and...

My insurance has to be the insurance that costs 237.00 a month. To save me some money, I am able to use the "normal" 45.00 a month insurance until January - because I can change to the expensive insurance during open enrollment in November. But I'm stuck with that expensive insurance for an entire year.

Bummer, to say the least. But I called my oral surgeon and she said that I can schedule my surgery in March. Wahoo!

Does anyone know - is that enough time for the appeal process? Or should I start appealing come January?

decisions, decisions

I have to make my insurance decision by Monday.... I think, though, that if things go terribly wrong I have the chance to change them when open enrollment comes in November. I called the other insurance choice, and they have a similar policy for orthognathic surgery - it is simply not covered except for in specific cases, but you can appeal.

Now that THAT is over (finding out that surgery could possibly be covered in two of my insurance choices), now I need to figure out which one covers the hospital and Dr. Lee. Hopefully in-network.

I left (another) message for Dr. Lee's patient coordinator, and I'm sure I'll talk to her tomorrow.

Keep your fingers crossed that the UHC insurance covers the hospital/ surgeon - because it's only 45 dollars a month, as opposed to 237 dollars a month. With everything else, coverage wise, being pretty much the same.

PS. Ran in to get some more splints today because mine are all wearing through - ended up getting a 20 minute appointment where my two orthodontists chatted with me about what's going on! I love my orthodontists. They are also trying to get me off of the splints and onto something different that isnt' so expensive OR so chewable. We'll see how it works, although it doesn't seem promising to me. I'll post pictures soon.

short quip

True story: Dancing in San Francisco last weekend, I ran into someone I had met in the summer of 2005 dancing in California. The first thing she says to me when she realizes it's me? "Ohh, you didn't have braces then!" like they were a permanent fixture on my teeth.

No kidding, super sleuth.

blogger is a pain!

Blogger issues = I didn't post the picture of the splint itself yet can't put it in there now, after the fact. So here it is, in it's splint-y glory:

And for the heck of it, a picture of my friend Heidi and I after running our first 10k! :) (In all of our sweat-y glory, ah hah hah!)

splint and new progress

Progress pictures! My front teeth are finally starting to look straight! A few nights ago I looked in the mirror while I was brushing my teeth and I realized that my front tooth was no longer sticking out at such an angle. Hooray! My overbite doesn't seem to be getting much worse this time (thank goodness... it's awful).

As I get further into teaching, my jaw is getting less and less mobile. Today during my beginning band class, the last class of the day I teach, my jaw actually locked closed for a little bit. Luckily, the kids were working on note reading, so I didn't need to talk. OUCH! The headache of tonight is incredible.... today was also probably due to the fact that I played my clarinet last night for band rehearsal, the first one since the spring.

I wish you could see it in this picture of my bottom teeth, but my front teeth are starting to get slight gaps in between them. Crazy! The big gaps from my extractions are closing up with a quickness... which is good, but they are becoming quite good at trapping food. Ugh. No more rice cakes for me at lunch. ;)

Anyway, tomorrow during my lunch time I'm going to try to call my oral surgeon's office so they can help me make my decision about insurance. Hopefully they know what kind of a time frame I'm looking at for appeal processes, how likely or unlikely each company was to accept the appeals, etc. Two insurance choices cost me around 250 dollars a month (OUCH, especially when last year it was free), one insurance costs me overall around 50 dollars, and one 30. I'm voting for the lower cost ones, of course, but I'll do whatever it takes to get my surgery to happen. Money might get really tight, but that's okay. We'll manage.

And last but not least.... my beloved splint. It's got water in the pads that go between my back teeth at night, and it rests itself on my upper gums right above my braces - my braces kind of anchor it in place. It's impossible to talk while wearing it, so wearing it while teaching is out. It makes me sleep with my mouth wide open (well, just forces my mouth to be wide open, and if I try to force my lips over it for long periods of time I get worse headaches than I had before the splint). So I have to have water around while I'm wearing it, or I get sore throats. The last negative thing is it's irritating my gums something fierce - which my orthodontist warned me it might. I switch it from upper to lower jaws, but it works best when it's on my uppers. I LOVE it. When I'm wearing it, it feels like my jaw just settles into where it's supposed to be, and instantly I lose tension all the way from the top of my skull into my shoulders. It's amazing. I'm in heaven.

Apologies for the fairly disjointed post... My mind is swimming with an upcoming dancing trip to San Francisco (Friday), missing instruments, teaching stuff, staff stuff, teeth and insurance stuff.... I decided I'd come home tonight and go to bed at eight :) Yay.

feeling better

We haven't gotten internet in our new apartment yet, hence the sudden lack of updating. I am appreciative about all of your lovely notes and comments.

Between you guys and one of my good friend's sister (who is a lawyer, and tells me she'll help me appeal once the time comes), I am feeling much better. While I don't technically qualify at this point, I feel that I can medically prove I need this surgery.

The splints at night really are improving my headaches, too - even during the day. Once we get internet again (end of the week or so), I'll post pictures of them. While I still have headaches almost every night, at least it's not during the day when I'm teaching middle school band and orchestra :)

And speaking of middle school band and orchestra, while I got quite a few questions about the braces from teachers and adults, not ONE student even really payed any attention to them. Gotta love middle schoolers :)

I'm breathing :)