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Breast Cancer Sucks, Love Amy: January 6, 2023: We have a date!!!

 Talked to Julie (Dr. Reading, general surgery) twice today.


We have a date!!!

First talk: Clearing up some confusion. In my talk with Julie, she told me that Emily (Dr. Katira, plastic surgery) was under the impression that it was that was the one who wanted to wait for genetic testing results before moving forward with my operations. I clarified with Julie that: No, that was not the case. I wanted to schedule my operation with as much immediacy as possible. And my most desired set of procedures would be a double mastectomy with reconstruction. 


Emily said that she was glad that we talked because she had put my case on the back-burner after talking to Emily, but that now she would call insurance right away to find out how my case can proceed in terms of coverage and approval.


Second talk: I have a prospective date!  February 3rd. She said that she had talked to my insurance (United Healthcare) and they said that in Utah, the doctors didn't need pre-approval for the bi-lateral mastectomy. So that would make us good to go for the bi-lateral mastectomy part. However there is one little snafu - the insurance policy renews/changes over on January 16th, so there will be a new policy. With luck, the new policy will be much like the old one. Here's hoping.


I also decided to call Emily (Dr. Katira's office, Plastic surgery), even though I was a bit hesitant, because of yesterday’s frustrating phone call. Maybe she had just had a bad day, yesterday, but I really felt like talking to her was a lot like talking to a brick wall. I didn't feel like we were communicating AT ALL. 


But I wanted to put my best foot forward with Emily, so I did my best to talk to her and thank her for calling the insurance on my behalf. (Which she told me that she would do after the insurance change-over date, and after hearing first from Julie.)  I thanked her for advocating for me. This is, in a sense a bit of her job, as well as just "dealing" with the codes and paperwork. So I want to keep her on my good side.

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