hi there...
i would be happy to share what I experienced. we are from south florida too, lake worth, wpb, but have lived in blue ridge ga for 8 years now.
i will be very honest with you..but this is just my experience and opinion.....
it was a hardship to travel so far...I expected a lot more professionalism. there were a lot of positive things, as far as testing goes. they ran a lot of tests.
the nebulizing was a huge disappointment. it was a good thing that i taught myself through reading from others on this blog. the girl they assigned to me was on her cell phone when she was 'briefly" in the room with me. she was not attentive and showed me absolutely NOTHING. she was very unprofessional, and disconnected from me. the first day she had me breathe into a nebulizer then put the cup etc on the counter and expected to use the same, unwashed, unsanitized cup the next day. only because I pay strict attention to that did I catch it. I called her on it.....and she said and I quote, "I told you when I left to wash it out and put it in a drawer until tomorrow". BOLD FACED LIE.......She didn't own her mistake/incompetence and I said, "you are lying to cover your lack of attention to your job". The importance for sterile/clean nebulizing equipment is ultra important as we use it to breathe into our lungs. I was very angry about this taking into consideration that this was supposed to be NJH, the greatest MAC hospital around. I told Dr. Eddy and he seemed angry that I did. (I didn't like him anyway, he was arrogant and full of himself)....I never saw her again after this episode so they either fired her or kept her away from me. If you go there, request Dr. Daley, not Eddy. He thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread and his bedside manner sucks. He should really be ashamed of himself.
I had some GI issues so I decided to request a gastro dr while there. Boy was he an asshole. They had given me two tests, swallowing that white stuff, .....I forget the name....so of course I thought he would discuss it with me. He started talking to me and I said I don't want any PPI's. I don't like what they do to the body. He attacked me verbally and spent the whole session drilling me saying, "you are wrong, where did you hear that, I want to know who told you that". It was appalling, his nasty demeanor.....he never discussed my case with me ,, I'm telling you it was a disgrace...they should fire him. His name was Dr. Arash Babaei. He was a real S.O.B. I was shaking like a leaf when I got out of there and actually cried because of his verbal abuse.
I was there for ten days. I'm sure the CEO is not aware of his nasty behavior..so he continues to get away with it which really is a crying shame. People that go there are sick, and desperate with this damned disease, and don't deserve to be treated like crap. appalling.
A lot of what they did could have been done at a good Pulmonary office if it was a doctor who knew about Mac, etc.
I have since connected with Dr. Swenson in Atlanta. Night and day in the treatment I am getting. he specializes in Mac, BX etc.
We couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. They assign you a room that is yours during the day, to be in with a bed, bathroom, and you go there in between appointments. you do not stay overnight.
Would I ever go back, NO.
I don't want to sway you one way or the other, your experience could be superlative, but mine was extremely disappointing, espcially in light of the expense and energy spent traveling.
Feel free to contact me any time. bon