NCC - Dr. Milhorat visit - Part 1: Getting There

[Guest guest]

Hi kids,

Last week I returned to California from my trip to New York and a visit to

see Dr. Milhorat. My wife, Casey, acommpanied me and our other family

members were parked here and there near home with friends. Both my wife

and I have been to New York several times before but this was the first

time we were going there together. I decided to make the trip one week in

length. leaving and returning on a Tuesday. Because of the time and

expense of seeing Dr. M I hoped that by staying a little longer I could see

a bit of New York city with my wife.

Dr. Milhorat had my originally scheduled appointment moved up in time from

August to late June due to a schedule conflict. Fortunately we hadn't

secured airline tickets yet but with the date change it meant that the

cheaper air fares were already booked up for June. We wound up having to

pay a bit more than we wanted but it was all that was available and best of

all we had nonstop round trip tickets between San Francisco and Newark, NJ.

I have no complaints about Continental Airlines itself, but the flight was

completely sold out and that made the flight experience horrible for me.

Casey sat in a middle seat and I was on the aisle, everone and everything

bumped my shoulder and arm as they passed by. I am over 6ft. 2in. tall and

275lbs. so I was literally jammed into my seat with nowhere to put my

appendages - arms held close to my sides, kness pressed into the seatback

in front of me, my butt wedged wall-to-wall into a skinny seat. I promised

myself this was my last cattle car flight.

Back in the 'old days' of government regulated airline flights when I

traveled extensively throughout the country because of my projects,

airtravel was a lot easier. More than once I remember flying 'red eye'

flights home on wide bodied jets where I would flip up all the armrests in

the middle section of seats, lay down across all four or five seats with

those tiny blankets and pillows, put in earplugs and sleep. I also learned

which rows the different airlines had exits, since there were a few more

inches of space between the seats on these exit aisles which meant more leg

room for me.

Well forget all that, this is the end of the nineties, isn't it? For

openers they don't put disabled people on exit aisles - might get in the

way of others. So 'lunch' comes and there isn't enough room to fully lower

my tray table because my knees are too high. What was I supposed to do

with them? Can't go to the left, that was where my wife was sitting and

she has legs and feet too. Can't put my feet under the seat in front of me

because I am too close to it and my legs would require and extra set of

joints to make that work. Can't put them out in the aisles because .....

you get the idea. No point boring you with my efforts at dealing with 'a

meal in miniature' on a sloping surface, but let it suffice to say that it

was far from the best airline food experience I ever had.

The flight was uneventful except to say you can't watch an inflight movie

on a 9 inch screen placed three rows in front of you when the guy in the

window seat in the row ahead of you refuses to close his window shade so

the glare is enourmous and you can't find the movie sound track because the

damn dial is on the inside face of your armrest which is locked up close to

your waist because the seat is too narrow. So, possible diversion effect

is unavailable/unwatchable ('Shakespeare In Love' in this case <sniff>).

Were airline toilets always this small?!?

When I purchased my air tickets I also arranged reservations for a Hertz

rental car when we got to Newark. I thought I had a guarenteed rate and I

had a reservation confirmation number. Guess what happened? Oh, you've

traveled before too? Right, no record of my reservation, my confirmation

number is invalid ( " our numbers don't start with a letter " ) and the rate

for a week is too low ( " we will need another $125 to rent to you " ).

We are lucky because Casey has a very good friend that lives in Glen Rock

New Jersey, about half an hour ouside of Manhattan. We were going to stay

as her house guest during the time of our trip. After this attempted

robbery by Hertz we called her and she came and got us. Thank God, it was

wonderful to be able to do this, needless to say. On the way home to our

friend's house I mentally compose the scathing messages I'm going to send

people because of our rental car fiasco. In my mind I see weeping in the

corporate boardroom and banishment for high ranked executives. Ah, it's

going to be something, once I get past the neverending busy signal on the

phone ....

Our New Jersey friend told us it was probably just as well we didn't get

the rental car. She recommended we hire a limosine (common in that area)

to take us to Milhorat's office and back. It would be necessary to go from

our friend's home, through south Manhattan and then to Brooklyn. So we

agreed. She arranged pickup by a reputable limo service (never late, tips

included in cost) and we were taken to brooklyn in the back of a black

Lincoln Continental who's driver acommodatingly used the less convenient

Brooklyn Bridge (great to see for this old architect/engineer) to get to

Brooklyn. Took almost two hours and two wrong turns by a seasoned local

driver to travel the estimated 35 mile trip which started at 12 noon on a

Thursday.

For an address we had the mailing address: 450 son Ave. That's not

where you want to go. It's on the 'wrong' side of the building complex.

This is the desparate, depressed, almost nameless and littered side of the

facility. The guard just inside the door had never heard of Dr. Milhorat.

He fumbled with a directory for a while, asked at least three times how to

spell the name and I began to suspect that he didn't know how to read very

well. Finally Casey took the directory, found the Milhorat listing and the

guard gave us directions - " Down there.....take elevator......fe..th

floor. " " He said fourth floor, right? " " No, I thought he said fifth

floor. " Everywhere there seem to be desparate looking, disenfranchised

people swept along by unseen forces. Eye contact was rare. Everyone made

a show of knowing where they were going and what they were doing as if any

sign of doubt or hesitation would be a fatal sign of weakness and

vulnerability. God forbid, some security dweeb should challenge us with

" Where are you going? What do you want? " and then the truth would be known

that I was secretly afraid and doubtful. There was lots of fear here, a

pervading sense that somehow the sheer size of this great huge institution

could easily crush and destroy a single person's life force without concern

over ever being prosecuted for its mistake. One could just vanish here, as

if never having existed. No explanation, no remainder, no investigation,

no hope of being found.

We arrived at the, uh upper floor and there was this strange

silverware/silver service sale going on in the corridor. Folding tables

with table cloths, lots of silver stuff - candlesticks, chafing dishes,

picture frames - all in silver and interested people handling the material,

talking, bartering I guess, filling their eyes with silver bright

excitement. It is hard for me to get past, such is the intensity of the

participants and such is the lack of passageway width. Just past this

'markt' a large, friendly blonde haired lady looks at us quickly and asks

" are you looking for Dr. Milhorat's office? " Why yes, what good fortune to

have met this lady here, so close to the bazaar in the corridor. We learn

we have come in the wrong way and she leads us through doorways, down more

corridoors and finally indicates the door we should enter, a welcome sight,

this port in the storm of unfamiliararity. Casey and I enter an office

where two ladies at busy looking desks look up at us questioningly and I

feel the need to respond, " did we come in the wrong door? " No, not at all

says one after a quick introduction and indicates we should go thataway and

wait. We go past the desks to an interior passageway, passing some office

equipment and we discover ourselves in a large conference room. Pictures

and books line two walls and windows open views towards Brooklyn. THe

color scheme is black and white but mostly black. Not an unpleasant scheme

but not exactly modern and smooth either. I'm feeling underwhelmed by it

all. We learn how to increase the air conditioning cooling and we wait and

speculate on things for the next 35 minutes or so while we wait for Dr.

Milhorat. A lady comes in and gives a form and pen to Casey for

completion. This is a mistake, since I am the patient and not my wife. My

wife figures that with my strange first name and the fact that most chiari

patients are female the error seems understandable. At last we are told we

can go in to Dr. Milhorate's office and we go.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

eGroups.com home: /group/chiari

- Simplifying group communications