Where to begin...
Oh yes the disclaimer; you may on occasion run across some foul language in this blog. There are some things that raise my ire in life. Dealing with insurance companies is at the top of that fucking list. It is what it is... While I will attempt to clean up my language, there are times when an explative expresses the sentiment better than anything else can, so I will probably use it. I apologize for those who are offended by this, but again, it is what it is...
In March of 2009 I was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. In April of 2009, I had surgery to take margins and a sentinal lymph node removed. Sadly my body did not cooperate and the radioactive dye didn't drain to a lymph node. My Doctor said out of more than 500 patients I was one of 3 who didn't drain to a node. Proof that I am a genetic anomaly? Maybe.
September of 2012 I found a lump in my arm not far from the original melanoma site. To be honest, this freaked me out a little. Part of me knew what it was. I immediately made an appointment with my oncologist. Have I mentioned I was freaked yet? Yeah, scared shitless actually. So, I go see my Dr. who takes one look and says, "Stay here until the pathology guys come down to get a sample, then you can go to work and I'll call you when the results come back." Now, my Dr. has a great poker face, but I'm pretty sure he knew what it was immediately & without any test. He called me 2 hours later. They didn't even have to run the lab on the sample. What they saw on the slide was more than enough proof of it being melanoma.
This was a rather large and violent kick in the ass. I called my folks to let them know and my mom said, "I'll see you Friday." I tried to disuade her as nothing had been scheduled and I had no idea how long it would take to get tests & surgery set up, then there was the recovery time. Was the Dr. going to have to take part of the bicep or just the tummor? Mom, however is persistant and didn't want me to be alone. So out she came and we had a lovely month hanging out.
Be aware that insurance compaines are evil and will try to get out of paying for things. I am still fighting them over a PET/CT scan. Seriously, the first denial I got, they tried to tell me it was experimental. Then they said it was something else, finally they tried to tell me it wasn't Standard of Care. Really? Seriously? I looked it up. It IS Standard of Care for recurrant melanoma! Douche Bags!
Now, I can't really blame the poor schelps who answer the phones. They are only reading the crap someone else put in their computers. However some jack ass input the lies these poor people had to quote. Yeesh! then when you ask questions, they haven't the expertise to answer so they are sitting there sputtering into the microphone at you. Somewhere in there I was directed to the Insurance Co. Nurse who was supposed to be honest and answer my questions. Sadly I got a surly bitch who thought I was joking about the whole cancer thing. Like I enjoy riding in a claustrophobic machine unable to move for fun. She couldn't get me a copy of the Standard of Care as she was too important and that kind of work was beneath her. She said she would pass my request on. Note: She did not pass on my request. I had to ask 5 times to get the standard of care and it took about a month. All the while I have a deadly cancer growing in my right arm. Mom and I decided not to wait for the insurance company to pull its collective heads out of its very large ass. We got the test, and had the surgery. Sigh of relief!
The surgery: it was outpatient, thank heaven and pretty much killed my deductible in one fell swoop! Yay! Sadly I had to some up with that money to pay the bill. Booo! The surgery itself was really no big deal. I went in that morning, I was under for less than an hour, I was on my way home. I even cooperated this time, the radioactive dye did drain to the sentinal lymph node which they took and sent out to be biopsied. Sadly, the tumor was in a lymph node so not all good news. I had my friend Ruth drive as Mom doesn't know her way around Richmond, and that would give her someone to sit with while I was under the knife. They had to take more tissue this time so the scar is larger, and angrier. I also have a scar under my arm where they took the lymph node. It also took a little longer to heal this time. I used a sling because the skin was tight and it felt better to keep it protected.
A few weeks after the surgery, the insurance company had denied me again, they had a meeting at my office to ask questions of our insurance rep. I went, I waited patiently until the meeting was over, waited fro the room to clear out, cornered the rep, and let loose. She was appaled! She promised to look into it. Yeah, whatever! I had heard that from my HR person already. Hot damn, she called a few days later to let me know that she did in fact look into it and yes, everything was handled badly. She is the one who finally got me to where I could download the Standard of Care from the craptastic insurance co. website. Now when I say craptastic, I'm being generous. Cumbersome is too generous a word for that site.
O.K. I am getting tired and it is time for bed. More to come.
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