New Doc is AWESOME!!

Yesterday Rick and I met with his new primary care physician. Dr Yates is an internal medicine doctor that is a much more specialized primary care doctor that completely understands the entire picture of Rick's health. He was so AWESOME! We were both very impressed with him and his nurse. We have seen so many doctors that we know when a doctor is going to "get it". And Dr Yates definitely "gets it"! He was very impressed with our knowledge of Rick's health and he talked with us for more than 45 minutes. The funniest part was that both the nurse and doctor both told us, at separate times, not to be afraid of all the old people in the waiting room. The nurse said she really likes to see young people. Since an internist usually sees people with lots of medical conditions that means that the majority of the patients are older. Lucky us. Dr Yates said he was baffled by the missing spleen as well, but because the ultrasound showed blood flow through the splenic vein there must be a spleen in there somewhere. He also suggested that Rick get another colonoscopy sooner rather than later so we will be bringing that up with the GI doc Dr Houglum.

Lucky Rick also got to have a tetanus shot and pneumonia vaccine. Since he is immune compromised the doctor thought it was a good idea to get the pneumonia vaccine. He also suggested that at some point in the near future Rick should have a bone density scan because Crohn's disease can deplete the calcium in the body. And the use of prednisone, although not all the time, can also cause a depletion of bones. So that was a new suggestion that we hadn't heard before, but I think it is a good idea.

So Dr Yates said that he wants to be kept in the loop concerning anything the other doctor's order. So he will be cc'd all the blood work and doctor visits. And if anything shows up that he thinks is suspicious, even if he isn't the one that ordered it, he will call to make sure the other doctor's caught it. I think that is great to have someone else double checking everything. It is nice to have a doctor so interested in the case.

He is very aware of the gravity (his word) of the PSC diagnosis and doesn't want to take anything lightly. He was very impressed that we went to the Mayo Clinic. And he was very interested in what Dr Lindor at Mayo had found.

So after that appointment Rick had his blood work done to check the low counts and we have yet to hear from that doctor. So as soon as anything comes back on that I will let you know.

Thanks for following this journey with us. I know it sounds overwhelming and I am very grateful for those of you that are still interested in reading all of this. It has been a great outlet for me.

Until next time,
Jaime