On to a specialist...

I don't have a lot of time to fill in the blanks but I wanted to update you on my doctors appointment today.

First things first...my doctor is not very pleased with the local ER doctors. The diagnosis they gave me was inconsistent with the data that they had obtained. They were treating me for infectious colitis when infact, my WBC was completely normal. There was no indication of an infection what so ever. They also gave me a Rx for Vicodin and just sent me home.

After meeting with my doctor today, he confirmed my thoughts. I should not have been given the antibiotics (glad I didn't fill them). I should not be given a narcotic to take away the pain because we don't know what is causing the pain. He is pretty certain that there is something deeper going on and that it more than likely is related to the case of ischemic colitis that I had back in March.

While in the office, he promised that we would get to the bottom of this. He is referring me out to a vascular surgeon who is running some ultrasounds on the iliac and messentary arteries. That appt is Jan. 7th. I will meet with the surgeon the next day and discuss the results and plan of action. I'm also being set up to have a TEE to see if there is anything cardiac related that is causing these issues. In addition to the ten vials of blood they drew in the ER, he also had his staff draw a handful more today. He wants to check my liver enzymes and function tests, he wants to make sure the kidneys are working right and a few other things. From there, we may schedule another consult with a different GI doctor since the last one blew off the pathology reports from March.

If we still have no answers after all of this, then he is referring me to Cleveland to see the "big guns", he says.

In the mean time, he told me that we need to be overly aggressive. If I am feeling pain worsen, I need to head straight to the ER (a different one) and they will contact him for me. He said right now, we are running a risk of bowel perferation and/or loss of bowel and he doesn't want it to come to that.

I'm off to get the children. I'll update more when I can.