The trip to Vanderbilt Hospital for my daughter's surgery was interesting, to say the least. The surgery went well and the piece of metal was removed from her foot without incident. Thank you all for your well-wishes and prayers for her.

We decided to stay in a hotel because we had to check in at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning and Nashville traffic at that time of morning can be hellacious. We wanted to make it a fun trip for Lily and decided to stay in the town of Lebanon outside of Nashville.

Lebanon is large enough to find entertainment and has decent restaurants to provide a fun night out for a 5-year-old. The hotel rates are more affordable than Nashville and the location put us significantly closer so we would not have to wake up as early to make it to the surgery on time.

The trip to Lebanon went well. Once we arrived at our hotel the trip began to take a weird twist.

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Hotel Arrival

When we gave our debit card to the check-in staff it was declined! My wife and I just looked at each other because we knew we had plenty of money in the bank. We told the hotel staff we would be back in because we needed to check our bank account. When we signed into online banking we instantly noticed transactions we did not make. Someone got access to our bank account.

This was the OH SHIT moment.

Source:Love Honey

We had some cash on us but definitely not enough for the hotel we had selected and to eat on for a day and a half. I asked the hotel clerk if they accepted Bitcoin and of course got that look of "WTF is Bitcoin". The clerk responded in a rude and annoyed voice "Cash or Credit Card". The tone of his voice instantly got under my skin and I wanted to jump over the counter and rip his throat out. I began to use the breathing techniques I had learned through the PTSD sessions I have taken and said in the calmest voice I could muster. "We will use the free cancellation policy we are entitled too".

At this point we had three options: drive home, find a cheaper hotel, or use Bitcoin.

When I initially searched on my wife's smartphone for nearby hotels that accepted Bitcoin or a Bitcoin ATM I had no luck. We ended up settling on a cheaper hotel and a more affordable restaurant than we had planned.

After checking in at the new hotel and going to the back to access our room, I instantly knew we had made a mistake. The hotel had tenants who were drinking and partying on their balcony. These weren't travelers, these were tenants. When I got on the elevator Lily and Kari were about to enter when the door began to close. I literally had to push Lily out of the way because the elevator did not register a person entering through the door and was about to shut on her.

When I got off the elevator it smelled like pure piss. You could see piss stains on the wall and on the concrete floor. When my wife went to use the keyless entry, the door would not open to our room. It took 3 new keys and finally a maintenance man to open the door. On the bright side, I can say our room was clean and the internet was lightning fast.

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The Restaurant

I looked on our tablet to find a restaurant nearby that accepted Bitcoin. Of course no luck with that. By this time it's about 7 at night and my family is getting hungry. We decided to settle on an affordable Mexican joint close by. The food was decent but the experience was interesting, to say the least.

Source: @lexikon082

I live in the Bible Belt of Tennessee and you can meet some interesting people here. As we are waiting for our food, one of the most podunk families I have ever seen in the South enters. You could hear them enter the front doors they were so loud... "Ya'll ready for some spick food". I'm half Mexican and I was even embarrassed(instead of mad) for this raw display of ignorance.

They don't wait to be seated. "We's gonna sit over here"... Of course right behind our table.

Now, I am sure many of you have eaten at a Mexican restaurant. The description of the food on the menu is usually good enough for the patron to understand what they will be ordering. The loud, insanely embarrassing family had not even sat down for 3 minutes and I hear a loud female voice yelling to the waitress across the room " What's in a Chimeee Chaawwngaa". Once again I am embarrassed for these people. Who yells across a restaurant?

The lady who asked the question then begins to cough up a lung. I mean she coughs, hacks, and spits her phlegm in a napkin for the next 20 minutes. I truly wondered if this lady might shit on herself she is coughing and hacking so hard...right behind my table.

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The Walmart Trip

We get back to our room about 9:30 and by this time I am exhausted. I am down to $25 dollars in my pocket and my daughter realizes she has forgotten her stuffed animal kitty at home. Every little kid has a safety blanket and this is hers. She is genuinely sad and so my wife and I converse about how to solve this.

