…or so my husband thinks. I think that if Memphis residents came to Paducah to a few days, they’d think we were crazy drivers. Other than the traffic, we had a good time.

We arrived at The Shea Ear Clinic in Memphis at 12:45pm, right on time for my appointment. We were there for a total of 4 hours, two tests, a visit with the nurse, and finally a visit with Dr. Paul Shea himself. I had been told, when I made my appointment, that after the examination I would have my first injection, the second on Thursday morning, and the third and final on Friday morning. However, we discovered that the person who told me that on the phone made a mistake. They only did injections in the mornings. After weighing our options, 1) I could come back next Wednesday morning at 9am for my first injection, etc, or 2) I could start my injections the next morning, Thursday, and only do two injections, doubling the doses. The choice was obvious. We had already booked and paid for our hotel room for two nights plus, drove 3 hours and 45 minutes down to Memphis.

After we left the clinic around 5pm we headed to the hotel and checked in. I wasn’t feeling too hot due to the tests they ran during my appointment so I laid down for a few hours before we got hungry enough to find food. Even though neither Neil or I had ever spent much time in Memphis before and there were several restaurants we knew we had to try, we ate at none other than Oliver Garden. We are creatures of habit, what can I say? We stayed in for the rest of the night and watched Love and Other Drugs. I don’t recommend that movie, just to let you know.

Thursday, I checked into the clinic at 9am and I was escorted directly to the pre-op/post-op room where a nurse started an IV in my right hand. I’ve had two IVs started before, when I got my wisdom teeth removed and when I donated my eggs, but this one hurt. Like whoa. Which caused it to hurt more than it normally would for the next 24+ hours. Needless to say, I did not sleep well Thursday night. I waited only 45 minutes before they took me to the OR and sedated me with Versed. Not that I remember but, the procedure only lasted 10 minutes but I stayed sedated for an hour. I still had an hour to lie with my left ear up so I just went back to sleep. The nurse woke me up around noon and told me to come back the next morning, same time, same place, for the same thing.

There was a risk with receiving double doses, vertigo and fullness for a few days. I was lucky that I only experienced fullness in my left ear after the first injection so after lunch at Corky’s we headed to The Victorian Village for a tour. I love vintage architecture, especially from the Victorian era, so the house we toured was like a candy store for me.

Cute little doll house in the back yard!

The house next door

Can you believe that this house is 140 years old??

The tour lasted only an hour so we had time for some more tourist-y activities but the fullness in my was starting to bother me. We headed back to the hotel until dinner time, when we went to Memphis Pizza Cafe. On our way back to the hotel Neil ran into Muddy’s Bake Shop and got me a cupcake because Cristin said I HAD to try one. And I’m so glad I did because it was yummy! We watched TV back at the hotel until it was time for bed.

Friday morning, I was back at the clinic for my second and final injection. This time I had to wait 2 hours before they took me back into the OR, which caused us to leave Memphis late, which caused Neil to have to call into work. Oh well. We didn’t just spend over $1,500 and actually need that money.