A Week To Go!

My Surgery will be March 12th. On the 10th I have pre-admitting at the hospital at 9am. This appointment is a physical. I'm doing it at Baylor Hospital in Downtown Dallas. I live in walking distance from this hospital so I think I'll walk to my appointment. I'll go see Dr. Franco at 11:30. At 2:30 I'll go to the dentist and get a good cleaning. I figured I may as well try to get them as clean as possible beforehand. This Tuesday the 4th I'll also go see Dr. Franco to make a payment. As of now, I'm denied from CIGNA and they're asking for a 'peer to peer' review from the physician. This is where my doctor calls them and tells them why it's medically necessary. The politics of medical insurance are such a bore. I'll be posting more from now on. There wasn't much to say prior to this but now things are rolling.

Hooks On and No Turning Back

I went to see Dr. Simon this morning and she said, "Oh no!" when she saw my teeth. My incisor had moved behind the front tooth. I'd already taken my molds so she worried that if Dr. Franco used the mold to make the splint then it would be wrong on surgery day. She spent an hour trying to get the doors open (I've had problems with the bracket doors opening the entire treatment) and pulling that tooth back into place. It was really painful but she got it right and got my surgical hooks on. After my visit to Dr. Simon's office I went to Dr. Franco's office. They took molds (so no problem about the tooth after all) and wax bites. Whenever I take a wax bite I always mess it up. I tend to do my best to bite the wax when I shouldn't. If I bite naturally, there is no bite mark because I have an open bite. I had to tell him that the bite didn't feel natural, so we did it again. After the impressions we did some X-Rays. Dr. Franco came in to visit with me a while and take pictures and measurements. It's embarrassing when people get up close to my face and examine it. I don't know where to look. At their shirt? It's weird to stare back into their eyes. I had some questions: Q: What are the chances I'll get staff infection? A: Practically none. One patient before had an infection and it was because she had bad hygiene. Q: My tongue presses against my teeth now, if I continue that, will it affect my teeth in their new position? A: There will be plenty of room in my mouth after for my tongue, it's too crowded now. Q: Can I use my waterpik or a humidifier after surgery? A: No. Use a baby toothbrush and NEVER blow your nose or force drainage. Just let it run and dab it with a tissue. Q: Will I pee on the operating table? A: You will be asleep so it won't matter. After my talk with Dr. Franco, I met the financial advisor to talk money. She said that they are In-Network with all Cigna plans except mine. She said that Cigna covers my surgery but she doesn't know my plan well and is not sure if/what they will pay. As of today, a surgical molding process begins and it is very expensive for the office therefore I cannot back out of it for financial reasons. (I wouldn't anyway.) Worst Case Scenario: Cigna pays nothing and I pay everything out of pocket. This wouldn't be a shocker, I've paid everything out of pocket so far anyway. Best Case Scenario: I get 50% paid since my plan is out of network. I'll leave you with some photos of my hooks. I may have to swing by Dr. Simon's office tomorrow and get a wire clipped. I can feel it poking me in the back of my cheek.

Date Set

I saw Dr. Franco yesterday. We set a surgery date for March 12th. I'm still waiting to hear back from Insurance. I'm guessing they'll want to keep playing games, but we'll see. Dr. Franco went over the details of the surgery with me again. The surgery will be 5-6 hours and he'll break my top and bottom jaws, split my palate, move the jaws forward and rotate them slightly, rebuild both TMJ joints and reduce some cartilage in my nose. Crazy. Well today was a snowy day in Dallas. It snowed so much that we got to leave work at 3pm. I'll leave you with a photo of how yellow my teeth have become. They used to be clean and white and now they're not even in the white family. They are in the pastel orange family.

Getting Closer!

I saw my Orthodontist this week. She took molds of my teeth and made a small adjustment to my wires. We made an appointment to get surgical hooks on March 3rd. They told me that surgery usually comes 2-3 weeks after this appointment. My orthodontist and surgeon will look at my molds and if he thinks I'm ready then we can move the hook appointment to an earlier date. So, now I'm just waiting. My Orthodontist is Dr. Simon and my Surgeon is Dr. Franco. Dr. Simon gave me my patient photos so I could post them on my blog.

ObamaCare isn't Working Out.

