What's goin on 5-3-2010

Hello friends.

Well we are in the car on the way to Rochester, Minnesota to visit the Mayo Clinic. Julie has been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and has been dealing with symptoms since last September. After changing general practitioners and working with a gastroenterologist we finally got a diagnosis in January of 2010. She has been on several different drug regiments to try to control her symptoms, but we just have not found the right combo or right drugs to manage her problems. For the last several weeks, things have been getting worse instead of better and a week ago Sunday we got to take our second trip to the E.R. This time she was passing large quantities of blood, her blood pressure was through the floor, her temperature was 103, her pulse was way up, and she was severly dehydrated. So they gave her 4 litres of fluid and two units of blood and admitted her to the hospital. She spent a full week with our very kind friends at Salina Regional Health Center. Dr. Ellis did a colonoscopy on Wednesday and said that more than half of Julie's colon is effected and she is 95% sure that it is Crohn's. She has refered us to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Before we could go, they wanted us to do a 5 day regiment of prednisone,flagyl, and high protein diet. They also motiored everything that went in and came out. Needless to say there was a poop chart in the bathroom and whole new rating system to learn. We were so lucky to have SO MANY really fabulous nurses and techs on 4th floor of SRHC. We got spoiled also by lots of guests, flowers, phone calls text messages, and cards. Oh and let me just say, Dr. Allred, Dr. Ellis and Dr. Allsop all rock the freaking house. Thank you so much for helping us navigate this mess, and for keeping us smiling and laughing in the process.
So we did our 5 day regiment and now we are in the car, on our way to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and are really looking forward to getting some more answers. Dr. Ellis has told us that her guess is surgery is a likely option for what comes next, but we will know more tomorrow. They are expecting us about midday tomorrow so we are going to drive as far as we feel like it tonight and then go the rest of the way in the morning.
I will do my very best to keep you updated here on the blog. So check back, leave a comment for Julie and I will pass those along. We so appreciate all your love and prayers. We are lucky to have so many great friends. Oh... also great big giant shout out to Silly Jenn who is going to keep our store running and my girls Sam, Debbi, Amy and Taylor. Thank you so much in advance for keeping the pottery people happy!!