apprenticeship

We are traveling to Lexington medical center next week for my husbands hip resurfacing with Dr. Gross. We have Oct. 30th & 31st to see Columbia. Any sugestions on things to do. Comedy club, resturants? Places to stay?
Thanks, surface hippy

GoTravel

Columbia where? Please repost with city and state in your heading.

Barbara

It's Columbia, South Carolina.

GoTravel

Stay at the Hampton Inn in The Vista on Gervais Street. It is walking distance to great shopping and dining.

My favorite restaurant is The Motor Supply Company. The Blue something or other (swordfish, sailfish, some kind of fish) is across the street and excellent. There is a tapas restaurant that starts with an "M" right around the corner that is also very good.

I get the award for most vague posting but I swear you'll love The Vista. Don't stay out of town. The Vista is right downtown Columbia. I think Lexington Medical center is clost by.

I hope that isn't a home game weekend.

GoTravel

Just checked, forget about getting a room within 100 miles of Columbia that weekend. It is a home game against Tennessee.

You need to change your appointment or plan on driving there and home on the same day.

beckers2482

This isn't very much help for sightseeing, but I am assuming that your husband will be spending at least one night in the hospital. Most hospitals have hospitality rooms for family members of those who are admitted overnight. They are usually cheaper than hotels, just don't expect any amenities.

If you have tried and there aren't any hotel rooms available, you might also call the hospital/doctor to see if they have any hotels they recommend for hospital visitors. Depending on the level of customer service at the hospital or your doctor's office, they might be willing to call a hotel and explain that you will need overnight accomodations for your husband's medial procedure. If that doesn't work, I would try to call the manager of the hotels and explain your situation - they might be a little more sympathetic if they knew you weren't there just to watch a sporting event.

Also, even if the hotels say they're booked now, keep calling every couple of days to see if anyone has cancelled.

Good luck and best wishes for your husband's speedy recovery!

GoTravel

beckers, USC football games average over 80,000 people at a home game. Over half those people come in from elsewhere.

There will be NO hotel rooms anywhere within a hundred miles and no doctor will be able to find one.

FainaAgain

Apprentice, can you please come back to tell how your husband is feeling? or maybe you can e-mail [email protected]
I know this surgery is still experimental, and would love to know more!

apprenticeship

Thanks for your responses. I did get a room at a Hampton, guess I was lucky with a home game(I'm not into sports,is it football?). FainaAgain, I will have my husband send you a message. He is very excited to have Dr. Gross do his hip resurfacing. He will be off all meds when we get to Columbia, so I'm not sure how much fun he will be on the weekend.
We will check out the Vista area, any other ideas let me know. Thanks

GoTravel

Congrats and good luck. Make sure you check in early. Traffic around the downtown area will be one way into the stadium before the game and one way out after the game. Ask the front desk for details and I hope your husband's surgery goes well!

beckers2482

OK, GoTravel, sorry for trying to help. It was just a suggestion (and in a kind tone, I might add) - you don't have to jump down my throat. And to boot, your hateful remark wasn't even right. Apparently there WERE hotel rooms available. Just because you say there aren't any available rooms doesn't mean apprenticeship should quit trying. It's hard enough having to deal with a loved one's impending surgery - I don't think total discouragement is the appropriate way to respond.

GoTravel

beckers, what are you talking about? No one jumped down your throat.

Have you ever been to a USC football game? If you have, you will understand how over run the city is. There are 20,000 tickets sold to Tennessee fans and those people have to stay somewhere. Half the USC fans live out of town and also have to book hotel rooms.

Restaurants are busy, the roads are packed, hotels sell out, etc.

GoTravel

beckers, go to this link and scroll down to page #4 http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/a...attendance.pdf

Tennessee has the 3rd highest attendence averages in the country for football games and South Carolina is 13th in the country. Tennessee averages over 100,000 people per home game and have a huge traveling average.

