I’m in. Dr. Gimbel’s office just called, and he will see me later this afternoon! This means I will have seen all three plastic surgeons, can choose one (as long as one of these two agree to do the surgery), meet with Dr. Ahrendt tomorrow, and get this whole thing scheduled. Yay! I’m really convinced that Dr. Nguyen was wrong about my situation, and I have good feelings about Dr. Gimbel who I’ve heard nothing but excellent reviews of.
Message from FORCE
Less than 10% of women with a BRCA mutation are aware of their risk – this is just unacceptable. Read more here, on today’s important post from FORCE.
Blood work
This morning I’m at Quest Diagnostics getting my three-month blood work for my rheumatologist – my blood needs to be checked in order to make sure the meds I take aren’t damaging my liver.
I also spent a great deal of time on the phone this morning. I have an appt this afternoon with a second plastic surgeon – Dr De La Cruz. I have an appt with a third plastic surgeon on Tuesday – Dr Gimbel. So I’m trying to get an appt with Dr Gimbel today so that when I see the breast surgeon, Dr Ahrendt tomorrow, I can tell her what’s going on with the reconstruction.
Their office was supposed to open at 8am so I started calling then. I got the out-of-office voicemail until 8:20 (she’s drawing my blood as I write this – how’s that for live blogging?). Anyway, I spoke to central scheduling, she said Gimbel has no appts, so she’d forward my message to the office and they should call me directly. I’d really like to go to the gym but I’m worried they’ll call while I’m in the pool and I’ll miss my chance.
Blerg.
Here’s some pics from various needles that have been poked into me over the last few days. The arm is nothing. The hand hurts like hell.
Left hand – two busted veins
Left arm – not so bad
Rash?
I’m at the gym, where I just spent most of my shower rubbing off adhesive from yesterday’s ER debacle, and wondering what the hell this rash is.
Whenever I see movies with people with cancer, I always think “wow, that person seemed totally fine. Then they were diagnosed and now they’re falling apart.” I’m starting to feel like that – like without a diagnosis, everything would be fine. I really don’t think I’m a drama queen – I’m really embarrassed about yesterday! But as calm as I try to stay, and as much as I tell myself this isn’t a big deal, crap like this stupid rash is really staring to make me doubt my ability to get through this without just going to bed until the surgery day.
Health Insurance Love
I don’t doubt that this will at some point be followed by an entry titled, “Health Insurance Hate” but for now, I am loving my health insurance! I just started a new job in August, and with it came new health insurance. I was already loving my lower co-pays (from $20 to $10) and the fact that all but one of my prescriptions is now free (the one I pay for is only $5). That saves me a lot of money each month since I see several doctors a month and I have a lot of prescriptions.
I first initiated the live-chat with the insurance rep because it looked like they had denied coverage of my appointment with the breast surgeon a few weeks ago (by the way, that appointment, which was about a half hour long, was billed for $500!). Even though the EOB said I didn’t owe anything and I haven’t received a bill, seeing the word “denied” on the form made me nervous – I’m seeing this woman again on Friday and she’s about to do surgery on me that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I wanted to verify that she is indeed covered under my plan. The woman I live chatted with from my insurance company said that looked wrong to her too – Dr. Ahrendt is covered under my plan and the insurance rep was going to resubmit that claim to make sure it was covered. Great.
I figured while I had this woman on the line, I’d ask her some questions about my post-mastectomy options. By the way, I definitely recommend live-chatting with the insurance company – you can print a transcript of the whole conversation and then there is no confusion about what was said.
I had read that it is a law that insurance companies cover the post-mastectomy option of your choice – prosthetics, delayed reconstruction or immediate reconstruction whether it be a tissue flap procedure or implants. I also read that many insurance companies will cover one of those options, but no more. So, if you choose to get prosthetics and have them covered, and later on you choose to have reconstruction, the reconstruction will not be paid. Or, if you choose to have reconstruction and it fails for some reason, then prosthetics will not be paid. You get one choice.
Not my insurance! I now have it in writing that they will cover prosthetics if I have can’t have immediate reconstruction. Down the line, if I decide to have reconstruction, I can have it fully covered also – and I can have it whenever I want (next year or ten years from now). This is a huge relief.
Blogging BRCA 