Hi deanr,
I live upstate NY north of Albany. No place near here does septal myectomies, had to travel. Accepted as a patient at Mayo, we heart patients deserve the best and the COEs in other places are good choices, too. We drove to Rochester, would have flown but airlines were having problems with delays and cancelled flights. There is an excellent concierge service at Mayo, did not know that they helped arrange flights till after the fact. They had a list of hotels, several with slight discounts for Mayo patients. Many people on this blog discussed different places to stay. We were at the Hilton Garden Inn, 5 minute/.2 mile walk to St Mary's where heart surgery takes place, husband could walk everywhere. A shuttle bus makes the rounds to hotels and various buildings. There were two days of testing before surgery and a 5 night hospital stay. I was discharged on a Tuesday and we started home on Wednesday morning. Stopped at just about every rest area so I could walk around with my shiny new walker (temporary short term good idea, see if you can borrow one) to avoid clots. At 5 pm on Thursday we were past Buffalo and decided to not stop for the night, 3.5 hours later we were home, so it took 2 days each way. I had no pain nor pain meds after 24 hours (amazing), moved slowly for me, felt much better than I thought I would, navigated no driving for 6 weeks. Now, others will have different stories. I am so very glad I marshalled my courage over my terror and fear and went to Mayo when HOCM got to the point where it was absolutely necessary. Keep us informed of your journey and wishing you the best!