Discouraged in Vermont

Hi! I'm new, my name is Donna, and I live in Vermont. I'm 40 years old, engaged, and am self employed.... AND SICK OF BLEEDING! Please bear with me.

To make a long story short, after a lifetime of living with polycystic ovaries, infertility, miscarriage, heavy bleeding, discomfort... it came to a head about 2 months ago whereby I started to hemorhage (this is about 45 days into this period)... I called my obgyn, they prescribed The Pill, it initially helped slow down the bleeding, but a few days later while out of town I started to have severe pains and, no other word to describe it, flooding. Ended up walking into a womens clinic, whereby they took me right in, did necessary testing, you know all the fun stuff, and home I went,waiting for the results. In the meantime, I had contacted my insurance co and told them all this.... We thought we were ok.
The results were no cancer (thank god), but hormonal imbalance in the uterus.. basically my uterus was in several stages of the menstrual cycle, thus shedding the lining all the time. In the meantime the Pill has really been playing a number on my emotions, I'm prone to depression anyways, and this pill is NOT an answer for me! The decision to remove my uterus, and hopefully leave my ovaries was made.
My surgery was scheduled for March 25th... arrangements have been made for over two weeks, our lives have been rescheduled, and I was mentally preparing myself.... when the phone rang yesteray and the insurance company denied the surgery. You would think someone cut my legs off... I literally fell into bed and stayed there for the rest of the day. My fiancee has been dealing with the insurance company and doctor, we've appealed, and I wrote a letter pleading with them to reconsider so that I could get my quality of life back.... (I should mention that the reason they denied was because of HMO... this dr and hospital is out of area)... They want me to go to their doctor/hospital and start over. We are currently awaiting the appeal decision.

If it wasn't for this website I think I would still be in bed today. While I'm very depressed, and can barely move from the stress of this (which I must add surprises me how this has affected me)... I'm at least up and writing to you.

Thank you all for your sharing. Reading the posts have helped me make the decision, and knowing others have been thru this insurance crap is helping me cope.

Thanks for listening!
Donna

Hi, Donna -

You've really been through the ringer! I wanted to send a hug of support. I can relate well to what you are going through - I am currently going through a similar problem with some thyroid surgery I have to have. These insurance companies can be absolutely infuriating! I spent part of yesterday in tears about it all. Sometimes, HMOs will allow out of area doctors/hospitals - they may ok it on review, and I hope they do. If not, it may be worth talking to your primary care doctor about it to see if he/she can have any influence. If that doesn't work, maybe the doctor you had planned to do the surgery can give you the name of someone he/she feels is good at the hospital the HMO wants you to go to.

Most of all, hang in there - this will get resolved for you!!