[mommieswamie]

Obviously, I am not a doctor nor do I have any medical training, but the desperation expressed by your question really hit home.

After 4 hospitalizations in the last 2 1/2 months, 2 picc lines, 2 rounds of home health nurses, constant antibiotics the entire time, all 4 hospital admissions through the ER, one ambulance ride, 1 blood clot and an infection that is just as bad today as it ever was, yesterday I picked up the phone and called Mayo Clinic.

You do not need a referral from a primary care. While everyone's situation is different, just tell them your situation and that you want an appointment. The schedulers may need various things from you in advance, but they are the nicest most understanding people ever.

Some little tips about going to Mayo based on personal experience (I took my husband there 25+ times over several years before we had to make the "long term care" decision.) When you see the appropriate doctor for your first appointment, he will very likely order blood work, x-rays, etc, etc. The scheduler in your first doctor's department will make all these follow-up appointments for you. Do not be discouraged when she hands you a schedule with various things spread out over the next few weeks. Everything has to be on the schedule before anything can happen. There is a wonderful thing called "stand by." Each department at Mayo has their own procedures regarding this, but the bottom line is that you go to the department in question, ask to be on "stand by", then you sit and wait until someone does not show up for their own scheduled time or until you can be worked in. We have done this many times and never had it fail us. Also try to get an appointment on Mon or Tues. The first doctor that you see is definitely going to want additional tests. If your first appointment is on Friday, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will end up staying locally over the weekend or driving back to The Villages and returning the next week.

Several years ago, as we went from doctor to doctor locally for 4-5 months while my husband got weaker and weaker, we finally went to Mayo. An appointment one day, a test the next day, then the phone call that he needed surgery. Two days and we had an answer. Surgery was not fun, but at least he recovered from that condition. (He now has something that surgery and even Mayo cannot fix - but that is another story.)

I hope this is helpful.