Memphis Trip Part 2 10/26/10
Someone texted me at 5:30 Memphis time, My mom and James called at 6:30 Memphis time, and we had to get up at 7:00 to make out appointment. Yes I only ended up with about 4 hours of interrupted sleep. We hauled ass to the clinic. We brought all of Toms records with us. Tom registered at the desk, told them we didn't have insurance and would be paying by check and we sat down to wait. It wasn't too long before they called him up to the front desk. "You're not on the schedule today" What?!? We explained what had happened the day before with our Dr's office and that we called and the lady said she put us back on the schedule. Crap. We finally got it straightened out but we had to wait quite awhile. They did his tests for his hearing etc and we sat down to wait. They told Tom that it would be a few hours to see the doctor because he was in surgery and to come back around 2; it was about 10:30.
We decided to go get some breakfast/lunch. We had a list of restaurants that took trade in Memphis so went looking for a close one. We put the address in the GPS and it showed us the way- to an office building? We went across to a hotel, thinking it might be in the hotel. No such luck and the employee had never heard of it. She printed out a map for us anyway. Right across the street ? I talked Tom into going in the building to look. And tada it was the first door on the right as you walked in. And it smelled GREAT! We went in and it was dead- of course it wasn't breakfast hour and it wasn't lunch hour, so we didn't expect much. We ordered breakfast- egg, ham and cheese croissant, a fruit cup, and coffee. This place knew how to make coffee! I had three cups I think- that's a lot for me. It was a great breakfast and Lisa was great. We had a nice conversation.
We decided to ride around a bit and found a Goodwill book store! It was great. Not one book we got was over 3.99. We got knitting books for me, some school books for Thomas, ad some novels for Tom. All in all we spent close to $50. Then we headed back to the clinic as it was about 1:45. We let them know we were back and sat down to watch more Fox news. ARGH 4 hours of Fox news will melt your brain! The front desk wouldn't change the channel though. Tom got called back to see the doctor a a little after 2.
We talked with his nurse, Elizabeth- normal type questions. Then waited for the doctor. He came in and I swear he looked 100 yo; turns out he was only 86. He sat down and asked me to sit on the table next to Tom. He looked over the chart for a few minutes and said,"how would you like to never take any medicine again- those were making the symptoms worse anyway, and never be dizzy again?" Plus we would never have to go back and see him - (a good thing because the office visit was $369). Holy crap- I almost started bawling right then and there. He went on to explain that he was mis-diagnosed 8 years ago, that he really had positional vertigo, not menieres disease. We talked for awhile- even got a little bit of TN history. :) He was a sweet man. His nurse came back in the room and he told her to get us in on today's schedule.
She thought she might not have time to get it done because they stop seeing people in surgery (upstairs) at 3:15 (it was about 3) and we still had to pay the office visit and testing fees ($369) plus talk to the admissions people about the $$$. We waited for the admissions lady and talked to her. The procedure was about $5500 per ear and they were doing both so the total was a bit over 10,000. However, because we were paying cash and wouldn't have to come back and they don't take payments, if we paid then we would only have to pay one surgeons fee, a 20% discount for cash nd something else. The total came to $5214.60. Holy crap! We don't have that kind of maney but I knew we had to do it. My parents had said on Sunday at domino's they would help us out with it so I told Tom I would call them and he should go up to surgery.
I went out to the car and called my Mom,- they were on the way out the door because Adrienne went into labor so they were leaving for NY, she had already called Ellie and worked it out with her. So I got her CC # and gave it to the admissions lady. It was declined. Ahhhh now what. I called mom back and told her and got another CC#. It too was declined. She knew that one had no balance on it. The admissions lady, Lauren I think, tried putting $2000 on each and ta-da it went through. We paid the other $1214. I just had to move money out of my savings- and that was most of it. So he was up in surgery and the procedure was paid for. WOOT!
They told me it would be between 5 & 5:30 when he was done so I headed to Target because I forgot a bunch of stuff- my hairbrush was the main one. I only had one pair of pants- ok I can live for 4 days in the same pair of jeans and socks (forgot those too) but I can not live without brushing my hair for 4 days! And to find another hotel, one that was on the discount list. We couldnm't afford another $100 a night place. I found one for $115 for two nights, I can handle that. Hotel hunting was first- and getting all our stuff to the room, then Target.
I was late getting out of Target- my MIL called because I called her in hysterics because I was so happy- it took me quite awhile to stop crying. So I didn't get back to the clinic before he got out, and he was waiting for me outside. He was still groggy and had a headache- probably because he had holes in his eardrums, but he was stable and feeling better.
