Mayo Clinic Day #5

Not much to report, the child went on some tours around the clinic again, we relaxed and enjoyed our time. Doctor told me to go home tomorrow after a final blood test so that we did not have to spend any more $ on hotel bills. He told me that he would call me next week and let me know how it all goes.

I would love to come back to visit Mayo and go sightseeing. There are some really neat tours to go on. Everyone here that we have met has been so night. Even the 2 ladies that we met from our area that were here for treatment were nice.

Our son was blessed by meeting a number of families down at the pool and playing with the kids.

On the homeschooling front we kept seeing people carrying Sonlight bags and name tags on a lot of people. Our son noticed the name tags and read them, he was excited to see that there was a homeschool convention going on that weekend right there. LOL...We could have killed 2 birds with 1 stone had we know that earlier. lol.  Oh, well maybe next year.

So we are about to come to the end of the Mayo Clinic road.

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Mayo Clinic Day 4

We finally felt settled in and had a routine going. I can find my way in the Subway alone (without my child as my guide!) and not get lost, know which set of elevators goes to the 18th floor and such.

Today was a pretty slow day, just had to get a blood test at 8am and 4pm, then collect urine in a jug for 24 hours. The child went on some nice tours of Mayo and a few other local buildings. He had a wonderful time and met a number of people from around the country and other parts of the world. You know how those unsocialized homeschoolers are! lol.

Enjoyed the pool and loved the skylights, relaxed and chatted on the phone with my best girl friends (Brenda, Lee, Sue & Val) under the stars.

Had a bit of a worry when it started sleeting and then snowing, but we lucked out and did not get all the snow that they got up North.

Steroids are finally kicking in and I'm feeling mighty fine!  We actually went jogging in the Subway around 10pm. We spent part of the evening at the library and walking through the mall. This place is like a self contained city.

Below is a picture of the Mayo Brothers that started Mayo Clinic, if you have a chance to read their story (we got it free from the library) it's really interesting. They also were the first to research Cortisol and that is what I am here for. YIPPE!!!  I am so thankful for the 2 doctors that told me to come here, if nothing else we have had a good time and met some very nice folks along the way. And I am blessed with doctors that took the time to get to know me and feel comfortable in telling me that they I needed to look else where for answers to my health issues.
Moe


This picture was on a post card. I could not find this statue or I would have had the child sit on their lap for photo op!

Mayo Clinic Day 2

After swimming in the pool with a bunch of kids for the evening, (I know, I know, unsocialized homeschoolers, you know how we are... LOL) the child fell into bed and slept like a rock. I sat and planned my Mayo Clinic Day 2. I had appointments all days long, seemed like a full time job going from here to there and everywhere. Started out with AM blood work, then an EKG (found out it's only called an EKG here in the US, the rest of the world calls it an ECG), more walking, did I say that we did lots of walking in the Subway? I then went and got a Holter Monitor is a portable device for continuously monitoring various electrical activity of the cardiovascular system for 24 hours, then I had to go to another area to get a 24 hour blood pressure machine. This machine took my blood pressure every 20 minutes from 10pm-7am and then every 10 minutes from 7am-10pm. I ended up with a very bruised arm from this machine and it was SOOO not comfortable to wear. I was instructed to stop moving completely and not talk when the cuff starts inflating. This is really hard...when the machine goes off every 10 minutes! lol. Needless to say I skipped the tours of Mayo Clinic and some sightseeing because I would not have been able to keep up with the group due to my stopping every 10 minutes for my machine. I saw a number of people wearing them too, so it felt good not to be alone :O) After that I had to run back to the hotel, because I had to use the restroom, oh, yeah forgot to say I was doing a 24 hour urine collection so that means going back and forth to the hotel day and night...LOL.

Funny thing happened, well, not funny hahaha at the time, because I was crying. But I was filling my 24 hour urine container when my blood pressure cuff went off and ya know, I was told to stand still and not move when that happens. So I hurried to set my urine container down on the side of the bathtub, and guess what? Whoever designed that bathtub made slanted sides, because my jug slipped into the tub and spilled all over. I cried and cried. All that work for nothing! My wonderful Doctor told me not to worry about it, he said "That just goes to show you are human my friend and you will be staying another day." So we had to stay an extra day to do another collection, thankfully it worked out that it was the collection BEFORE I started taking the steroids or that would have really goofed things up. We had some lunch at the hotel, the child had a $13.00 lunch (not sure if I have ever had a lunch that expensive!) Salmon with fruit chutney, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus and fruit cup. I had leftover pork roast, rice noodles and green beans.

