I had my appointment with my surgeon to find out what the treatment plan was, but it didn't go the thought it would and unfortunately more disappointment came today with regards to my surgery. My mom and I left at 6:30 this morning to drive down to SF for my appointment, really excited to find out what the plan was and to know that surgery was that much closer! At my previous appointment I mostly saw the residents/interns and not the surgeon, but to my surprise it was just the surgeon who came to speak to us. That really made me excited, hoping for good news!
As he started to talk about my "situation" he starting to say that they were going to submit for lower jaw surgery to the insurance because he didn't think that they would approve double jaw surgery, saying that they would consider upper jaw surgery cosmetic due to my semi gummy smile and not cover it. What the hell is he talking about! I told him about the previous surgeon requesting a LeFort I and BSSO from the insurance and to my knowledge they approved it and he basically told me to go to the other surgeon. Just like that! Like he could care less, he was actually being really insensitive about the whole situation which I did not appreciate. We drove down 5 hours from this appointment, my mom and I both had to take the day off and we were with him for less than 10 minutes!
His reasoning for not wanting to request the upper jaw & lower jaw was because he didn't want to deal with the insurance since he already knew that they wouldn't cover it. It was a bunch of crap, excuse my language, but this was really unacceptable behavior for a professional such as himself to have. Let me back track a little, when he did tell me the plan of just doing the lower jaw I asked how that would work with my deep bite. If I remember correctly he said something about bring my lower jaw out and then tilting it and that there would be a lot of work for my orthodontist to do before and after the surgery.
I've had my braces on for 15 months already and according to my orthodontist I would be ready for surgery hopefully by Christmas time, but with all this lower jaw stuff it would be a lot longer. I really didn't appreciate the manner in which he deliver the news. Needless to say I was and still am really bummed out from the outcome of this appointment, but what I have learned from reading others blogs is that with jaw surgery you will learn to have patience weather you like it or not.
Time for Plan B. Right after my "appointment" I called the surgeon in Seattle to see if I would still be able to have Dr. Bloomquist do my surgery and luckily they said, "yes". I asked the receptionist about my insurance authorizations and I needed to talk to another lady that has been dealing with my case about it because she was reading conflicting information. The lady is suppose to call me on Monday. I guess there really isn't much I can do about it until then, but this patience thing is really hard. The receptionist said that my surgeon would need to talk to my orthodontist to see when I would be ready for surgery, when that time was closer I would need to get new records taken and get them sent to Seattle. My plan is to call both my insurances first thing Monday morning to see what was exactly authorized and also to call and talk to my orthodontist and see if it's really possible to get me ready for surgery by Christmas time. I would also like to talk to the surgeon more in detail about my possible surgery since the last/only time I talk to him was over a year ago.
I wish I had better news, exciting news or even everything is still in the process news, but I guess this isn't going to be as simply as I thought it would be. We are talking about having surgery in Seattle, which is 12 hours away and possibly in December, not the best time to travel. One step at a time. I'm going to not let myself get so head of myself this go around, but only time will tell. Hopefully I have more news on Monday.
Wow that really sucks. He should of aknowleged the fact that you drove so long to see him to give u extra time and more detailed information. Well my opinion you should see a diff doc. My question is though, don't you have a surgeon much closer in your city to get another opinion?
ReplyDeleteI know! Unfortunately I like in a pretty rural part of Northern California and there isn't a good oral surgeon that can do this type of surgery closer to me. I just need to figure out my options and talk to my orthodontist.
Deleteaaahhh how annoying and frustrating for you! It sounds like your surgeon was just being so lazy, and how irritating that he was being so laid back and casual about the whole thing, when it's a really dramatic life changing thing to go through, and they actually need to take that on board and try and help you with it and make it as easy for you as they possibly can! Welldone for not giving up on the double jaw surgery, and not going with the fob off of just lower jaw surgery. As you've decided to put yourself through this process you might as well do it in a way that you end up with something you're really happy with!:) Hang in there, I'm sure everything will fall into place eventually. Don't be afraid to nag at them as well, I don't think you can go through this operation and the lead up to it without nagging at them at some stage! Good luck xox
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words. This was definitely not an experience I thought I would ever have, but unfortunately I did. I did talk with the other surgeon in Seattle and they did have the authorization go through for both jaws and at this point that's all I can ask for.
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