The conversation pretty much goes like this. We have plenty of gas in the vehicle and Lily can't eat after midnight so we'll join her in her misery if we can't find a Bitcoin ATM in Nashville to get food. We are going to Wally World to get a stuffed animal. Problem solved.

Upon arriving back to the hotel I had about $5 left in my pocket and Lily had a new Flip A Zoo. She was grinning like a possum eating sweet taters. Her happiness made me happy and I finally called it a night around 11:30.

Source: @lexikon082

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Surgery Check-In

We woke up at 4:30 am and left the hotel at 5:30. We made it to the hospital with 15 minutes to spare. A plan that had actually worked out. We checked in and then waited, and waited, and waited.

Lily's surgery finally started 5 hours after check-in. Even though we had to wait a crazy length of time, the staff at Vanderbilt kept us informed every step of the way. There were other children whose surgeries were not going as smooth as expected. My thoughts were on their well being and I could sacrifice time to let the doctors do their jobs.

The nurses and anesthesiologist periodically visited our room to talk to Lily and joke with her to help her feel at ease for when they were ready to take her to surgery. The staff gave her markers to color on her hospital sheets. I was even able to talk to a nurse about Bitcoin and she seemed genuinely interested.

Source: @lexikon082

While in the waiting room I was able to find a Bitcoin machine about 20 minutes away from the hospital. We would visit the machine on the way home and take Lily to get her favorite food, Chinese.

The surgery and recovery took about an hour and a half in total. Lily bounced back quickly and I carried her out to the parking garage. During the actual surgery, I could not stay still and I snapped pictures of some of my favorite artwork throughout the hospital. I will post them soon after I finish writing this article.

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My First Bitcoin ATM Experience

We were happy to find the Bitcoin ATM, as everyone was ready for sustenance at this time. Lily had us laughing as she was loopy from the anesthesia and my spirits were high because I was happy to see my daughter recovering well.

I hadn't really looked at the cryptocoin market all day and couldn't believe BTC had hit a new record high. I made my Bitcoin transfer and waited for the transfer to be confirmed. When I saw it had been confirmed on my mobile wallet I went to withdraw from the ATM.

TRANSFER NOT VALIDATED

"WTF . It's already been a half an hour and it says confirmed on my mobile app". I call their customer service number and it informs me to text for help. So I text.

YOUR TRANSACTION HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED is the text reply. "That's why I am contacting you". Finally 45 minutes later I receive another text reply. The text informed me my Bitcoin transfer was .0002 short. The ATM company, Genesis Coin, was nice enough to push it through. For this, I will give them a shout out and give a big "THANK YOU!".

Finally, we are going to get some Chinese food.

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Naked Shrimp

We are at the restaurant and Lily is excited because she loves shrimp. I had to carry her in because she can't put weight on her foot. I am getting old or that girl is as solid as a brick shit house.

We get inside and I carried her around the buffet while my wife plates the food Lily is requesting. We get back to the table and I wait with Lily while my wife goes to ravage the sushi bar(she would eat sushi every day if we could afford it, lol) and then I get up to get my food.

So we are sitting there. I am looking at my daughter and so thankful she is ok. There were bumps in the trip but in the end, all is ok...zero complications with surgery and she is smiling as usual. Then I watch as Lily begins to take the breading off of her shrimp. This is strange to me because she never does this. It's the medicine I think to myself.

She then lifts the unbreaded shrimp high in the air and yells at the top of her lungs, "Look, Daddy, the shrimp is naked! ". The whole restaurant gets quiet. Lily, Kari, and I just bust out laughing. Lily can always lighten the mood and we all needed this laugh.

Source: Almost Naked Shrimp

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In Conclusion

It all worked out. I even have a few interesting stories to tell. I did become frustrated a few times, but in the end, positivity maintained. Watching a child go to surgery and having their life in someone else's hands is a truly humbling experience. Being able to rely on cryptocurrency to pull me through in a pinch after having our bank account hacked makes me want to push the blockchain even more. I will never forget naked shrimp.

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OFFICIAL HOME OF THE FIRST EVER LOONEY COIN

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