On to the next appointment, I had to go take a class on how to use a Pulse Oximetry is a non-invasive method allowing the monitoring of the saturation of a patients hemoglobin. And I was suppose to sleep with that on for 4-8 hours, yes, oddly enough they expected me to sleep with all that stuff on me and that PINCHING blood pressure cuff that bruised me going off every 20 minutes while I slept. LOL! I did sleep on and off but it was not the greatest of sleep. I think that they should have done that test another night.

Back for more blood work at 4pm and in between all these running back and forth to the hotel room to the bathroom for my 24 hour collection...lol.

Relaxed around the pool talking with a dear homeschooling friend on the phone all the while the unsocialized homeschooler sat in the hot tub chatting with some military guys that were staying at our hotel while they worked on some medical training over at Mayo Clinic. Then he spent some time in the pool playing with some other kids. Then back to the hotel to flip through tons of channels that had nothing on them hahaha, we did find I think at least 4 channels that were in Arabic, which we found sort of cool to watch the ticker at the bottom of the screen since it runs backwards as Arabic is read right to left instead of left to right like English. Then off to bed.
Moe

My Mayo Clinic visit...

Wow, it's really been a whirl wind of activities since I had my colon resection in January 2013.
After having some odd ball symptoms that I have had for many years, my AWESOME surgeon decided that I needed an Endocrinology work up. After that 2 of my doctors told me that I needed to go to Mayo Clinic to get some things checked out since what they think I have is rare. I'm thinking to myself, "Mayo Clinic? It's not like I am dying or have cancer, what on earth am I going there for? Is this really that big of a deal?" The thought is that I have something called Cushing's Syndrome. After contacting Mayo Clinic they wanted to see me in 6 days! I hear that is super fast, normally there is a much longer waiting time.

 

  The drive up was pretty nice, our rental car was not the greatest for comfort and the back drivers side tire was leaking air. We decided to take a side trip on the way there. We stopped at Great River Bluffs State Park where we got to see 9 deer up close as we drove through the park, along with some very pretty bluffs.

As we drove through Madison WI, we waved to our favorite NPR Doc, Zorba Paster from the radio show "On Your Health".

Day 1: spent close to 2 hours with the doctor, taking history as well as him doing his dictation in front of me and asking if I had anything to add or change. Pretty impressive. He was a very nice man and very detailed. I was then given a list of places to go and people to see over the next few days.

We went back to the hotel to relax, the boy swam and we spent the evening flipping through tons of TV channels that had nothing on...lol. Exhibit A of why we don't pay for TV at home :O) We did arise early on a few days to watch 19 Kids & Counting as it was on from 5am-6am. Yes you have to be die hard fans to get up that early to watch a TV show.

Thanks to another homeschooling mom who is a thrifty traveller, we were able to get a great deal on a hotel right across from Mayo Clinic. We started out with an Economy Double Bed room, but after a few nights we decided it was just not working out, so we upgraded to a larger room and spent the rest of our stay in some much needed comfort. I had found some decent rates at an Extended Stay America that was 10 miles from Mayo Clinic. We lived for a month at an Extended Stay America during our adoption process, no frills, no pool, no breakfast, no soap, no shampoo and only clean towels/sheets/maid service every 3 days. So for LESS $$ we got a pool, walking distance to Mayo Clinic, shops, places to eat, computer room, free shuttle to grocery stores and mall, Barnes & Noble, on site public library (this was a hit with the child!). All these places were connected by an underground Subway, so not once did we have to go out into the cold to go anywhere.

We stayed at The Kahler Hotel in the Economy One Double Bed Room according to the hotel website is

"Quaint and functional, these rooms offer guests a cozy environment mixed with a nice assortment of features including a 27-inch TV, a mini-refrigerator, and complimentary high-… View Morespeed internet wi-fi with speeds up to 50Mbps complete." We rented a microwave for $5.00 per day, which was worth it for heating up leftovers. This room was a bit too quaint, about the size of a child's bedroom, very clean and neat, but very small and not enough room on the floor for a cot or sleeping bag. One of us slept either in the office chair or in the bed. This would be great room for a husband/wife to stay in.

We saved on meals by packing a small crockpot, hotplate, egg cooker, a pot and a skillet, along with groceries and dishes. It was wonderful to come back to the hotel in the late afternoon to a crockpot full of delicious food.

We were rubbing elbows with the Mayo Clinic medical students at the hotel, who are the cream of the crop as only 250 are accepted at a time to Mayo's Medical School. They even have their own Mayo Medical School Lounge in the hotel. It was very nice with a full kitchen and living room. We saw many foreign students going in and out of there and the YUMMY smells coming from the kitchen were of an ethnic delight each night.

We met a number of foreign people who were coming to Mayo for treatment as well as we ran into 2 ladies from our home area that were coming for treatment. What a small world we live in!

Our unsocialized homeschooler meet a bunch of kids to swim with at the pool and had a lot of fun with them.

Tomorrow I will share my exciting day of testing.

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