September 29

I finally have a date set for surgery. The surgeon's office emailed me this morning saying that they finally had the confirmation form the insurance company. The earliest spot they had was September 25. I was hoping to do the Headwaters 100 bike tour on the 27th, and I'm guessing I wouldn't feel like doing that two days after surgery, so I called the office to see when the NEXT available spot was. Turned out I would only have to wait until the 29th, so I took that. The primary disadvantage of the 29th is that it is a Monday, meaning all of my recovery will be during the work week.  Most people seem to be ready to go back to work after three or 4 days. The 25th would have given me half of that time over the weekend. At least I'll pick up a couple more days of leave between now and then.

The surgery is scheduled for 7:30AM on the 29th. That means I have to check in by 5:30 AM. At least I  don't have to be alert for most of that day.

Between now and then I still have a bit to do. I have to have a pre-op physical the week before, and two weeks before surgery, I have to give them a decision on which device I want implanted.

Nothing New

I called the clinic this morning, since I hadn't gotten a response to the email I sent last week after I was told I didn't need prior-authorization (One frustrating thing is they can be extremely slow in responding at times).  Like I thought last week, they want more than just a phone call to our HR benies coordinator we schedule (they don't want either of us to get stuck with an unpaid bill). So, their insurance department is going to contact the insurance company to confirm that we are clear to proceed. Hopefully, that shouldn't take too long.

Two weeks ago, they told me the earliest openings in the surgery schedule  were the second half of August. Presumably, that has  shifted as time has gone by. Even if it hasn't, at this point, I think I would prefer to  hold off until after Labor Day. I'd hate to miss out that last weekend of summer because I was recovering from surgery.

It's a Door

THIS:

Will be replaced with this:
                              

                     

I still have to paint it, and I am stuck with brown (plus required to have a storm door) due to HOA rules, but I think it will still look a lot better.

Update: It looks like doing the storm door is going to be a bit of a pain as well. the brick mold opening is 33 3/4", searching on-line, it looks like a 34" door will work. However, there are very few options in 34" (especially in the brown/bronze color I will likely need).  32" doors have more options, but I don't know if I could get one to fit. Otherwise, I'll have to get a custom sized door, and that is going to cost me.

Risks

These aren't the things that worry me most.

Probable lose of any residual hearing in implanted ear.

Anesthesia: rarely, death. Possible loss of teeth or laceration of phahynx do to trauma from endotracheal tube insertion

Possible injury to facial nerve, resulting in paralysis of the face on implanted side.

Possible injury to the taste nerve, resulting in loss or change of taste.

Possible balance problems, vertigo, dizziness.

Meningitis.

Longer term: 

Device failure requiring revision.

Ossification in cochlea or auditory nerve.

Not Good News

If this is a common view, it would explain SO much.

One Step Closer

I got this email today from HR (I had asked them if they knew who I could contact directly a the insurance carrier to check on the status of the request, since it didn't really go through the normal channels):

(insurance company) told me that Cochlear Implants do not require prior authorizations. (insurance company) has kept your forms on file should anything change with the claim but you are ok to schedule and receive services at the in-network level.

I'm guessing that the clinic will want some kind of written confirmation that this is actually the case, since it strikes me as unusual that this wouldn't require prior authorization. I'm going to contact the surgeon's office to let them know about this, and to find out if they need anything else.

I would have thought that the insurance company could have told me this four weeks ago.

Update: 

Not really much to add tonight. I sent an email to the surgeon's office, letting them know about this. Tomorrow, I'm going to stop by HR to see if they have a copy of the new plan/benefits summary, because I'm still really surprised that they don't require prior authorization for this. (Maybe this is related to the fact that I already had an approval from our previous carrier)

I mentioned last week, they said the earliest openings for surgery are the last half of August. Aa anxious as I am to do this, at this point I wonder if it might be better to wait until after Labor Day. I'd hate to lose out that last summer weekend for sailing, water skiing, swimming, etc. because I've got a healing surgical incision. Of course, it might not really be my call.

What Would You Miss?

I asked a similar question over at mnspeak, about what were people's favorite sounds in the Twin Cities, and got some interesting responses, including a maybe not so surprising number of nature sounds in the city. One that caught my eye: Union depot on Sibley Street, you can apparently hear the building's furnace through some grating.

Here, I'm wondering what people would miss the most if, one  day, they were to suddenly lose their hearing?

Why these questions? I started a list of things I hope to be able to hear or experience after I get hooked up. I don't plan to show this to anyone or post it before I at least have a date set for the surgery, maybe even activation. (This is in a large part due to an effort on my part to temper my expectations).  

As I've been putting this list together, I'm finding it's a bit weighted to certain types of sounds, so, I've started looking around to  see what else I've been missing that I might want to add to my list.

I know that there's probably a lot of things I never even thought about. For example, It was only in February, when I was using a loaner hearing aid in preparation for the audiology evaluation, that I discovered that the scanners at the grocery store beep when an item is scanned. It took a couple of trips to the store before I figured that one out.

So again, what would you miss most if you woke up one day and discovered you had lost your hearing?

Pink Is Not An Option

Met with the audiologist today about the devices. Turns out that I was wrong about the color options. The basic options for the head coils and processors are: beige (like my current HA, blarrgh), silver/grey, black, and brown. The real color "options" are in the side and face plates. The head coil for one manufacturer is a solid disk, so they have colored covers you can get for that too. The other head coil looks a little like a spoked wheel, so you're pretty much stuck with one color, although, someone handy with a sewing machine might be able to fashion some kind of cover.

So, basically, the real color options is in the trim. The plus of that though, is that you can change those plates depending on your mood. So, if you're testifying before congress or attending a funeral, you can stick with the basic color. If, afterwards you find yourself at a trip jam concert, you can slap on the psychaldelic swirl trim, and you're good to go.

Both BTE processors felt fine, but one was a little less noticeable, probably because the "T-mic" (which positions the microphone near the bowl of the ear) made the other processor a little more snug.

We went over the rest of my questions about the two devices. I've probably flipped back to my original preference, but I still have my doubts. I like the looks of this processor a bit better (it's also the one that was more comfortable). And the controls are buttons, rather than a small dial and a tiny little switch lever.

The biggest concern is, it uses only a single output for all of it's electrodes. That means that only one electrode can be fired at a time. The other one gives each electrode its own output channel, meaning that multiple electrodes can be fired at once.  Theoretically, that could allow for sensing a greater number of spectral frequencies. In practice, that isn't really happening right now, as a bigger factor is how many cochlear cells are being stimulated by the electrodes.

The other piece of information I got was related to the surgery schedule. I'm still waiting on the insurance company, but while we were talking, I mentioned the difficulty in trying to plan things more than a couple of weeks ahead.  The audiologist went and checked with the surgeon's secretary to see what the schedule looked like. When she got back, she said that if I were to get the approval in the next week, the earliest they could schedule me would be mid August. That means that I can make plans at least that far ahead (meaning, I can go ahead and register for the ND MS150 ride, which is at the end of July).

If there's no word from the insurance company by early next week, I guess I'm going to contact them to find out where things stand.