Beauty and Elimination of the Beast!

Well I got a lot of information today. My oral surgeon called me and we talked about his plans for my upcoming surgery. He mentioned how some of the big doctors like at Stanford who do this surgery everyday move the maxilla out a lot. I told him I had done a lot of research on it and that the average was around 10mm for apnea. He said "yes that is correct, they are pretty large advancments." He said that he had reviewed my cephs and that he feels that if he moves my maxilla out 3 mm and then brings my lower jaw to meet it (which will be 6-7 mm on the bottom), followed by a small genio that we will be able to effectively eliminate my apnea. He says the 6 mm on the bottom will actually give us about an additional 3mm in space as it changes the pull on the tongue. He said that he wants to make sure he eliminates my apnea but that he also wants me to look good too. He said he is encouraged by the fact that I was able to correct my apnea with the sleep appliance by just moving my teeth out to line up with my uppers, and that this surgery will actually move them a bit farther then that, so he is confident this will work for me. He also said that in addition to fixing my apnea, these measurements will give me perfectly balanced facial assymetry. He said that it will not change my appearance so much that people will not recognize me, but that it will improve my looks but also help me sleep like a baby.

He said he plans to do a one piece Lefort 1, as it doesn't appear that he will need to make any other movements then just straight out. He said that he will know more the closer we get to my surgery date though, when he does the actual practice surgeries on my models, and that if we need to change it then he will let me know ahead of time.

We will be submitting my pre-auth tomorrow. I have a wonderful women who works at my insurance company who hand processes all of my claims so that I don't have any issues. She has truly been a godsend, and I should know something definitively within about 2-3 days. I'm pretty sure it all will be covered as they had already approved the lower jaw advancement. It was in the original treatment plan with my SARPE. So this is really just a modified treatment plan and my doctor has written a note of medical necessity for it so it should all be good. I got the actual health insurance claim form with all the billing codes etc on it today. The total cost, just for the surgeon is $23,425.000. This does not include the hospitalization etc. I figure by the time we are done it will be upwards of $50,000. That scares me as even with a pre-auth there is no guarantee of payment. I have read that others have had this done, gotten pre-auth, and then had insurance refuse to pay. I don't think that would happen as I'm pretty sure I have covered all my bases, but it is just stressful since its so much money!

Anyway....I'm just happy to have a diagnosis and actual specifics on my treatment plan. The doctor said that he will have the schedule for May and June ready by next week and I can call and schedule out my surgery date. I will also make my pre-op surgery appointment at that time. So really short of getting the dates scheduled and my surgery hooks put on in the next couple of months there is not much else to do but wait.