Everyone seems to know Mayo….you mention to anyone it doesn’t seem like anyone says “what is Mayo?” Not sure my bucket list ever included a visit to Mayo, certainly not as a patient, maybe just to take in the architecture and art work everywhere! But 9/20 will be my date to remember as my first trip to Mayo. Since David was still in New York, Jenny drove with me, which was really nice to have the company. Always nice to have some one on one time too! We drove the Malibu that I rented to have while David was gone and it was fine, although very low to get in to, especially with a sore left leg.
We got there in plenty of time for the appointment…I hate being late, especially to doctor appointments. We used valet parking so I did not have to worry about what type of ramp they had for parking and how to get to the building. It really was very slick, and would definitely use it again.
Mayo has just started using metal detectors, so we had to go through those on the way in. No problem for me…Jenny had to have a closer inspection because of her laptop. 🙂 The appointment was in the Gonda building on the 14th floor. This building is huge with quite a bank of elevators! Once on the floor and the area, the waiting area was huge, so I thought oh boy this will be a wait. But we got called in pretty quickly.
The appointment was with Sheri Merten, Nurse Practitioner for Dr. Matthew Houdek, Orthopedic Oncologist. She went over all of the images that they had received from Park Nicollet from the 2 MRIs and the CT scan. She considered this mass an “oddity” and there were a few potentials of what they are seeing: Hematoma, Lympoma or Sarcoma. Sarcoma has 70 different variations. Ms. Merten indicated that a biopsy was definitely needed to narrow down exactly what we are seeing. She did indicate that Dr. Houdek is an expert in sarcoma, and if surgery was needed he would do it, but they also have to consider if the sarcoma has spread to the lungs, which sarcoma can often do. She did go over the CT scan, specifically looking at the lung area, and did see a couple of nodules (2 on the right; 1 on the left) that may be of concern. She asked if we could ask Park Nicollet to push to them a previous CT scan so they can do a closer comparison. When she looked at my notes, she was disappointed to see that we had to come back on Friday for the biopsy, so she did check with her scheduler to see if they could possibly fit me in yet that day. They did call back and said unfortunately they were booked. So it would be back to Mayo on Friday. Soft Tissue biopsy results come back between 2-14 days, and usually the shorter time frame. So again a time to wait!
It was really nice to have Jenny with me. She is in a “watchful wait” with her lymphoma, so she had great questions to ask as follow-up to what Ms. Merten shared with us. She did say that I would be a great hands with Dr. Houdek since he is an expert in this area.
Dandy Ventures 