Jacksonville Mayo Clinic testing

This has a lot of poop and medical talk so if you’re not interested in getting grossed out just skip this Post and know I will know one way or another my way forward the 8th of August and i will update the blog at that point.  Why did I do this?  For answers as to why I still have bowel issues some 7 years after the journey started. 

We got there before we could check into the hotel so we went to a few thrift shops.  My new friend. I really should have gotten him for $20 :)

How was it?  Horrible. Why? Lots of reasons. First is the number of enemas I had to do and they are very uncomfortable for me. Hate them. I guess I should invest in a real one that is a hanging and not the fleet ones that kill me!  BUT I got to check in the hotel early and do that one there before going to my appointment. 

On to the hospital. Test 1 was a test on my squeeze power. Well they couldn’t get the device in. The poor gal working on it kept ending up in the dead end portion of my bowel. Frustrating and painful. Soooo they had to call the doctor in to help. He was really good got it right in. Sigh. Finished part of that test because of my “complex anatomy” they couldn’t do the ballon test (expulsion test). They were afraid they would damage my bowels if they did that test. Ugh. 

Oh well on to next step - X-ray. I can do that. And I did. Easy and done.  We went to a local restaurant for dinner on the bay - Dock Side. I had shrimp and even ate my fries because I I wanted to!  I was feeling the need for comfort.  I had an egg McMuffin at 6 or 7 am and a salad for lunch in Mayos cafeteria. Is it a good enough justification? Not really but I ate it!!  I wanted to just eat what I wanted. 

Day two was more insults to my body (started with enema #2 the night before and another @10:30am). Then on to the specimen collection which takes a blood test AND poop specimen. Do you see a problem here with how will I possibly give a sample?  Yeah. Me too. So I had the talk to the folks on there. I could mail it in for high cost as it would have to be frozen and overnighted BUT if I sent it on Thursday it may not get here in the right time to the right place. I stressed over it for a while. I had to give blood and have the sample within three days of each other. So I waited to make the decision to stay another night and/or force my bowels to perform before the lab drop off closed at 6pm. 

I had another test at 1pm. That one was horrible. 
It was an MRI to testing function as well. It takes jell in the vagina as well as in my rectum. Yeah. They could NOT get the thing to go IN my rectum. Period. Apparently my scar tissue is very small (small pinky size opening) and would NOT give for anything bigger. Period. Explains why I always have squirrel turds. They won’t come out any bigger because my butt won’t open that big. How scary is that?  After they tried for a bit they once again called in the doctors. I had 4 people trying to get this damn small rubber rounded tip tube to go in a few inches onto my rectum. Sigh. They were to the point of getting a pediatric one. THEN they decided to just remove the tip (which was the size of a thumb maybe) and just try the syringe. It was hard BUT thin. And it worked, they were able to get the jell in and they said that was the most important part. So we moved on with the testing. 

Reading the reports I think function is NOT what it should be (shockingly). BUT we have to wait until the 8th for the final reports. Soooo after all that trauma and two hours in that test due to delays and length of the actual test it was time to eat as I was fasting all day. Test #1 required 12hr fasting and test #2 required 4 hours fasting. So by the time I got out of test 1, there was no eating until it was all done which was now 3:30pm by the time we were done.  

Mayo revamped their cafe in the last 6 years. Very nice! The food choices weren’t the same as before and the prices have certainly gone up, but it was heathy and tasty. 

Loved the fresh avocado!

Walked the grounds a bit between tests. Found a baby gator!

We went to a Greek place for dinner/linner and debated the lack of poop in my body and the stress and strain of trying to poop on demand and I made the choice to stay another night. We both had another change of clothes so it wasn’t a horrible idea. It was either that OR come down another day - a full 4 hrs drive down/back on another day and fasting the whole time. Could I do it? Sure. Was it worth spending another night on hotel and relax a bit?  Yes. 

