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We had a great time in NY. We did the Met. Museum of Mod. Art, Chinatown, Little Italy, Statue of Liberty, Holocost Museum, Ground Zero, Young Frankenstein(hilarious!!), Wall Street, Museum of Nat. Art& History, Empire State Building, 5th Ave., and Times Square. Might have missed something!
We ate at Ellen's Stardust diner(good recommendation), Ray's pizza x2, Ollies Noodles(best Chinese/Thai food I've ever had), a great place in Little Italy, several delis, etc.. Most of the time when we left the hotel I left my notes on which restaurants to eat at. We were not disappointed with any meals!!
Oh yea, and most importantly I had my appt. with Dr. Boachie. New x-rays were taken and measured at T-62 L-35. Previous x-rays from April '07 were T-64 L-40. Hard to see progression when considering margin of error, slow progression of .5 to 1 degree a year would be hard to see. We were treated very well by the staff. Dr. Boachie proposed fusing T4-L1, a bit less than Dr. Geck(T3-L1) and Dr. Shelekov(T3-L2). He said a hospital stay of 7 days, no rehab or brace, and recommended renting an apartment for a month before returning to Texas. He answered all of our questions, he did not push surgery in any way but said sooner than later is better. On a scale of 1-10 for complicated surgeries he said I am a 3. I felt very comfortable with him.
A few things we are thinking about are the logistics of having surgery so far away. They are going to provide me with a couple of names of women from Texas who had surgery in NY. I would love to here from those of you who traveled long distances. It was a 3 1/2 hour non-stop flight home, not including the 1hr. 40 min. ride to Newark at 5pm or the 1 1/2 hrs. we sat on the tarmac because of high winds. Coming into NYC on Sun. morning was about 20 min. to the hotel, no traffic, so much better.
We met with Lindy and then Theresa(I think). We were prepared, I had read all the comments about her. In the crowded cubicle were 2 women, one with a neat desk, dark curly hair, and a pleasant personality. There was another women in the cubicle with piles and piles and a love for lotion(I counted 7 bottles), short grey hair. My husband and I were both offered chairs and spent about 30 min. talking to the gal with short dark hair. Very pleasant. My husband works in the medical field and is very knowledgable about insurance so they spoke at length. It was a good experience all around. We have United Healthcare so Dr. Boachie would be out of network( so are Geck and Shelekov) the hospital is in network. She is getting a predetermination letter for us. Will see how that goes-expensive!!!
This post is getting long. Right now we are just thinking about everything, weighing the options, and praying about it.
Any info. about your experiences having surgery so far from home would be helpful.
Take care,
Mary
We ate at Ellen's Stardust diner(good recommendation), Ray's pizza x2, Ollies Noodles(best Chinese/Thai food I've ever had), a great place in Little Italy, several delis, etc.. Most of the time when we left the hotel I left my notes on which restaurants to eat at. We were not disappointed with any meals!!
Oh yea, and most importantly I had my appt. with Dr. Boachie. New x-rays were taken and measured at T-62 L-35. Previous x-rays from April '07 were T-64 L-40. Hard to see progression when considering margin of error, slow progression of .5 to 1 degree a year would be hard to see. We were treated very well by the staff. Dr. Boachie proposed fusing T4-L1, a bit less than Dr. Geck(T3-L1) and Dr. Shelekov(T3-L2). He said a hospital stay of 7 days, no rehab or brace, and recommended renting an apartment for a month before returning to Texas. He answered all of our questions, he did not push surgery in any way but said sooner than later is better. On a scale of 1-10 for complicated surgeries he said I am a 3. I felt very comfortable with him.
A few things we are thinking about are the logistics of having surgery so far away. They are going to provide me with a couple of names of women from Texas who had surgery in NY. I would love to here from those of you who traveled long distances. It was a 3 1/2 hour non-stop flight home, not including the 1hr. 40 min. ride to Newark at 5pm or the 1 1/2 hrs. we sat on the tarmac because of high winds. Coming into NYC on Sun. morning was about 20 min. to the hotel, no traffic, so much better.
We met with Lindy and then Theresa(I think). We were prepared, I had read all the comments about her. In the crowded cubicle were 2 women, one with a neat desk, dark curly hair, and a pleasant personality. There was another women in the cubicle with piles and piles and a love for lotion(I counted 7 bottles), short grey hair. My husband and I were both offered chairs and spent about 30 min. talking to the gal with short dark hair. Very pleasant. My husband works in the medical field and is very knowledgable about insurance so they spoke at length. It was a good experience all around. We have United Healthcare so Dr. Boachie would be out of network( so are Geck and Shelekov) the hospital is in network. She is getting a predetermination letter for us. Will see how that goes-expensive!!!
This post is getting long. Right now we are just thinking about everything, weighing the options, and praying about it.
Any info. about your experiences having surgery so far from home would be helpful.
Take care,
Mary
Lynne
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