The Vascular Surgeon at Mayo

The next day (I'm behind in my blogging, sorry) I had my big appointment with the surgeon to see what he thought about the SMA syndrome possibility. I puked all morning and was in tons of pain in the same spot on my stomach, just under my ribs. The thought of driving home was maddening. Drive home vs. $160.00 stay at the hotel at Mayo. I bucked up and checked out. If my stomach didn't stop bubbling, I could always check back in.

In the waiting room I couldn't believe what I saw. I felt a sick and demented glee. Someone else was puking in the waiting room. Yes, a fellow puker. I was not alone for the first time ever.

The surgeon's nurse was extremely nice and thorough. She sympathized with me about how long this had gone on. I filled out the easy form they gave me. I wrote that this problem is so bad, the pain, that I am the sickest person I know and that I think I could die from this if it isn't diagnosed.

Looking at the MRI on the computer screen was way awesome, and hey, everything looked perfect to me. The surgeon said I do have the compression thing, don't remember all the lingo, but he didn't think it was causing my pain. It could be, but he didn't think so. He could go in surgically and put a splint inside my vein, but he didn't think it was going to help. I started to ask him questions and he said I had to ask Dr. Hot (gastro dr.)because he was just there for the SMA issue. He said some doctors think that the SMA syndrome doesn't exist because the other two veins are enough to give the body blood.

You mean I bought the domain name smasyndrome.com for nothing? Damn.

Hhmmm, SMA syndrome is supposed to be rare and deadly. How could it not exist? What about all the deaths? Are all of the doctor's at the Mayo Clinic taking acid? Am I taking acid and hallucinating this entire experience? Do I really have to go back to Dr. Hot? He asked me so tell him in one sentence what me problem was at our first meeting. I lifted my shirt and pointed to my sore spot and said "this is trying to kill me". And he didn't re-test me for anything. Just an MRI, colon x-ray and off to rehab and pain management.

It's the Mayo Clinic, they must be right. I took my prescription for rehab and headed home.