Monday, April 6, 2009

Rotten Day!

So yes, I know I am behind and have not yet posted my last day in Taiwan. Will do that when Jeremy gets a moment to post pictures. In the interim...this past week was slightly challenging as I got pretty sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis and had to go back on a bunch more meds. Story of my life...Medications.

This morning was Rotten. Most of you who follow my blog know my big "secret", that I have been and am still in process of being approved for the bariatric gastric bypass surgery. Medically for me its been a tough year. Vertigo since the day we came home from our honeymoon, Sinuplasty this past September, many many sinus infections after surgery as everything finally drained from who knows how long ago?, and my gall bladder surgery 6 weeks ago. Not to mention the giant allergies I have been dealing with since i moved here as well as the month spent going to therapy for the vertigo, chiropractor visits, and several other unmentionables. Needless to say, there are days when I seriously question The Lord. It has been not the most ideal start to my married life.

Which brings me again to this morning. I started this plan in June when i was officially diagnosed with Diabetes. I did everything I was supposed to do. I changed my eating habits, spent time with nutritionists and a diabetic nurse, I consult with a diabetic nurse practitioner every month, I went in every month to be weighed and have my a1c taken as well as my blood sugars checked. I have lost weight and been on a medication management plan. I went in for a sleep study. I have exhausted everything I have to do on my end. I have been dealing with my insurance since December and they continue to "lose" the paperwork my doctors fax in.

And again to this morning...hahaha. So finally after having done everything, attended the orientation and chosen my surgeon, made sure the surgeon was in my network, and turned in all of the paperwork to the hospital, I finally heard back this morning. Filled with Joy I called the nurse back as she indicated in the message they were ready to start scheduling my appointments. We spoke and as the conversation continued I heard the dreaded words "out of network". I assured the gal that indeed that one of the locations my chosen surgeon worked was "in network". I had made sure of this prior to beginning. There was a moment of silence before she gave me a number and told me to call crystal and talk to her. A bit confused, i made the phone call only to be told that somewhere in the 2 months since i had gone to the information meeting and turned in my paperwork, the surgeon had decided to abandon doing surgeries at my in network location. Fighting back tears I asked her what this meant for me.

Option A: pay my 30 percent to the tune of 30 percent of 35,000 dollars= 10,000
Option B: Fax all of my paperwork to the alternate location and use one of their surgeons
Option C: A whole new start to everything...new hospital, new surgeon, new beginning of the process.

Obviously I chose option B. So I spent some good time on the phone with Cathy, chatted about everything i needed to still do and she assured me she would make every effort to make this transition as smooth as possible. Now Jeremy and i have to attend another information session to meet these surgeons, and my insurance has to be dealt with all over again. More time more wait more this more that. Its so discouraging and so frustrating. I just want to get the surgery and get it over with and get on with my life. I so tired of this. its been 10 months since i started and still i see no pot at the end of the rainbow.

Anyway...to put it in perspective, i spent so much time on the phone with nurses and insurance that by 1pm my phone was dead. i began the morning at 9:15 and none of those calls were joy calls except the 20 minute call to Jeremy on his lunch telling him of my woes.

When all was said and done...my antidote: Sleep! Took a nap.

2 comments:

Gullett Circus said...

Praying for you as always!

Unknown said...

Ang,

Wow. I can't believe how messy this has been for you. But I am in awe of your persistence and dedication to get it done, to jump through all the hoops, exert more patience than humanly possible (go Jesus!) and all in all do it when you don't feel well. I hope so much that this new route, new dr etc will be a much better fit and you will be happier with it in the long run. I am praying for you always Ang.