celestialdreams06
30-October-2006
Hi everyone, my name is Tonya. I am 33 years old, soon to be 34. I am married and have 3 daughters. 2 teens and a preteen. I am hoping to have WLS someday soon. I currently have Ohio Medicaid. Early last summer my doctor sent in a request for authorization. I was not denied, but was not approved either. They needed further testing done for determination. It was suspected that I had sleep apnea, so they wanted the sleep study done as well as new x-rays of my knees (for osteoarthritis), and my feet (have plantar fasciitis of both feet). I went through the sleep study and do indeed have mild obstructive sleep apnea. My doctor said that even though mild, it is still very life threatening and can/will become worse with my current weight of 360 lbs. As for my knees, 2 months ago I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee (which is the worse of the two). I am bone on bone within the joint, the underside of my patella is severly damaged and gouged, my ACL is damaged, and where I do have carteledge left, it's less than 1 mm thickness in some areas. My doctor said my knees are at least 30 years older than I am (guess there's the good reason for naming one "click" and the other "clack"). He also said although severity wise I will be a candidate for knee replacement, age wise I am not. He said I am too young. I seen him the other day and he essentially said that we are at a point where he cannot do anything else for me other than to wait and see how long I can physically tolerate the pain and the further progression of damage. On top of this I have hypertension and have had thickening of my heart walls due to chronic high bp. I am also on meds for depression/anxiety. Anyhooo, I my family doctor resubmitted all her findings and reports and my osteopathic doctor also sent a letter. Both say they will do whatever they can to help me. This is a blessing. The only down side to this is that I only have medicaid until next June. My husband and I secured better jobs. Although he can get insurance through work(next October), it will not cover pre-existing conditions for 12 months. I don't know if I can tolerate the daily pain i am in for that long. I am so scared that this is not going to go through. If you are reading this, prayers are appreciated. I will update my page as soon as I hear something. It's been almost 4 weeks since the request was resubmitted, so hopefully it will be soon. Many blessings.
