All over again!?

I met a new doctor today. My Crohn's doctor retired, so I was left with mundane task of finding another. I HATE meeting new doctors. I usually see through all their BS and just want to find one that really cares about people. I met three before finding one I liked the first time. The two I didn't like were referred to me from friends/family. I decided to get referrals this time around, again.

This doctor seems great to me and he is the first one I met! He sat down and re-explained everything about crohn's, the way he would for a new patient. He said he wasn't sure what all I have been told or not been told, so he would start at the beginning. He went as far as getting a picture of a body and showing me where food starts traveling from the esophagus to the colon. He was really thorough. He answered all of the questions I had. He even told me that he would allow me to stay on the medicine I am on (even though he would NEVER have recommended it to me). It has not been studied enough, so he wouldn't use it. He was even surprised that the asacol and the steroid I was on even worked. He said that these meds are for the colon, not for the parts where I have crohns.

Then he went through my chart and asked about family history in colon cancer, etc. That's when he stopped and looked at my brothers diagnoses. He asked "This is your brother? He's 27?" I told him that he was and that I am sure his doctors had the same confused look on their faces when they read the results to his numerous tests. He said the word rare quite a few times. He asked me what symptoms my brother was having. Although I wasn't there when he went to the hospital, I did talk to him quite a bit that weekend, so I explained his main complaints and how his lymph nodes were swollen. My doctor was amazed, speechless.

We went on to discuss my disease. He doesn't have any scans or records, so I had to give him all of the information that I had. That's when it happened, the confused look again. He mentioned the word rare a few more times. I mean A FEW more times as we went through my vitamin D levels being low, but my calcium being normal, my crohn's being in the middle part of my small intestines, and the kicker - my crohn's in my esophagus. He stopped and asked me if I knew how many people has crohn's in their esophagus. I told him I was told 5% of patients, he quickly answered "less". At this point I start getting nervous and asked if there is a chance I was misdiagnosed. He highly doubts it, he doesn't seem too concerned.

After hearing how these meds shouldn't work on where I have been told my disease is, I am a little hopeful that maybe I don't truly have crohn's. Maybe I have something much simpler. I know, wishful thinking. It's worth the thought for the next couple months. It will help get me through all of the tests. I have so many tests coming up in the next few weeks. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me!! Maybe this will get me treated a better way. I am very hopeful that he will be the right doctor. Him combined with my RN Rhonda may be the crohn's dream team! If not, who knows, I may be in Orlando to meet the holistic doctor soon!! I feel like I am going through the same things to get diagnosed again, I hope it's worth it.

Please keep me in your prayers the next month, through all my tests.

Also, please keep my mother-in-law in your prayers. She is having a mass removed from her nose/throat cavity next week. We are praying the biopsy comes back benign.