Yesterday just plain sucked. Excuse my french.
I had a horrible night of sleep - something which did not surprise me, because there was just way too much on mind after the abomination of an appointment that I had with my gastroenterologist. My mind was left to wander because of the way that my doctor had handled the appointment. I didn't have answers and so I was left to fend for myself and see what I could find on the internet. Not a very good doctor.
So this morning I put in a phone call to a new specialist - at a different hospital down in the city - a highly qualified physician who specializes in this condition. He is the Chair of his department and holds several other high level positions. Which means I will probably have a hard time getting into see him - if he is even accepting new patients. Fingers crossed. And perhaps I will see if some of my connections can pull a few strings - or maybe I will get lucky and he will have a cancellation.
I spoke with my dietitian as well today. She said my lab work this week looked good. She is still working on getting the doctor to approve decreasing my lipid intake to just once per week due to the substantial weight gain that I have been experiencing. She said that she had contacted him again and I explained to her what happened at my appointment yesterday. She was livid and said that it was completely unacceptable that he spoke to me that way and made me feel the way that he did. She also shared with me, that while it wouldn't make me feel any better, that this wasn't the first time that she had spoken to a patient that had a complaint about him. It just infuriated me more than I already was about the situation. Jackwagon.
And this afternoon I received a follow up call from the case worker at my insurance company. She was calling to follow up to see how my appointment went. I simply explained to her that I am in the process of securing an appointment with another gastroenterologist for a second opinion. I really didn't feel like getting into it with her. She asked if there was anything that I needed from her. I said - Yes, I need you to figure out what is going on with my insurance coverage since the clock is ticking on me getting to the 60 day mark with my TPN. I had been told that it was only covered for 60 days, so I need to know what I am going to do if I don't have coverage and need to have the PICC line removed.
She ended up calling me back and informed me that the woman who had previously advised of my coverage was wrong. My TPN is covered fully. My coverage also includes a total of 60 home nurse visits. So basically that is covered completed as well since I only see the nurse once a week and there are only 52 weeks in the year. HUGE weight lifted off of my shoulders following that conversation. I actually made her repeat the information a few times - asked several questions for clarification - just to make sure that I was hearing her correctly. I was.
It's difficult enough dealing with this condition without all of the added stress. So while I didn't have a stellar day symptom-wise and I struggled to get the eggs down this morning and my stomach looks and feels like I swallowed a watermelon and none of my clothes want to fit right now - I am going to sleep much better tonight knowing that I no longer need to stress over whether or not my insurance is going to cover what I need.
Today was a better day.
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