Last week Terry had his colonoscopy with the doctor who had figured out the pheo and what was going on with him. By the time he came into the prep room where Terry was getting ready for the procedure, Terry had already talked with the nurse and the anesthesiologist about how rare a pheo is and that they'd never actually seen a patient who had one before. His doctor is a young and enthusiastic surgeon, and was getting a lot of teasing about being so talented from the folks in the operating room before they got started. There is no way to adequately thank him for his insight, as he literally saved Terry's life when it could have easily gone the other way.
The colonoscopy itself went very quickly. The surgeon showed up about 20 minutes after they'd taken Terry, to say he was through with that procedure, but needed to do another one. Terry had vomited blood after they finished, and the doctor wanted to scope his esophagus and look down into his belly to see what was going on. He found one spot on his stomach that showed irritation and could have shed blood, but he didn't feel that was active and bleeding, so he wasn't sure where the blood came from. While he was scoping in there, he also noticed that apparently Terry's stomach is not completely emptying, and there is "backwash" for lack of a better description, that occurs when the stomach tries to empty into the small intestine and flows back in. He didn't feel it was a major concern, but they will continue to monitor that, especially if he continues to have trouble vomiting.
There was a rather large polyp that was removed, but it will be a little while before the biopsy report comes back. All in all, it was a fairly calm appointment, given what Terry's been through, and they still don't know that they've solved all of his vomiting problems. But for now it IS better, and that's a lot to say with as long as it's happened. I'm still not confident they've found all they need to find, but no negative news from the procedure has been good news.
His next appointment is with the endocrinologist who will monitor his thyroid levels and direct the radiation he will undergo for the thyroid cancer.
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