New York City - Part Two

The Franklin Hotel was very close to the hospital - we told the person at the front desk we were checking out but we might possibly be checking back in that evening. We walked to the hospital, located in the upper east corner of Manhatten, right next to the East River. We found Dr. Kothbauer's office. Of course, we had no appointment, so we asked the receptionist inside the office if we could talk with Dr. Kothbauer - that he knew who we were. She made a phone call, and then Dr. Kothbauer's personal assistant walked into the waiting area. The first thing out of her mouth was, "You are THE Thomas's....the Thomas's from OREGON? I was told just today to start working on your insurance issues. We're not ready for you yet!" We told her about the free airline tickets - we said that we'd waited 8 months already - we were tired of waiting, and Daniel was getting sicker. She replied, "Well, I have no idea yet whether your insurance will cover this hospital stay, or if Dr. Kothbauer even has an opening for you." We told her that it really didn't matter ultimately what our insurance did or did not cover - we would pay for the surgery for the rest of our lives if we had to. She said, "Well....Dr. Kothbauer is in surgery right now - I will send him a message and let him know you're here." She was irritated with us, but we were beyond the point of caring about proper protocol.

A while later, she returned to the waiting area. She said, "Dr. Kothbauer said that a surgery for Thursday has just been cancelled. He told me to schedule Daniel immediately to fill that empty spot. He wants to visit with you as soon as he's finished with surgery. Can you come back in about 2 hours?"

We were so incredibly thankful! A surgery for Daniel on Thursday - words we'd been waiting to hear for way too long! We went out to lunch at a cute little Irish restaurant. Eventually we made the discovery that New York is littered with cute little Irish (and Italian) restaurants. While eating lunch,we realized suddenly that Daniel's biopsy at Doernbecher was scheduled to happen in 2 days! So, Wes called Dr. Selden's office in Portland to let him know of our change of plans. They were shocked and irritated with us - it seemed everyone was that day!

After lunch we made our way back to the hospital. We waited a while longer, and then we were asked to follow the assistant into Dr. Kothbauer's study. It was a comfortable, large room with a couch, pillows, comfy chairs, and pictures plastering the walls - but there were no pictures of Dr. Kothbauer. This is what we discovered that day: Dr. Kothbauer was Dr. Fred Epstein's protege - we were sitting in Dr. Epstein's study - the one we had heard about who could perform spinal cord tumor surgeries, the one our Portland doctors had dismissed and ridiculed as only marginally successful, whose patients ended up paralysed. We could hardly believe it. We were saddened to hear through Dr. Kothbauer that Dr. Epstein had been in a terrible bicycle accident 2 weeks before 9-11-2001. His injuries had left him severely brain-damaged and he would never do surgery again.

Dr. Kothbauer was a younger man in his early 40's with a Swiss/Austrian accent. He just chuckled to himself over the fact that we had taken off for New York without warning. First, he examined Daniel. Then he proceeded to talk to us in detail about the surgery. He asked Daniel, "How do you feel about having a big surgery like this? You will be well taken care of by everyone who works here with me. We will do our very best to make sure you are kept comfortable. But the recovery will be hard and pretty painful, and you will have to WORK hard after the surgery is over to get your strength and coordination back. Daniel, can you be very brave?" Little 7-year-old Daniel said, "Yes, I am ready to have the surgery. I don't want to have the tumor anymore. I am brave." We agreed that indeed, he was.

An appointment was scheduled for Tuesday to have pre-op testing done, an MRI was was scheduled for Wednesday, and the surgery for Thursday. Dr. Kothbauer's assistant gave us the address to the nearest Ronald McDonald house, on the upper East side. It was relatively close, but too far to walk back and forth from each day, so we hailed another cab. The Ronald McDonald house was not beautiful, by any means, but there was one opening for us. They told us we could stay there as long as we needed. After checking in and getting settled there, we had nothing else to do, but explore New York City, and so that's what we did!