Somehow or another, I was able to get my health insurance to expedite my appeal. I will now have an answer by Friday. I almost can’t believe it.

Then again, I worked my ass off to push it to this point.

A few days ago, I had my therapist write a letter about how important it was for me to get the lateral incision lines, and the other day I faxed them a clause from their own policy. The clause states that they have no other choice but to allow me to go out-of-network if no other providers in-network can help me. And such is the case. I’ve also been having severe depression over this entire ordeal; therefore, I need this thing expedited like yesterday.

Now I feel pretty good that it’s going to be approved.

If it’s not approved, for whatever reason, I have already scheduled the surgery for March 24th–but that’s only if I pay out-of-pocket. If the insurance pays, I can’t get in until April because the doctor does the surgery at a different facility. I’ll be stupid not to wait, but I have to.

Waiting is torturous. I thought I was doing this in a couple of weeks from now. But as soon as I know it’s approved, I’ll call and schedule it for as soon as humanly possible.

Now, unless the insurance denies the appeal right away, it probably will take by Friday because they have to initiate a “Letter of Agreement” with the Gender Confirmation Center to negotiate the doctor’s fee. The fee has to be less than an in-network provider charges, which I believe the doctor’s office will find acceptable. They work with Medi-Cal managed care all the time, so I’m pretty sure that part will be A-OK.

Even waiting until Friday is difficult, but it’s way better than waiting until the 22nd. It’s just that I keep getting more and more impatient about this.

Either way, Hannah and I decided to drive to San Francisco, not fly. It’s the same cost no matter which way we go. Flying is riskier in terms of Covid, plus we need to bring a lot of supplies for my aftercare. Getting all that shit on a plane is a pain in the ass.

So there you have it. That’s the news.