The Quest, part 2

Welcome adventurers, as The Quest continues!

If you are joining us for the first time, allow me to reca...hmm? whats that? OH! This is a blog, isn't it? So if this is your first time here, SCROLL DOWN and get caught up. There is some whining and self-loathing (don't worry, it's all justified...in my opinion) but you'll get through. I did.

As we rejoin the quest for a third child, we find ourselves in search of a doctor who performs microsurgery vasectomy reversals, can do the complicated technique if my "straws" require it, is travel-able (my own word), and is financially do-able. Having performed the basic Googling so we have some idea about what we are looking for, my wife went to one of, if not the, largest communities of baby-concerned people on the Internet: babycenter.

Now if you are unfamiliar with babycenter, they are like any large influential organization : they put out all kinds of info as unarguable fact and they have a message board where certain viewpoints are more encouraged than others, kind of like the Vatican. So, much like the Vatican, babycenter can be looked at as a force for good or evil. The good thing about babycenter is that they have a forum for just about every sub-group of parents and it is a large community, so you have a lot of resources to pull from.

Looking at their Vasectomy Reversal forum, my wife found out a lot of info, but the most interesting thing she found was about a little doc in Oklahoma. The first bit about Dr. Wilson to catch our eye was his price: $1700, all inclusive (except drinks). Wow! That's a HUGE difference from the 6 and 7 thousand dollar price tags we'd been seeing. He even does microsurgery! And the threads at babycenter just rave about him. He's even backed by the Vatican!

Of course, it's in OKLAHOMA, so that is a good bit of travel. Plus, considering the costs of VR, you can imagine that Dr. Wilson is pretty booked up. How booked up? Try months in advance. He has an online calendar for people that have gone through booking an appointment. People stalk it waiting for a dropped appointment so they can grab it and get in early. If you need flexibility in your appointment date, then you're going to have to wait. Hmm, yeah that is an issue with my teacher schedule. Also, it is in Muskogee, OK, bringing new meaning to "you can't get there from here". Depending on when the appointment could be, air travel to Tulsa would be anywhere from 450 - 850/seat, plus a rental car and hotel (priceline). And take a second to look at that Wikipedia page. Shouldn't the Dr. Wilson, Sperm Restoration Specialist and possibly their greatest source of tourism traffic, be listed as a notable resident? And look at the mayor; I think he was in my 4th period last year!

Oh, and he isn't actually a urologist (not the mayor, Dr. Wilson); he's a cardiologist. Now he's done all the training for VR and is a skilled microsurgeon, but he doesn't do any follow-up because, well, he doesn't really work in that area. Now my nephew goes to a "pediatrician" that is actually an urologist and I know she's been off the mark a few times, and that didn't even involve surgery. But that is the kind of info that we had to dig to find on Dr. Wilson. Honestly, other than the travel, it really seemed too good to be true.

And then, like something out of a movie, we received a mysterious message. We went to a quiet bar and sat in the darkened back corner, just as our contact had asked. A man in a trenchcoat sat a newspaper down on our table, we turned to the comics and laughed at Marmaduke; it was the agreed upon password. The man came back and sat... *sigh* okay, that didn't happen (no one laughs at Marmaduke) But my wife did receive an email from a fellow babycenter poster. Said "she" knew my wife had questions about Dr. Wilson, but "she" didn't feel comfortable responding in public for fear of retribution (not making up that part). "She" sent my wife a link to another board with some ugly truths about Dr. Wilson, or at least a little less biased views.

At such a low cost, I had wondered what kind of facilities or staff he must have. The answer is little to none. He has no staff; no nurses, no-one except his wife, and apparently that is only sometimes. The office is fairly dated, along with reports of an old wooden exam table(??). A reiteration of the fact that he doesn't do any follow-up (including one guy who says he got an infection and Wilson just blew him off [again, poor word choice]) . But the deal breaker? He doesn't do the more-advanced technique that can sometimes be necessary. Sorry, but if I'm going through all of this trouble, I want as high of odds as possible that it works the first time. And really, Muskogee?

So with the dream of bargain surgery dashed, we decided to focus on convenient travel. Luckily we live in a tri-state area, so we have quick access to Cincinatti, Columbus (OH), Louisville and Lexington (KY)

I know this is RANDOM, but does anyone else have cats that constantly NIBBLE ON YOU?!?!?! Five times in the last paragraph have I been lightly nommed by my cat. ARGH!!

*ahem*

So, next Quest update: a Doctor is found!