Week 5 - Approval at Last!

I was going to make the title for this week My Eating Week because I celebrated my birthday all week by eating and eating and eating. But all that pales in comparison to getting my MRI approved FINALLY. Here’s that story.

I had another sleepless night so went to work Thursday tired and cranky, so of course I called Blue Cross. They’d had my appeal for 7 business days and despite having gotten a letter saying it would take 2 weeks, I decided to call. After voice mail hell and being on hold for 20 minutes, they told me it had been denied again. I asked them to email the info and took it down to Benefits. I was in tears within seconds, telling the director that I was at my wits end and asking what I could do. Long story short, she made waves somehow and got it approved. There were lame excuses galore, the best one being that my doctor hadn’t told them I was in PT, despite the fact that PT not working was the reason on the last appeal and it had 6 pages of PT reports attached. Whatever! Gayle called at 3:30 to say my MRI was approved at which point I burst into tears. But that was the beginning of a sea change and my luck was on the upswing.

After several emails and calls, I got a call Friday morning that there had been an MRI cancellation for Tuesday morning at 7:30 am. I was already scheduled for my Joint Academy (the 3 hour mandatory class for my knee replacement) for Tuesday afternoon so I called to see if they had a morning slot available and got the last one. With that rescheduled, I can now get the MRI, blood draw and class out of the way in one morning, which will only leave my pre-op physical. Time to get that scheduled in case they can fit me in for shoulder surgery sooner rather than later. I’m going with “it’s not a rotator cuff tear so quick surgery will work” and  have high hopes that the MRI will prove me right and I can get my shoulder fixed before me knee. Cross your fingers please.

All that said, it was my birthday week and the last week for one of the accountants so the eating was non-stop. We had a food day on Tuesday, I went to lunch with Dodie on Wednesday then dinner with Anne and Rene after swimming at The Piedmont Bistro, where the food was absolutely delicious. I will definitely be going back there. Thursday was lunch with the team (my official birthday lunch despite it being a day late) then a goodbye dinner after work for Jenny, the accountant who is leaving (our department, not UNL.) Last was lunch with Layton on Friday. By then I was desperate for some home cooking and done with eating out. I haven’t weighed myself but feel like I gained back every pound I lost of my last rotation. : (

There was one more meal out though – breakfast with Darla on Saturday morning. While I’ve been enjoying sleeping in on weekends, when I seem to be able to catch up on the sleep I lose because of my shoulder, I set my alarm and was in Lincoln by 8:00 because Darla face time is worth setting an alarm on a Saturday. We had a nice breakfast at Cook’s Café, talking long after the food was gone, then hit Big Lots, Joann’s and a junk shop before parting ways. I’d enjoyed the morning but was happy to be home before lunch so I had my afternoon to get busy.

I made a list recently of all the projects I need to get done before my surgery, with most of them centered on getting the spare room cleared out so Dottie, my sister who is coming for my first week home, can actually sleep in there. That room is my catch all so the bed is piled with stuff and there’s very little floor space showing. Oddly enough, going through the linen closet was step #1 because I had drawers full of extra linens in the spare bedroom that needed to be filled with stuff that’s currently on top of the bed. So I got the linens culled and reorganized Saturday afternoon, which gave me 2 empty drawers that I promptly loaded up. This left the top of the bed much clearer with just some clothes that need to be culled and put away. I even got a few of those off the bed before the weekend was over. I’ll do more of those this coming week.

Helen was coming over to hang out on Sunday afternoon so I got busy with chores on Sunday morning. It was relatively nice (above freezing) for February in Nebraska so I stripped my bed and changed my linens to my heavy winter ones and washed and hung the lighter comforter on the clothesline along with sheets and such. I cleaned out the refrigerator and delivered a huge bag of produce scraps to Lori’s chickens. At that point, I was ready for Helen, who arrived after 4:00. We chatted for hours and ate the sopapilla cheesecake she brought. More eating but worthy of every calorie. She left after 8:00 so real dinner wasn’t going to happen. I ate a Noosa and called it good. 

It had been a productive weekend and hope was in sight for my shoulder. How could I not call it a good week? The MRI approval was the icing on my birthday cake. And speaking of birthdays and junk food, get a load of the chocolate haul from all my friends. That will keep me in sweets while I’m home after my surgery. : )