Mikkii

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In two weeks I will be on the "losing side" of life.  I had reached a point where I thought that this was never going to happen.  I remember being so excited in 2005 when I had all of my appointments set up and everything was ready to go and then Blam...lost my insurance.  And there was just no way that I could cover this out of pocket.
Now, with my new insurance I was petrified that they would find a way to deny me.  Everyone kept saying that I was a great candidate, that I had all the right indicators to be eligible for this surgery.  But the way that my luck works, I just knew that there was gonna be a reason that they denied me coverage.   When Beverly called me and told me that I had been approved I nearly fell out of my chair.  And they had even approved me two days sooner than what either she or I had expected.
She (Beverly) called me yesterday to tell me a few things about the surgery and the diet that I would need to follow before surgery to help shrink my liver(the diet starts tomorrow actually).  It was a lot of information to take in on the phone while I'm rushing to pick my class up from music.  She said she was sending me a packet that would tell me everything I need to know.  
I'm still so excited, but I have a little bit of that overwhelmed feeling that people tend to get in situations like this.  Before yesterday this all felt like some abstract event that was going to be happening at some as yet unknown time period in the future.  Now, it's all very concrete and very real and it's just around the corner.  
Most of my friends have moved away, so I don't really have anyone to just sit down and talk about this with.  Talking on the phone just isn't the same (not that I'm much of a phone talker anyway).  I guess I'll just trudge along doing the best that I can and working my absolute hardest not to let my fears get the better of me.
This is an amazing opportunity and I can't wait.  But I've come to realize that this is incredibly life altering...and I'm just a little scared.

I got the call I've been waiting for today. Beverly
called me midmorning to tell me that she had
gotten my insurance approval in today.  I have a
surgery date. I'm so happy!!! I'm also not afraid to
admit that I'm absolutely petrified.  There was a 
part of me that thought that this would never 
happen, but now, it's literally just right around the
corner. 
*squee*

Sometimes when someone says that they're going to process something quickly, it translates into they are going to process something at whichever speed is convenient for them.  
I understand that things come up and that they can't be helped.  But if someone tells me that they are going to have something done by the next day, I expect it to be done in a more timely manner than a week later.
Okay, enough ranting.  My psych. evaluation finally got sent to my insurance company with all of my other paperwork for approval.  I was supposed to have heard something this past wednesday about whether I had been approved or denied.   But now, I'm supposed to call this wednesday to find out what the decision is.
I'm hoping for the best; and everyone seems to think that there's no reason I should be denied, but knowing my luck, and knowing the way that things have been going lately....I'm trying to be hopeful.
~~~
As an aside...my new job is going well I guess. I have a pretty good class of kids.  The only issue that I have is that the pay almost makes it not worth it.  When you consider how far I have to drive to get to work, and all of the things that I have to buy for the classroom myself, and the fact that my work doesn't offer any benefits at all...the pay is just atrocious.  I wish I had known that it was going to be this way before I signed my contract.  Had I known then what I know now I might not have taken the position.  And yeah yeah, I know...people say you shouldn't become a teacher for the pay, but when you're only making $1500 a month, and you've become accustomed to making that much every two weeks; it's quite a change to get used to.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
~~~

Had my psych. eval with craig today.  it went incredibly well. he was very easy to talk to and very informative.  i liked him very much; i really would have liked to speak to him face to face, but this was the best compromise and it worked well.  He also said he was flag my file and have it processed quickly since I need this report before i can get insurance approval.  Like I said, he was most awesome :)

Just talked to Beverly, it's an all clear on having my psychological evaluation done over the phone.  i'm supposed to call thursday at three.  :) Huzzah. I feel like this choo-choo train is really rolling on down the line now.  I'm getting more and more excited every single day.

Turns out that my insurance company won't grant approval or denial without a psychological evaluation being on record first.  I  don't have a problem with that, but i hate the idea of having to drive 6 hours for a 1 hour psych. eval.  I talked to Beverly at Dr. Freeman's clinic and bless her heart she's amazing. She said that she would talk to the psychiatrist on Tuesday and set it up so that I could have a phone evaluation on Thursday.  Then my information will be faxed to the insurance company that day and she said we should know something by Monday (Wednesday on the outside).  After that we'd set up my preop and surgery dates.  
I'm excited.
Now on a different thread of thought...I really miss Carl.  This will be the first major surgery that I've had that he won't be there with me.  He's in Augusta, Georgia finishing up his A.I.T. training for the military and he won't be done until the end of October/beginning of November.  We thought about waiting until he was done for me to have this surgery, but my overall general health is just so bad that we decided that I should go ahead and have it done.  I was hoping that if I'm in Annistan on a weekend day that he'd be able to come to the hospital and visit me, but I don't know if that's going to work out or not.  Everything feels so limbofied right now.
I hate waiting.

I received my demographic and medical history information to fill out; talk about a lot of paperwork.  I got it all sent back in and have been waiting patiently to hear back from Dr. Freeman's office. I finally called day before yesterday to see what the hold up was. Apparently there was some confusion about the type of insurance I had, whether it was Tricare Prime or Standard.  With Prime you have to have some type of special referral that they were waiting on at his office. However, I have Standard, so I don't need that referral.  
Now, I'm waiting to hear back from the insurance company on whether or not I'm approved.  I don't see why I wouldn't be. My BMI is through the roof, my blood pressure is terrible, I have horrific insulin resistance as a result of my PCOS.  I think I make a great candidate.
Guess it's just a waiting game now.

Well, things seem to be progressing along nicely.
I got a phone call from Beverly at Dr. Freeman's office
today.  She's sending me my demographics/medical
history packet to fill out.  Once she gets that back in she's
going to set up my appointments.  Since it's such a long
commute (about 6 hours) she's going to try to have everything
set up like this:
Day 1 - Consultation with Surgeon
Day 2 - Pre-Op Testing
Day 3 - Surgery
Day 4-6 - Recovery
Day 7 - Home
Now it's just a waiting game for approval and so forth.
I'm excited.

After waiting patiently for two weeks my PCP  finally finished with my referral letter. Why anything like that should take two weeks I have no idea.  I went and picked it up just before lunch and will be faxing it this afternoon.
I'm hoping to hear some good news soon.
On another front...my blood pressure isn't going down as well as I had hoped th at it would.  The enalapril doesn't seem to be working  like that other medicine that I was on.  I've had some of the  worst  headaches ever over the last three or four days.  I'm prone to  migraines, so I'm hoping that's all that it is, but I dunno.  It feels different than a migraine headache.
I took my medicine a bit ago and an excedrin migraine. Guess I'll go lay down for a bit and see how I feel later this afternoon.

Well, today was the first step in the right direction.  Went to see my Primary Care Physician today.  I wasn't expecting any problems and was pleasantly surprised when I actually didn't have any.
My blood pressure is up really bad, so he put me back on an ACE inhibitor, which I was expecting.  I've been off and on HCT and Enalapril for the last several years.  He also went ahead and started me on birth control pills since I'll need to be on them after the surgery anyway. 
I half expected him to say "let's try this one more diet" or "we have this new pill I think she should try"; but he was very supportive of my decision.  He said that with my age and the medical issues I'm already having that he felt this was a good decision for me.
I'm scared and excited all at the same time.