Those kind of numbers totally overtake a small town like Columbia.

beckers2482

re: "beckers, USC football games average over 80,000 people at a home game. Over half those people come in from elsewhere.

There will be NO hotel rooms anywhere within a hundred miles and no doctor will be able to find one."

To me, that says, "You idiot, obviously you know nothing about football at USC. Football takes precedence over everything in the world. There is absolutely no way that anyone could ever find a hotel room, so why even try? What a stupid suggestion."

No I haven't been to a USC football game. Have you ever been to an OU game? I know what it's like to have a busy time centered around football. But there is absolutely no reason to post in such a condescending tone and dismiss my suggestions as you did. Obviously, apprenticeship is going to be there one way or the other, and I was trying to help. And I suspect if you will reread the post I am referencing, you will see how it would be easy to read that in a condescending, snotty, know-it-all, holier-than-thou tone.

Again, I know that the football thing is big at USC, and that's fine. But that shouldn't stop us fodorites from offering positive replies with alternative ways to deal with a non-negotiable situation. As I said, it is depressing to hear "So your husband is having surgery? Tough crap, there's a football game that weekend. Have fun sleeping in your car." That is not an appropriate way to respond, in word or in essence. Like I said, I was simply offering suggestions on the chance that one of them might be helpful. There was nothing negative or unhelpful about any of my responses, and there was no call for you to reprimand my suggestions as though I were a four-year-old who misbehaved. It's fine to say, "There's a football game that weekend, so it may be difficult to find a room." But remarks like "There will be NO hotel rooms anywhere within a hundred miles and no doctor will be able to find one" are discouraging in an already difficult time. My suggestons were simply that - suggestions. If the original poster chooses not to try them, that's fine. But it's not your place to say they are invalid. Obviously I wasn't totally wrong - the OP did get a room, after all.

apprenticeship

I appreciate all of the feedback and the lively debate. We did get a chuckle out of it. We are from a small town in Michigan and I am so looking forward to standing up and walking without pain. I'm surprised my wife posted and I'm glad we were lucky enough to get a room on such a busy weekend. We're pulling for USC and maybe we'll try to pick up a couple of scalper tickets after the game starts, cheaper that way. Actually, we would really prefer to tailgate and skip the game. If you think back to previous experiences, that's always the best part of a game anyhow, unless of course you actually were coming to watch the game. Don't want to offend any USC football fans, just thinking about what might be the funnest thing to do without having to walk too far, hip hurts, your know?

njsusan

Is your husband having metal on metal resurfacing?My husband had this done in 2000 by Dr. Mont in Baltimore.

wanderluster

Very interesting thread, in many ways.

Can someone enlighten me about hip resurfacing, what exactly is it ect? Father in law just had hip replacement but I'm sure there must be others here interested, also.

Thanks, and best of luck apprenticeship!

apprenticeship

Yup, metal on metal hip resurfacing. How's your husband doing since his surgery? I assume all is going well and he's happy he found this new technology? I've now become a self taught hip replacement guru from all of the research I've been doing over the last few months. This technology has been in clinical trial for over 5 years in the United States and is expected to become FDA approved within the next year. If you know someone who is under 65 and active who needs a new hip, they must look at hip resurfacing. That's really the audience it helps the most, since it allows you to be more active, with less chance for a failure. I could type for hours with more details, but I'll stop here. To learn more, search Google for "hip resurfacing" and you'll find a lot. Join the Surface Hippy message board on Yahoo and you'll learn even more. Email me directly if you want to know more as well, [email protected].

wanderluster

Apprentice, if you were replying to me (?)it was my father in law, and not my husband. He's doing fine however, but the hip resurfacing sounds like an excellent alternative.

njsusan

My husband is doing great.He went from not being able to cut his own toe nails to being able to do competitive martial arts again.He was 39 when he had it done it changed our lives.Good luck to you both it will be worth it.