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current I love reading, cuddling with Kim and Bailyn, working with computers, playing The Sims 2, and waiting anxiously for the release of Sims 3. 
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2006-10-14 - 3:58 p.m. Yay, me. An entry 2 days in a row. I forgot to mention yesterday that Bailyn was cast as part of the jungle, which means she will be on stage for the entire play, singing and dancing with every song. She's thrilled. It may not be a major role, but I'll get to watch her the during the whole play instead of seeing her once or twice. OK, on the major subject of this post. I've always hated my overly large titties. They are 38G's, and they sag to my waist. I hate them. I've always had big boobs, and they have always sagged. Even when I lost all that weight when I was 16-17, they were still huge DD's. I've always said I wanted a reduction, but I never really considered it a possibility until Rebecca responded to my complaints/comments with a shocking, "Well, get them smaller." I laughed it off then, but over the next couple of days, I was thinking about it in a completely different way. Will the insurance pay? Naaaah. Well, they might....you DO have back and shoulder pain, Sherry. So I decided to call the insurance company and ask. Surprise, surprise. They pay for a reduction if it is deemed a medical necessity. I was told to have my doctor send a letter of predetermination, which would be reviewed and then approved or denied within 30 days. Would it be approved as a medical necessity? Of course not. Well....would it? I talked myself into making an appointment with a plastic surgeon for an evaluation. Why not?! If they say no, I'll be out the $25 copay. I saw the plastic surgeon last Monday afternoon. He took pictures and measurements. Then he asked all kinds of questions that I'd never really thought about. Do I have problems with moisture and rashes underneath my breasts? Yes, constantly. I had a rash this summer that covered the bottom half of both breasts that I fought with for over a month this summer. It was horrible...itched like crazy and my skin was peeling off in big sheets. Talk about nasty looking...they were a bright, raw-looking red. Do I have trouble breathing? Well, I don't think so. Can I inhale deeply and feel that my lungs are full of air? Nope....never have been able to do that. Always feels like I'm not quite getting there. I attributed it to being raised in the house with a chain smoker. Guess I was wrong. That's a common problem in women with very large breasts. He asked detailed questions about my back and shoulder pain. Truthfully, the pain hasn't bothered me in quite a while. It's uncomfortable at times, but it hasn't been really painful since I lost Joshua. After the examination, he had me get dressed and meet him in his office to discuss everything. Once we were in his office, he explained that he would draft a letter to send to the insurance comapny with the photos. I asked if he thought I would be approved. He said that he would be "very surprised" if they denied me. In most cases similar to mine, it is approved. He also said that my insurance company is very easy to deal with. He explained the procedure in depth and told me that a lift is included in the reduction. He then described all the advantages and disadvantages. I won't bore you with the risks of the surgery, but I was a little startled by some of them. I asked what his worst outcome had ever been and he told me about a older lady who was a smoker getting an infection and having bad scarring. He then said that I was a very good candidate because of my pale coloring, age, and the fact that I'm a nonsmoker. Pale skin tends to make scars less obvious than darker skin. Girls in their teens and early 20s tend to scar worse because of how "vigorously" their skins heals itself. Women in their mid-to-late 40s and older heal so slowly that their recovery is difficult. Smokers heal slowly and have worse scarring. After listening to all the facts and weighing the risks against the benefits, I decided to go ahead with the reduction if the insurance would pay. He explained that I would need to schedule a mammogram because they always liked to have a pre-alteration baseline to refer back to if I ever have problems in the future. They scheduled the mammogram for this coming Monday and told me that they would let me know when the insurance responded. They said my insurance company usually responds in 1-2 weeks and we would schedule the surgery when we received approval. When I got home from work yesterday, there was a message to call them. The woman who does the scheduling was already gone, but the receptionist told me that the insurance company had already approved it. I was like, "Wow....were the pictures THAT bad?!" She laughed and said the other girl would call me to schedule the surgery on Monday. Soooo....I'm getting a breast reduction. Going from a G to about a C. Because of several big projects at work that need to be completed by December 31, I'll probably schedule the surgery for early January. I'll keep you guys updated! 0 comments so far
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