I didn't tell you quite everything yesterday ( an update from today)...

i didn't tell you all absolutely everything yesterday and that's OK. You must realize how much information was being thrown at us at once and how overwelming it all was. Plus, I wasn't quite ready to let my mind go there, not yet ( but now I'm good)

When the doctor was doing a history with Bri of all his symtoms, Bri told about chronic and very painful heartburn he used to get on his long runs when he was training for his half marathon ( the pain was so bad and so consistant everytime he ran, he stopped training). His nurse practioner mentioned that could be an early sign of some GI/reflux issues. When his doctor yesterday heard it, his first response was, " Why did you think it was a GI issue and not a heart issue?"

Huh? A heart issue?

Literally the night before we headed to IC, Brian was doing research on-line about some biliary conditions and the literature he was reading ( ironically from Univ of Iowa) said that some heart conditions can be masked as GI issues.

We moved on to other things with the intention of coming back to it and discussing what we needed to do to rule out a heart condition. Just this summer alone, we learned of two very young and very in shape men in their early 30's running and having heart attacks. One died. It was scary to even begin to think about. This could be something else completely that we never ever ever considered.

We ended up leaving in a hurry at 6:15 last night and forgetting to revisit the topic of Brian's heart. When we got home and were rehashing everything with my aunt and cousins, we realized we hadn't talked done anything about it and Brian wrote it on his list to talk about when he returned to the hospital this morning.

Today was a wonderful day! He went to the hospital this morning by himself because he thought he was simply getting a few labs and then coming home to grab the kids so we could head back to IL. When he got there and completed his labs ( which we'll know results from on Monday), he told the receptionist he had some questions for his doctor and wanted to speak to the nurse. She asked him to come back and within seconds, once again- Brian realized how great of a place we were in.

Before Brian could even begin to ask about his heart and if he should have any test done with his primary physician back in IL, the nurse, Mary said that the doctor must have been thinking about him in the night because when she arrived to work this morning, there were orders for some heart tests. The doctor wanted Brian to do a stress test today- this morning- so they could have a clear picture of his heart and be able to cross something pretty serious off his list. Also, the doctor must have changed his mind in the night about waiting for 3 liver enzyme labs before scheduling any proceedures because there were orders in the system already to schedule two proceedures. They were scheduled for November 12th!!!!!! ALREADY!!!!!!!

So, first off, the stress test! He came back to Auntie Doris' house and picked me up so i could be with him. He had to get his chest shaved and put about 10 of those little sticker things on and was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and told to walk or run on an incline for awhile to overwork the heart and cause it some distress so they could see what happens. Since Brian is in pretty great shape, he ended up running on a steep incline for 13 minutes before he hit his limit and they said they had the right information. The technician came out within 5 minutes to tell us that his heart was in excellent shape! THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ran the report over to Brians' doctor's office and headed back to Auntie Doris'.

The proceedures on the 12th are a big deal and we are SO excited that they have been scheduled already. He will have two proceedures. The first one is called a Secretin Stimulation test. Its an ultrasound. They will inject a hormone to stimulate the pancreas. Then they will look and measure the dialation of the common bile and pancreas ducts. If either duct dialates too much, there is a problem in the Sphyncter of Oddi and we'll know how to proceed.

The other is called The Hopkins Protocol HIDA Scan. For this one, they inject a radioactive isotope into the body. Then they measure how long it takes for the isotope to get to the liver and then the intestines. They are reading how fast the ducts are processing a substance to again see if there is a dysfunction. Also while in there, they will see if there is a stone in the bile duct and be able to peak at the liver too. Based on the information gathered from those two tests, we'll have a very specific plan!

So, he went to the hospital thinking he was going to be there having one set of labs and ended up doing heart testing and getting some amazing future tests scheduled. We found out his heart is in great shape and we now know exactly when we are returning- and it's only 3 weeks away! Not bad for a day at the doctor's office!