04/08/10: Yet another two-a-day day...

I'M APPROVED!

I sent an email to my advocate this morning asking 1) when another call would be made and 2) if getting on the schedule next week would still be an option like it would have been this week if it had worked out.

She emailed back and said that unlike this week, next week my surgeon is there on Mon and Weds.  She'd have the insurance peeps call in tomorrow to see what they could learn.

Monday's an option?  Really?  Monday isn't too far off of my Friday deadline.  If I had surgery tomorrow, which I can't do, then I'd have all next week off anyway.  So I'm three days off my getting back to normal food for class.  It's still quite workable, I think.  Monday sounds fantastic.

Grr...now what do I do, I think to myself?  I've already vowed I won't call again because it just kills me to hear yet another standard answer.  So I call my husband.  What to do?  But he's not answering his desk or cell phones.

Grr...now what to do, I think to myself?  Who can I talk to here, I think to myself?  Someone that knows what I'm doing, is friendly, is nice - and yet is someone whose answer I can't predict.  I have two people here I talk to.  One is on vacation this week and the other is a good friend who is crazy busy right now.  It's lunch time.  I decide to bother him anyway.  So I go bother him. 

This friend and I have a bet.  When I get to half my weight lost, he will have to cut back on smoking by half.  When I get to all weight lost, he will have to quit smoking. 

But while we have this bet and he knows what's up and he's supportive about it, I haven't been telling him the step-by-step blows of these phone calls.  So I fill him in.  We talk about insurance in general and how this process doesn't need to be like this.

Anywho, at the end of the conversation, my friend says, call one more time this week.

(I had told him that my provider's office would be calling tomorrow so this answer meant call today.)

Not expecting much, I went into the "quiet room" and made my call.  I didn't take pen, paper, my cell phone or anything.

I call.  I tell her what I'm looking for.  I expect to hear your claim is still in review after a few seconds of her perusing my file.

But instead I hear "your claim was approved, just this morning, in fact.  Would you like your approval number?"

And before I said yes to the question, I said OMG, I love you!  She laughed.  And then I said yes, I'd like the approval number but I need to go get paper and pen.

So I put the phone down, ran to my desk, got my paper and pen and ran back.  She gives me the number and I ask a little about the deductible and OOP-Max and at the end of the conversation I tell her she just made a very positive impact on my life.  She laughed again.

I got off the phone with her and called my advocate.  Of course, it's lunch time, so she didn't answer the phone.  I left a message with the approval number and, of course, asked her to call me back as soon as she can.  I hope she calls soon.

Then I called my husband who still was not answering the phone.  So I sent a text that said "Call me call me call me!!"  "Wait, I'm going to the bathroom, give me a few minutes."  Once done there, I sent another text "Call me call me call me!!!!!" and he called me back in like two minutes.  When I saw the number I just picked up the phone and said "I'm approved".  I think he started to cry he's so relieved to finally being moving forward!

We talked for awhile.  And now I'm waiting on my advocate to call me back.

So that's what I know.  The waiting is done and now a new kind of waiting can start!  I'm sooooooooo excited!!!!!!