News from Cleveland

Hi everyone,
We're back from the 2days at Cleveland. We were very fortunate that the weather and roads were clear. There was alot packed in to the 2 days so I'll try to summarize it here:
First was the consult with Dr. Kay. Mainly no news from this appointment because many of the labs have not come back yet. Most of the questions I asked her she had to defer until after she did the tests or received the lab reports. At least we knew that she had been reviewing Jeremy's records and she was trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with him. The place was really packed. It is a very busy practice but they were still able to see us pretty much on schedule.
Next was the bone density test. The preliminary report did not look the best but Dr. Kay said to not worry about it until she reviewed the final report. That was reassuring. It will help to get him off the Prednisone as soon as possible. For now we're just pushing as much calcium as possible for him.
Then he had the MRI MR/CP. He had been with nothing to eat for 6 hours prior to this test and I have to admit he was a real trooper about this. The test showed that he does not have the pancreatic divisum. Unfortunately we had hoped all summer he did have this as this can be surgically repaired. The pancreatitis mystery remains unsolved.
Then we stayed at the home of Janice's boss's sister who lives about 5 minutes from the hospital. Jeremy played their Wii while drinking his colonoscopy prep. This made the whole situation much more bearable for him. The home was beautiful and Suzy and Greg were so kind and easy to talk to. Jeremy called Suzy Aunt Suzy at one point which came natural to him because he does have an Aunt Suzy and Uncle Greg. He did beat them on Mario Kart Wii often but we should note Greg did beat him once! Only because he fell off the ledge twice, though. We were very blessed to be able to spend the evening with such wonderful people and knowing that we were also so close to the hospital.
The next day we arrived at the hospital at 7am and they were starting his procedures by 7:40am. The nurse did give him some grief about being from Michigan, as the big Michigan Vs Ohio State game is this Saturday. She was reassured when we told her we were not Michigan fans. They completed both scopes within an hour and Jeremy was in recovery. Dr. Kay looked happy when she met with us after the procedures. The inflamation was limited to a small spot, no skip spots, esophagus and small intestine looked good. She decided to reduce the Prednisone (steroids) more and told us to call next week to reduce it some more. She wants to wait for the biopsies before she could say anything for sure about the results. We got the impression that she was very positive about what she saw but it's hard to know for sure. So for now, we're more hopeful than we were on Wednedsay.
We really want to let everyone know that our experience at Cleveland Clinic was exceptional this week. The anesthesiologists were able to sedate Jeremy without using a tube that hurt his throat so when he woke up he was not hoarse and not in pain. They ran an IV of pain medication and anti-nausea meds while they had him under for the procedure. When he woke up he was able to start eating cookies, drinking pop and did not feel nauseous at all. This made his recovery much easier than the last time. All of the staff at Cleveland Clinic were very helpful and went out of their way to try and help Jeremy feel more at ease. His recovery was much quicker this time then when he had the procedures done at a different setting last month. We are very thankful for how much better these procedures were for him.
Jeremy is still on a low fat, low fiber diet. Turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans fortunately fall into these categories. We found a low fat pumpkin pie recipe we'll be trying on Thanksgiving.
We are very thankful to God for the many blessings from this visit, the new friends, the start of a good report, very competent doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists, and clear roads. We're very thankful that there was no additional bad news in Cleveland and that there is possibly some good news. We're also very thankful for all the prayers and support from so many great friends.
So if we don't see you this Thanksgiving, we wish you a very special Thanksgiving and we hope that you know that when we are remembering all of our blessings on Thursday, we'll definitely be remembering you.
And before he comes behind me and types it in....yes, Jeremy's mother did type this blog.