Denied, again

Today I received a nice letter from UnitedHealthcare again denying my implant surgery. They stated the usually that is it not covered because ...blah blah blah. I think this will be the 4th letter I send to this company and I am really getting sick of this. I know it's their "job" to save the company money but come on.

On the plus side I have not gotten an infection from the implant surgery. That's a good thing. :)

Giving thanks.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving. This is the time where one should be giving thanks for what you have. I have semi good health. Semi part being amelo but I will talk about that later. I am thankful for my family. My brother and mother who I love to pieces. I am thankful for the support I have from my boyfriend and friends.

But I also reflect on what I have lost. 4 years ago almost to this day, I lost my father to a heart attack. I watched it happen right in front of me and it truly affected me emotionally. So it makes it hard around this time a year to be truly happy. I miss him.

I also think of amelo. It will be 2 years next month since my first surgery. I am thankful it was not cancer. I am thankful for the outcome of the surgery. I am REALLY thankful that it has not come back. But I am also tired. Tired of the doctor appointments. Tired of the CT Scans, X-Rays and MRIs. Tired of traveling 6 hours to Baltimore and back.


It is a mixed bag. But most of the human race has this in some form or another. I know it could always be worse. And for that I am truly thankful for what I have.

CT- Scan

In January 2009 I went to see my doctor at his private practice. He had this machine that Hopkins did not have. It basically captures a panoramic CT-Scan image. I just recently acquired a copy and wanted to show this. The images were done before they removed the plate.










Here you can see a scan of what my left side of my jaw looks like. You can also see the nail placed into my chin to hold the end of the plate in place.










Here you see the right side of my jaw. You can clearly see the plate and the fibula bone underneath it. It's amazing how small it is compared to my normal side.

Yes, antibiotics taste like crap

I got to the doctors office with 15 minutes to spare. Only a few people were waiting so I had my choice of seats. There was this one older guy sitting behind me, dead to the world. He was fast asleep and snoring-up the office. It was funny at first but it started to get on my nerves. I wanted to poke him in the leg and say, "wake up." Thankfully, he did so on his own. To tell you the truth I think he woke himself up.


I got called back to the operating room at 1pm on the dot. Very efficient. The assistant asked if I was there for just a routine check up. "Errrr....Nooooo. I am getting an implant done." I got scared for a second. Was there a mix up? But to my relief the doctor came in and asked if I was ready to get the implants done. Implants, as in plural. I hoped that they would be able to replace both implants that were taken out but I was not sure if that was possible.

Before the doctor got started with the procedure he handed me a tray with two pills on it. Antibiotics. What! He wanted me to take them to ward off getting an infection. Guess he knows my track record since I get an infection at a drop of a hat. The worst part about this was I can not swallow pills. I had to... chew them. GROSS! No, the doctor did not tell me to chew them, I can not swallow pills. It's a mental thing I mentioned on a prior posting. Believe me, they taste worse then you can imagine. I almost gagged from it. I had to rinse my mouth out with mouthwash to get rid of that taste.

The doctor came back and went over with me what he was going to do. I was ready as I was going to be. So I leaned back against the seat. He, in turn, brought out a big needle.

Here we go.