Mayo: not just a sandwich spread

     Being diagnosed with a serious heart condition changes a lot of things, one of them being the lengths to which Josh and I will go to get medical care that we can trust.  My (previous) cardiologist thought I was nuts for even considering driving to Florida “just” to get another opinion.  But Mayo isn’t just the name of that white stuff you put in potato salad, or if you are my mother, all over your sandwich. 

     Mayo is also the name of 3 hospital centers across the States.  The first Mayo Clinic was opened in Rochester, Minnesota in 1863 with the start of Dr. William Mayo’s practice there.  Dr. Mayo was then joined by his two sons in the 1880s.  As the Mayo family’s dedication to their patients, collaborative approach to knowledge, and love of innovation and the advancement of the science of medicine drew in too many patients to serve, the Mayo family asked other doctors and scientists to join them.  The Mayo Clinic in Rochester has consistently been voted the best hospital in the country by both patients and practitioners over the 150 years they have been in service.

      Integrated, patient centered care is how the Mayo family made their name in medicine and is still the core of the values held by all of the Mayo Clinics: Minnesota, Arizona and the one we went to in Jacksonville, Florida.  If you moved across the country, were then diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and having difficulty finding medical care you could trust what would you do? 

     I’m not always brave but I am consistently stubborn.  I struggle with anxiety if things just don’t make sense to me.  Why am I experiencing heart failure?  What does this mean for my life expectancy?  Am I dying?  If I am expected to live a few years, a decade, until I’m 80, then how does heart failure change the way I will experience that life?  Will I be sick the whole time?  What is happening to me?

     I guess I also struggle with really high expectations of doctors.  I mean, why go to all that school, why choose a career taking care of people if you aren’t dedicated to, well, caring for people?  So, I hear Mayo Clinic and I think, maybe the doctors there won’t patronize me, and maybe I could trust in my care instead of fighting for good care, and maybe, just maybe, we will get some answers.

    Worth a 5 ½-6 hour drive to me.  Unless you drive down on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Then it needs to be worth an 11 hour drive, but, whatever.

     That feeling of a Father’s tender care?  An acquaintance-level person from Josh’s work opening their home to us, 20 minutes from Mayo in Jacksonville, when we can’t afford to stay in even the cheapest hotel.  That same couple buying us dinner Monday night.  We don’t even know them.  Gas at $2.39-2.79 per gallon over a really long drive.  We made a trip from Greenville to Jacksonville with no money in our bank account for the cost of gas, coffee and $3 all-day parking.

  That feeling of hope exploding across your chest?  Passing the entrance with the big stylized marble stones emblazoned with: “patient care”, “research”, “education” and entering the Davis Building connected to a huge hospital and the patients there don’t look afraid.

     We checked in on Monday morning really early; Josh, Matthew and I making a tour of registration just after 7 am.  I had the second appointment of the day with our cardiologist.  The minimum time the doctor spends with each patient? 45 minutes.  Yep!  Not 15 minutes while looking at his watch, 45 minutes and gave us his personal cell number as we were leaving in case we had more questions with the instructions, “Use it, don’t abuse it!”  There was a long waiting room-like couch in each exam room.  All the staff smiled with their eyes.  The doctor was waiting for us as we entered the exam room. 

     Can Mayo open a center in Greenville?