Cody Updates by Mom

Hello, I am healing pretty good since my reconstruction surgery in September.  I see Dr. Mann again in about 2.5 weeks and we will find out if I am able to have my final reconstruction surgery yet this year.  My hope is that we can.

Last week I ended up back at Mayo.  I was seemingly having issues getting food down again.  I know that waiting too long to contact Michelle can be disastrous so on Wednesday I called.  I had been feeling some slowing through the connection for a couple days and at lunch at work on Wednesday I ended up getting something stuck for a couple hours.  Luckily, I was able to lay down for a bit and let the piece make its way through.  I knew though that I had a problem.  Michelle’s team called me back and got me in for a dilation for Thursday.

It was kind of a reunion of the nurses in the GI floor.  My friend Linda spent the day with me as my driver.  Thank you!!  My nap, however, was very short.  Dr. Martin talked to me in the procedure room and let me know that the balloon went right through so the good news was that I didn’t need to have anything stretched out.  The bad news was that I had the infection back and it was pretty bad.  They had let me know that the symptoms of the infection are similar to getting food stuck so that is why I thought I needed a dilation.  Since this was #4 time that I had candida in my esophagus, Dr. Martin wanted me to see an Infectious Disease doctor to determine how they can deal with this issue.

I had a 2:30 appointment with Michelle anyway so I figured I would start with her.  She agreed with Dr. Martin and put the order in for me to see the infectious disease doctor.  When I went to the appointment desk to get it scheduled, they were able to fit me in right then.  I met two new doctors and they talked about the issues if we were not able to get this infection under control.  Bleeding of the intestine was mentioned and I really didn’t even need that.  I just wanted to feel better.

There is a medication that they typically use for this however I haven’t used it yet as there is a concern with my taking Tamoxifen.  Apparently Tamoxifen can sometimes amplifiy side effects of certain meds.  The drug they wanted to give me has a side effect of slowing down the electrical impulses in my heart.  Yikes.  They want to make sure that I would be able to take the med without any heart issues.  They had an EKG from last year and my heart looked great.  They prescribed the med however they decided that another EKG would be necessary before they would let me take it.  There was also the concern about the ability for this med to be absorbed in my system.  If it didn’t work then they would need to give it to me through an IV.  Ick.  We were going to will this drug to absorb!  They said I should feel better in 3-4 days.  If not, IV meds were the last option.

So, off to another appointment desk we go.  At this appointment desk they asked if I could come back tomorrow for an EKG that literally takes about 5 minutes to do.  Um, nope.  They said, well, if you can walk a couple blocks we can get you in right now.  Perfect!  A lovely walk through “Mayo-land” to get another EKG.  That turned out to be another great test so onto the new med I went.  Jim had already run to get my prescription before we even got home.

I have been on the med now for four days and am feeling much better.  Whew!  We were even able to go hunting with the boys this weekend and I was able to by last night without issue.  The picture is one I took while hunting.  Thought I would share a bit of the beauty we see in the fall.