So I booked the hotel on the beach for a bit more money just so I could walk the beach and relax. I did walk the beach. I laid out by the pool between running upstairs to finish evaluating the blue goo (jell). And by 6:45 I had success with the help of some glycerine suppositories. Will this affect the testing?  Who knows but we do what we have to do to see if we can complete the efforts.   So tomorrow morning I will drop it off at the lab and be done. If it’s not enough we will have a repeat and I’ll know what to expect and plan my own test order!  Had I done THAT test first I would have been fine. It would have worked out well. Sigh. Live and learn. 

All that and we had another dinner out. This time in the beach at the hotels a bar/cafe. So it’s been a nice finish to the horrible testing. AND I’ll know of the nerve thing would even work on me or if the physical device is the answer. Who knows. Maybe neither is the answer at this rate but we shall soon know.

Charleston

On the way to Charleston of course you have to hit an estate sale :) it was a digger for sure as there was NO electricity in the house. HOT!! Than I goodness for phone flashlight!!

I got a few things. 

Coming into Charleston there was a HUGE storm. I did get caught in it but only at the hotel. We were supposed to be in dorms so no one went with me. Drat it!  Oh well. It was interesting training. MORE interesting to meet agents. It was at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. FLETC

Aloft airport was an OK hotel 



Droning in and around the facility was fun. Lots of naval and coast guard folks there. No pictures of the chow hall we were authorized to eat at for ALL meals. 

They had two lines of food. Breakfast sort of duplicated on both sides but as you walked into the lines there was an omelet bar option so I got omelets two mornings. One was even an egg white one :). Lunch had hot foods (menu items) to the right and deli type food to the left with sometimes a Hamburger bar to the center. Not horrible food and good if you’re in the dorms without a car as most were. 

I equate it to typical ship food BUT most haven’t had that. Think better flavor cafeteria foods from your childhood - possibly like a southern buffet with fewer options and lunch ladies to dish out the food. But do NOT ask for white meat when it’s chicken day. Hahaha. I got a crusty look for asking for white meat. LOL. I do t have to see her again so gimme what I will eat, thanks. 

Eating all meals there Didn’t happen as we were at a hotel and going BACK for dinner just didn’t work for us. So we went out an every night!!

Flounder, pimento cheese grits, fried okra @ https://www.pagesokragrill.com/

Nope. Hated it. Hahaha!  I’m NOT a fish person so for me to order fish while out is unusual but fried you can’t go wrong. 

This is Cape Decision. She’s a drive on cargo ship. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:426319/mmsi:366698000/imo:7310911/vessel:CAPE_DECISION

The black hole is where folks can drive LARGE trucks in and out!

Dinner day two was thanks to our hotels manager. The Refuge https://refugeiop.com/

Oysters Rockefeller (cooked with Parmesan cheese and a bit of lemon). Yes I ordered and ate most of this. Worth it!  Butch got Me started on these in Florida. Honestly I liked these better as they were smaller ;)

What? FISH again?  Yep. Trigger fish with crispy brussel sprouts and asparagus

And key lime pie for dessert. It was quite tart!

Better photo of Cape decision) 

Just a fun view while walking to breakfast! 

Closer and better Even. Apparently I liked this ship!!

Wednesday night we had the class “party” - pizza and salad at the hotel bar. Chatting with everyone. It was nice. 

Last night: tattooed Moose at park circle. https://www.tattooedmoose.com/

Funny things. Bar food as seen on Dinners Drive-ins and Dives. 

Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives

Season 13 Episode 6: Meat Madness

Cool cats?  Also had ice cream on the way to the shuttle pickup 


And as I was driving outta town there was a hitch hiker I had to get out and make sure he made it OFF the car and onto the ground. Fun times!

Family dinner- Macon Fry Fight

We did the burger tour of Macon.  Last night was French Fry fight. It was fun. We were able to hit 5 spots. First stop was the favorite dispute the lack of A/C in the building. We do love LaBella always. They were my favorite of the night on flavor. (Nine are our pictures because we were living the moment!)