We headed out to a place called Patrick's Steaks and Spirits. (tradebank) I had crab-cakes (mmmm) and Tom had prime rib. It was a wonderful dinner at a wonderful place- nice atmosphere, great waiter. I didn't have enough to tip him as I would have liked so I told him I would bring the rest the next night and leave it with his manager.
Went back to the hotel and laid around but had to get out early in the a.m. so we went to bed earlier.
We decided to go get some breakfast/lunch. We had a list of restaurants that took trade in Memphis so went looking for a close one. We put the address in the GPS and it showed us the way- to an office building? We went across to a hotel, thinking it might be in the hotel. No such luck and the employee had never heard of it. She printed out a map for us anyway. Right across the street ? I talked Tom into going in the building to look. And tada it was the first door on the right as you walked in. And it smelled GREAT! We went in and it was dead- of course it wasn't breakfast hour and it wasn't lunch hour, so we didn't expect much. We ordered breakfast- egg, ham and cheese croissant, a fruit cup, and coffee. This place knew how to make coffee! I had three cups I think- that's a lot for me. It was a great breakfast and Lisa was great. We had a nice conversation.
We decided to ride around a bit and found a Goodwill book store! It was great. Not one book we got was over 3.99. We got knitting books for me, some school books for Thomas, ad some novels for Tom. All in all we spent close to $50. Then we headed back to the clinic as it was about 1:45. We let them know we were back and sat down to watch more Fox news. ARGH 4 hours of Fox news will melt your brain! The front desk wouldn't change the channel though. Tom got called back to see the doctor a a little after 2.
We talked with his nurse, Elizabeth- normal type questions. Then waited for the doctor. He came in and I swear he looked 100 yo; turns out he was only 86. He sat down and asked me to sit on the table next to Tom. He looked over the chart for a few minutes and said,"how would you like to never take any medicine again- those were making the symptoms worse anyway, and never be dizzy again?" Plus we would never have to go back and see him - (a good thing because the office visit was $369). Holy crap- I almost started bawling right then and there. He went on to explain that he was mis-diagnosed 8 years ago, that he really had positional vertigo, not menieres disease. We talked for awhile- even got a little bit of TN history. :) He was a sweet man. His nurse came back in the room and he told her to get us in on today's schedule.
She thought she might not have time to get it done because they stop seeing people in surgery (upstairs) at 3:15 (it was about 3) and we still had to pay the office visit and testing fees ($369) plus talk to the admissions people about the $$$. We waited for the admissions lady and talked to her. The procedure was about $5500 per ear and they were doing both so the total was a bit over 10,000. However, because we were paying cash and wouldn't have to come back and they don't take payments, if we paid then we would only have to pay one surgeons fee, a 20% discount for cash nd something else. The total came to $5214.60. Holy crap! We don't have that kind of maney but I knew we had to do it. My parents had said on Sunday at domino's they would help us out with it so I told Tom I would call them and he should go up to surgery.
I went out to the car and called my Mom,- they were on the way out the door because Adrienne went into labor so they were leaving for NY, she had already called Ellie and worked it out with her. So I got her CC # and gave it to the admissions lady. It was declined. Ahhhh now what. I called mom back and told her and got another CC#. It too was declined. She knew that one had no balance on it. The admissions lady, Lauren I think, tried putting $2000 on each and ta-da it went through. We paid the other $1214. I just had to move money out of my savings- and that was most of it. So he was up in surgery and the procedure was paid for. WOOT!
They told me it would be between 5 & 5:30 when he was done so I headed to Target because I forgot a bunch of stuff- my hairbrush was the main one. I only had one pair of pants- ok I can live for 4 days in the same pair of jeans and socks (forgot those too) but I can not live without brushing my hair for 4 days! And to find another hotel, one that was on the discount list. We couldnm't afford another $100 a night place. I found one for $115 for two nights, I can handle that. Hotel hunting was first- and getting all our stuff to the room, then Target.
I was late getting out of Target- my MIL called because I called her in hysterics because I was so happy- it took me quite awhile to stop crying. So I didn't get back to the clinic before he got out, and he was waiting for me outside. He was still groggy and had a headache- probably because he had holes in his eardrums, but he was stable and feeling better.
We headed out to a place called Patrick's Steaks and Spirits. (tradebank) I had crab-cakes (mmmm) and Tom had prime rib. It was a wonderful dinner at a wonderful place- nice atmosphere, great waiter. I didn't have enough to tip him as I would have liked so I told him I would bring the rest the next night and leave it with his manager.
Went back to the hotel and laid around but had to get out early in the a.m. so we went to bed earlier.