No, it's not a typo. On May 20, I headed up to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. It was time to figure out why I was still not completely back to normal after being so sick in South Carolina. Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers were free to take me, so we shared the first part of the Mayo adventure together. It's a long story with many gory details, so I'll just share the "sweetened condensed" version here.
May 20 - Left Eureka, IL and travelled to Rochester, MN arriving at our hosts' home just after suppertime
May 21 - Arrived at Mayo Clinic around 8:00 a.m. Discovered that all doctors in GI division were at a conference, meaning no chance to get in today.
May 22 - Arrived at Mayo Clinic around 7:00 a.m. to wait as a checker for an appointment. (If you don't have an appointment, you can wait as a checker. They give you a pager, and you just stay in the waiting area until they call you for an appointment. This may take hours or days. You just never know!) No luck today. Bible study in the evening.
May 23 - Arrived at Mayo Clinic around 7:00 a.m. again. Called in for an appointment after waiting for about an hour or so. Not bad! Scheduled for a colonoscopy the following day and referred to another department for further examination. Spent the afternoon waiting for another appointment. No go. Spent evening preparing for colonoscopy. No further details. I don't recommend having this procedure just for fun. However, if you need it... Nothing lasts forever. :-)
May 24 - Colonoscopy at noon. Follow-up appointment with GI around 4:00 p.m. Results seem normal at this point. Further testing will be done on biopsies taken. Mayo closed until Tuesday because of Memorial Day weekend.
May 25 - 27 - Mom and I travel north for the weekend. We spent Friday and Saturday night in Lindstrom, MN with Kim Swanson and her parents. We left on Sunday after Gospel Meeting to take Kim down to Minneapolis so she could catch a flight back to IL on Monday morning. Kyle and Kalynn surprised us by showing up Sunday night as well. They were flying out of Minneapolis on Monday morning as well for an Alaskan cruise. Our time together was short but sweet! After dropping everyone off at the airport on Monday morning, Mom and I explored the Mall of America for part of the day before heading back south to Rochester. A nice weekend.
May 28 - Spent the day at the clinic waiting for an appointment. No luck today.
May 29 - Two appointments today. No conclusions yet. Another GI procedure scheduled for next Monday.
May 30 - Made a trip into Mayo to visit the business office before heading to Eureka, IL for the weekend. A three day weekend must not be wasted!
May 31 - June 2 - Time at home, a funeral, and a long trip back up to MN. (A trip made longer by the fact that I had another "attack" on the way up!) Mayo Clinic, here we come!
June 3 - Small bowel x-ray. Another procedure I would not recommend unless absolutely necessary. Tube inserted into guts by way of nose. Liquid pumped in at rapid speed and pictures taken. Anyway, it doesn't last forever either, and I survived. Follow-up GI appointment in the afternoon. Procedure results normal. Referred to neurology department for autonomic reflex screen to test for POTS.
June 4 - Autonomic reflex screen in the morning. I hardly had to wait at all! Follow-up appointment with neurologist in the afternoon. Diagnosis given: POTS. (You can look it up if you want more details. This is the sweetened condensed version, remember? :-)) Conclusion: Diagnosis of POTS explains many of the random symptoms I have been experiencing for over a year. It has nothing to do with attacks of abdominal pain. We still have to figure that one out. We will try and manage POTS symptoms without medication at present and see how it goes. We are done at Mayo Clinic at present. Yay!
June 5 - Left Rochester in a.m. for Eureka, IL.
And thus ends the sweetened condensed version of my time at Mayo Clinic. It's a good place to go, but I kind of hope I never have to go there again. I'm sure you understand. :-)
P.S. - A few photos taken during the above-mentioned dates.
Traveling through Iowa
Lots of water
Can't miss that barn!
I spent most of my time at the Clinic in one waiting room or another, but here are a few shots of one of the outdoor "lobby" areas.
A shot taken down the road from where our hosts lived
Our trip to Lindstrom
Fleece enjoys the fresh air by the lake
Pretending to be a lifeguard
She was glad for her wool coat. It was a bit chilly.
Fleece's favorite place to ride in the car
Seeing K & K off at the Minneapolis airport
The Mall of America
We spent a good part of the day there and didn't see nearly all of it. I didn't take too many pictures either, but here are a few shots that I snapped of the amusement park area in the center of the mall.
LOTS of Legos!
Taking a break from walking (and giving ourselves a reason to keep walking)
Quite an interesting store. We didn't buy anything.
I forgot to mention that our path crossed with that of my friends Valerie and Grover. They were on their way back to MO from ND. We shared a breakfast treat before heading on our way to Eureka for the second weekend. A special bonus for sure!
Beautiful sky on our way home
Heading back north
This is in Wisconsin.
Can you see the rainbow around the sun?
Powered parachute
Welcome to MN!
And making the final trip back to Illinois
Can you tell we did nothing but sit in waiting rooms and visit doctors? Nothing much to take pictures of in between car trips.
Okay, this post has been long enough. Thanks for hanging in there. :-)