The company I work for offers healthcare to everyone but me. I got the job through a placement agency. I told the agency my salary requirements and asked them to send me on interviews that offered at least that salary. I met the hiring manager and she offered the salary I wanted with benefits. The agency places you in the company and basically you work 90 days at a "discount" which goes to the agency. After 90 days you become a permanent employee. If you have not already guessed what happened, the hiring manager asked for their "best" and she got it...me. She never bothered to ask the owners what the position paid. I worked the 90 days and then spent an additional 30 bartering for my position which I'd already been offered under false circumstances. I was kind of backed in a corner because I'd spent the 90 days working for cheap, so I'd planned on that financially. I could leave and get placed somewhere else (and the same thing could happen again)or I could take a lower salary with benefits or I could take the salary I requested and not get benefits. At the time, we were only a few months away from Obamacare and I assumed that I could get insurance cheaply through that source. By the end of next year, I will marry my boyfriend and I can go on his plan through his company. No problem right? Wrong. October 1st, 2013 I go on the ObamaCare website and try to enter my information and setup my health plan. It took me around 35 days to get everything entered. Once I was able to get everything entered I could see the plans I could chose from. They ranged in price from $130-$400. I chose a Cigna plan that was very expensive but supposedly paid for Orthognathic surgery and hospital bills. I applied and there was no information on how to pay the premium. I called the customer service number and was on hold for 45 minutes. They told me Cigna would send me info in 48 hours on how to pay. They said if Cigna didn't contact me in that time to call them. So 48 hours came and went. A full week passed and I received nothing. I called Cigna and was on hold 1 hour and 34 minutes until someone picked up. I told him I needed my paperwork and needed to make a payment. He asked me what state I was calling from and said he needed to transfer me to that department. He disconnected me. I didn't call back that day. A day or two later I called again. Another hour an a half hold time and my call was taken and I was transferred 6 times! Finally they transferred me out of the company completely and back to Marketplace! Of course they said they had my application and told me to call Cigna. Ha! It was so stupid I couldn't believe how much time I'd wasted. A full month passed where I was trying to pay my premium until finally I just thought well screw it, if it is this hard to pay them I would never be able to get them to pay for anything that I needed. What a waste of money. So I went back on Marketplace and cancelled my Cigna application. The website doesn't let you cancel. It's really stupid because there is a place where you can change or edit your plan and takes you through the whole process, but then when you finish and press enter it has an error message that pops up and tells you you're not supposed to do that. So I'm not sure why they have that on the website if you're not allowed to change. It was another huge waste of time. Anyway, the next day Cigna sent my paperwork. I am not going to give them any money. I'm thinking that it will be easier for me to just pay the entire surgery out of pocket. The payments will be about the same as my insurance premium! It would be like buying a car. I feel like the stress and worry of the surgery itself is enough. There is nothing I can do to make it better, so I should just forget about it. This has all been very annoying but I'm still staying positive.

Spinwheels

It's been a couple weeks since the last post I did about switching out my brackets. I wanted to note that on that visit they put these spinwheels on the wire. Spinwheels is a word I made up. I know this because I looked it up in the dictionary and it wasn't there. In between the lateral incisor and the canine they put these circular wires. They are like those slinkys from my childhood that I would drop on the first step of the stairwell as a kid and watch it slink down. Anyway when I lick my teeth it cuts me every time because they are tongue pinching jerks. I would also like to mention that in the two weeks since that visit my bite has drastically changed. Nobody has said anything about my appearance but I can see a huge difference. The bite is really open now, my cheeks are very round--they were round before but now I look like an apple head. I am having an even harder time chewing than before. Also, my lips don't touch when my jaw and bite are at rest.

Brackets Changed

Today I changed out my bottom brackets. They have these doors that open to fit the wire through and the ones I had were faulty. The doors would stick and they would have to really struggle to change my wires each month. My Orthodontist said that she'd tried that brand for the first time and they were sticking on everyone. They mentioned at first that the adults were having more trouble than the teens because they drank less soda. The soda erodes the doors enough that they are more easy to open. I don't drink any soda, so they were the same bad fit each time. I bought a toothpaste with baking soda to try to help but it didn't work. Taking the brackets off are really uncomfortable if you've got braces for the first time (This is my second time to have braces). It's sore on the tooth but for me the most awful thing is the cold air and cold water on my teeth and against my gum line. I hate it. My Orthodontist said that next visit we will do surgical impressions and she will meet with my surgeon about them. If he says they look good then I can book a surgery in March. Exciting! And scary. I asked the receptionist if she'd send photos they took of my teeth, for this blog and she said she'd do it tomorrow. In the meantime here are some of my own.