doing so and I hope this was helpful. And if you want to know anything feel free to ask me via Facebook or email me at barsott1@yahoo.com or call me. I don't mind talking about it.

I also once again say Thanks to everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and sending your best wishes. It is awesome. That is all I can say.

Until tomorrow.