moulds and more moulds

And so the countdown is on!  One week from Wednesday.  I met with my surgeons again today for moulds and man that was the worst experience i have had with the impressions.  They had to take four on top to get two good ones and i was super grossed out by the paste and even gagged.  Then they put this torture-looking device on my head which went into my ears so that i couldn't hear anything.  I kept having to hold it in place while they did whatever they needed to do.  thank god that's over. over two hours spent in their office today.

i also learned that the genioplasty is no more.  they are just doing the upper jaw in two pieces, removing some bone and basically the jaw will be tipped up. we also talked about changes to my nose. yes, i should expect my nostrils to get a little bit bigger (crap!).  the stitches they put in will somewhat control that and he said proportion-wise, that it will actually fit my face better. mmmmkay.  they will be removing some bone in the nose and then cleaning out my sinuses, expect some bleeding from that. potention problems in include obviously swelling, bleeding, problems with teeth,etc.  fun stuff.

I never finished my post from last week but basically i had received a letter from my surgeon's office about fees (which i knew) and down payment (which I didn't know).  the last surgeon i had consultations with had required a down payment of  $1500 for the surgery.  stupid me, i just assumed most offices would be somewhere in that ballpark.  after reading their letter, which was sent to me only two weeks before surgery, i was informed that they required a down payment of 50% of the surgeons fees and 50% of the assistant surgeon's fees.  Say what?  You all know that this is not a cheap surgery and to require someone to put that kind of money down even though i have insurance is somewhat baffling to me. 

Which leads me to another point entirely.  I have good health insurance with a major provider.  I live north of Chicago, which has plenty of good oral surgeons, however there are zero oral surgeons that are in-network with my medical insurance.  Zero.  I spent hours upon hours calling surgeons.  They all would ask who my dental provider was and maybe they were in-network with my dental provider, but none were in network with my major medical provider.  So my surgeon is out of network and that means they will pay less of it but also there are no discounts, etc, etc. etc.  So I just feel like they have really stuck it to me and I was upset. 

Hopefully not everyone went through the insurance debacle, because it sure does suck.  Tomorrow i go for my pre-op physical.  I still can't believe this is really happening.