The road to (insurance) Hell

This was taken by my hairdresser. Hell isn't far away

Orange side chairs with Queen Anne legs that I got a hankering for. Problem: they were 45 miles away and won't fit in our car. They will be trucked to Ann Arbor shortly where we can pick them up this weekend in Shanna's van. I do wish they were deeper orange. I will spiff them up with blue pillows with a modern design. I will make them work

Will the orange chairs work with my modern designer table? I did look up the designer. I think this was the best deal I got in all my thrift store purchases as this table retails close to $2K Note this too has Queen Anne legs.

ice fog on my cleome corpses. We've been having a lot of this

I listen to podcasts to lull me to sleep. Some of them are old and thus dated such as the one on health insurance tricks before Obamacare closed this sizeable loophole. In the olden days (pre Obama), before an insurance company would agree to pay, they would scan the original application and health histories to make sure there were no pre-existing conditions. Years ago, a woman had acne on her chest, which was treated successfully by a dermatologist. She failed to disclose this on her insurance application perhaps because they didn't ask if she ever had acne. Then she had breast cancer. The insurance company would not pay for its treatment because occasionally breast cancer can appear on the skin and in their greedy eyes, this was a pre-existing condition that she failed to disclose. The dermatologist wrote on her behalf begging them not to withhold treatment as the rash was clearly acne. If only breast cancer would go away with standard acne treatment! Meanwhile during the long appeals process the cancer spread all over the damn place though not on her skin. Breast cancer can eventually attack the skin as it did in my ex-friend's (indigo dreaming) case. She posted gruesome photos. It was a huge open sore that resisted any treatment. She is an ex-friend not because we had some falling out but because it killed her.


Well there is no more denials due to pre-existing conditions that prevented many Americans from ever having health insurance. You Republicans out there seemed to have been OK with that. Really. But sadly, the insurance companies still have their ways to maximize profits. Yesterday I got a chilling letter from the insurance company dated November 25 (yesterday was December 8) saying that I couldn't be approved for the surgery as they were missing the photo of my ginormous breast. If this evidence was not in their hands by December 20, they will not approve the surgery. WTF!!! I ALREADY HAD THE SURGERY!! So maybe I am panicking for naught. Maybe this was all taken care of before the surgery. The surgeon's office wants to be paid, right? Fortunately I had a follow-up appointment that very afternoon, which I arrived at 45 minutes early because I wanted to clear this up ASAP as it was all I could think of. I ask the receptionist when I arrived whom could I speak to about this. She didn't know because she didn't work there. Really, what are you doing there with the computer. She would check. But instead, I had the appointment right away to rip off my purple scapeship band-aids, which made the assistant laugh, and seri strips (ow!!!) and the drain pulled out (which fortunately didn't hurt as much as someone told me it would). I couldn't even ask about my medical concerns as  of course my mind was fixated on the insurance documentation. And the PCP does not handle insurance though she did hook me up afterward with the lady that does. I did finally see my breasts close-up with a hand held mirror. I am recovering very well though I was not to take the ibuprofen that I swear the post-op nurse told me to (and Steve remembered clearly I was told to too so it wasn't an opiate hallucination). I still have no clue how he managed to fill in the missing breast without siphoning off stomach fat. I can ask him in 6 weeks. The wound left from the drain needs treatment for the next 3 days. No showers until then. No driving for 3 weeks total. No lifting over 5 pounds for 4-6 weeks and no baths or hottubs either. Meanwhile I still am somewhat dizzy and my stomach hurts. I assume this all is left over from the anesthesia. Didn't this happen during my other surgeries? NO. But they used a way different system (gas) versus iv. Presumably this new way is superior but maybe it has much more lasting side effects.

But I did get to speak to the Scheduler who doubles as the insurance wrangler. She claimed all was submitted  by November 30 and this letter was sent out presumably earlier (so why did it take 2 weeks to get here). She does not think there will be a problem with reimbursement but the insurance company told her my case was still under review. Are they the ultimate deciders whether my breasts looked hideous enough to warrant repair? The fox guarding the henhouse. I will be updated sometime today.

On another note, we got the tax bill for the old house. The city  got news of the change of ownership the day we closed but said the bill was already prepared. And no, they will not send a new bill to the new owners (which probably is the bank and perhaps the bank already knows to get this). It is up to us whether we will send the bill to them ourselves. And someone is obligated to pay it even if they never see the bill.

Below is an artist's (or not) rendition of my Picasso chest and its repair. I don't have actual photographs but as it turns out, others do and are merrily judging away. I did once post a disgusting photo of my many scars in the deformed breast but it would be hard to tell that it was actually a breast versus a flesh colored street map.

Update: Nevermind. I got the call this afternoon that they approved my surgery. Guess I did look bad enough to them