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.