MRI Results and Options

I have the MRI done at IMC on a Monday morning. The whole scan takes about 30 minutes. The tech informs me that the Dr.’s office will let me know the results.

I wait for a few days and get another phone call from Dr. Frech on Wednesday afternoon. I know personal phone calls from Dr.’s at this point mean no good news but at the same time I feel some sort of relief that maybe the scan showed something to explain my pain and that I wasn't turning into a lortab junkie. I was right.

He informs me that the scan showed that my liver and biliary ducts are all normal. There are no defects to be found, which officially rules out the Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. He then tells me that where I had my stomach removed (the duodenum part over by my liver) is distended (swelling). He says it is behaving like a kinked hose and not allowing the bile to drain into my intestines. He then proceeds to tell me that my colon is full of stool. A lot of stool. This concerns him tremendously because of my previous bowel habits. He says it isn't normal to go from having diarrhea every day to having a colon full of stool and only having a bowel movement maybe once a week (sorry for those who don’t care to know this). He said that all these factors explain my pain. Vindication!

Options: He goes over a couple of things that we can do right now. He first refills my pain medicine (thankfully). There are only 2 options at this point. The first being they can go in with a scope and try to dilate the kink open. He doesn't think that this will work though because of how complex my newly arranged anatomy is. Also, the scope may not be long enough to get in there and actually do something. The second option is to have surgery again. Dr. Rasmussen will have to go in and revise that area (not too sure on how this will all work yet). Dr. Frech wants to first talk to Dr. R before proceeding with any treatment first. He says since Dr. R was the one who did the surgery, he should have a say in how it gets fixed. Unfortunately for me, Dr. R is out of town for Spring Break so I have to wait until next week before they talk and any decision can be made. Dr. Frech also doesn't want the feeding tube pulled yet. If we proceed with surgery (which sounds like Dr. Frech is leaning towards) the stomach feeding tube can be placed at the same time the revision is done. He also completely takes me off welchol and adds MiraLax to the mix.

I have an appointment with Dr. Rasmussen next week. I am hoping that both Dr.’s will have talked by then and a decision can be made. I want to proceed fairly rapidly at this point. I have a lot going on this summer and I am SO over the sick phase!!