I can't tell you guys what a good experience this was for me, despite the excrucitaing amount of pain the tests caused. I have never had such good doctors, nurses, and technicians before in my life, and I've seen a lot of medical people. The two doctors, nurse, medical assistant, and x-ray tech that were on my team were all so awesome. The one nurse kept me as distracted as she possibly could (she was so funny) and the one doctor held my hand through the worst of the pain, though I thought it might have been better if it wasn't the surgeon's hand that I was squishing the heck out of.

They definitely found the problem, but NO TUMORS! Still, this whole thing is going to be complicated. It will require 2 surgeries, several weeks apart, since I will have to be totally healed from the first one. And the doctor said the first surgery may or may not improve symptoms. It might even make things worse until they can do the second surgery which will make things better. While I didn't like hearing that, I appreciated his honesty.

Funny thing, I saw this specialist because it would have been September before I could even get into the female doctor (his partner) that the specialist here in town recommended. Well, this doctor will be having her assist on the surgeries, which means I'll be getting the doctor that was originally recommended without having to wait to have seen her. Interesting how life works out sometimes. Plus, did I mention how awesome the male doctor is?

I really liked the hotel we stayed at, The Inn at Virginia Mason. You never even have to go outside to get to the hospital. They are built on this massive hill and there's an elevator that goes from the first floor of the hotel down into the hospital and then you walk a long corridor to get to another elevator that takes you to whatever floor of the hospital you need to be. Which was great, because I never woud have been able to walk up and down that steep hill with my knee.

The hotel was very nice. It was old-fashioned, the closet doors had glass ball door knobs! It was very clean, and our room was a bit minimalist decor wise and amenities wise(had no hair dryer or iron/ironing board), though it had a tv with over 20 channels (we never turned it on) and free WiFi. The beds were comfortable and the bathroom was so big you could have fit another bed in there and still had room to move around. If there's one thing I hate at a hotel, it's a postage stamp sized bathroom. The room itself was quite spacious, too. Couch was kind of hard.

They had a fabulous and reasonably priced restuarant that had the best French Dip sandwich made from sliced prime rib. DH and I split one and it's accompanying stuff. It was quite filling. We had brought our own gallon of milk in a cooler with us from home so we saved a lot on drinks while there. Also instead of getting room service, DH just called it in and then went down to pick it up, saving the surcharge.

On our way down there we stopped at the Alderwood Mall for an hour to avoid the worst of Seattle area rush hour and I found a purse with a long shoulder strap that allows it to go across the body and rest comfortably at the hip. We found it at Macy's. I was so thrilled. It was a little pricy, $78 marked down to $58, but after looking through Nordstrom's ($398 for the only purse I liked there and it was only made from vinyl!), I was happy to find one I liked. The strap is fastened on securely through buckles, it's roomy enough for a paper back, it has all the compartments I like, and it is the most gorgeous shade of blue ever. Plus it's leather. And it was $11 cheaper than the one I found online (not including shipping). The purse department at this Macy's, I swear, was as big as the entire Macy's store in my town.

We spent $350 of our medical travel budget on the hotel, food, and gas. The purse money came out of my clothing replacement fund. I have $50 left so that is going into the EF on Tuesday.