Next was Rookery: ok but not in my top two/three

First bite seemed to me like a Big Mac but I wasn’t a fan. We DID get some fried pickle spears here as well that were LOVELY. The fries. Meh. 

Next up was a “to go” as time was running out as we started at 6 and most ended at 8pm. We wanted to get at least one dessert fries

We ate them AFTER Fall-Line the raspberry had a weird bitter taste and there was discussion about if there was cinnamon or not. It wasn’t horrible but not a super fan favorite. 

Fall Line was ok as well. The curly fries were a good touch!


After lots of discussion as it was 7:30pm and most would end at 8 or 9. So we talked Angela into going to Piedmont against her will!!  She survived and chatted with her co-workers and I got to enjoy this: 

The mac and cheese with the brisket that was super tender. I was doing good only having one/two fries and mostly topping in the first three. THIS one is where I literally ate 1/2 of this tray!  They were so good!!  Because I had only eaten a few bites of each of the first three without the potatoes I wasn’t as full as the rest. Liz was wanting some Mac and cheese from Piedmont. She and I were the only a bit hungry at the end. So we went and it was worth it. Honestly this was a tie for number one. BUT LaBella won out for the lightness and zip in the flavor. 

We had a good night. We all went home fat and happy. I drove us home at 9:45 which was well past my bed time but it was worth it 😃

Flooring replacement

Well it took a year but the floors and in the house have been replaced. 

There was a lot of back and forth in the amount of cupping being experienced throughout the house. 

1st visit “yep, something is wrong”. 

Independent inspection “yep, something is wrong”. 

     Results stated it was US. (our fault) 

Nope, come take a piece that is warped and tell me it’s NOT the floor “

They came in again with the rep “something is wrong”. 

     We KNOW! 

Last result was “we will replace”. 

Then we found they out NO underlay under this (plastic) and it’s a slab in the south. Of course it will sweat!  And so it began!! 

It physically took three days to complete BUT it’s done!!

Where I worked on Monday. It was NOT really conducive to work, but it let me do what I needed for the day. 

Even relaxing AFTER work was weird. I was in the chair shoved into the table reading updates on Facebook. I looked around and thought “good grief, what a mess!!”

Where they stopped day 1…. Flooring removed in 1/2 the room - replaced in 1/2 where all the furniture is sitting. Naked floors in dining room and living area. The rest jumbled with boxes and furniture. 

Beautiful sunset however. ;)

After we moved all the boxes and stuff from the OTHER side of the house to this end!  What a mess!!

You can see the original red floor of the dining room. 

Day two 

What a mess. 1/2 done with the bedroom. This is where they left off. 

Naked floors 



Who knows WHY they left the potty room undone for the end!  Oh well, what do I care?





Why the fan??  Someone (not me) decided to wash down the shower walls this means the water flooded out UNDER the floor and was a HOT mess. It was moldy under there, meaning this wasn’t the first time this has happened. I blame that person AND crappy installation the first time as they left gap everywhere with lack of 1/4 round throughout. THIS crew fixed that. Thank goodness and added silicone at the shower joint to keep water from seeping under again. 

And with that we’re DONE. Hopefully to NEVER repeat again. The edges all look professional and these guys did a good job. 

The ONLY mishap wasn’t discovered until last night when my bed BROKE. Yep. 10pm and it was broken. 

Not what I planned or wanted but we did a janky repair. The side rail had the actual clip pull out. There were some pins to hold it in place however they either broke or were pulled and twisted in such a way that the clip slid right past them. Sigh. So pulled apart the bed, Butch drilled the pins out and we put some bolts all the through to hold the clip in place. Is it pretty? Not really. Do I care?  Again not really. It will function until we either move to replace the frame on a whim. It’s all good. I was able to finally get to bed by 11pm so not all was lost ;) thank goodness it was fixable.