Survivor's guilt, as defined by one online dictionary, is "A deep feeling of guilt often experienced by those who have survived some catastrophe that took the lives of many others."
Two weeks after my pre-surgical consultation, I got a thin envelope in the mail from my insurance company. I knew right away what it was: my denial. Good! I thought. Now I can start on my appeals and get this puppy moving forward. It was disappointing for sure, but at least I had an answer. Then I opened the envelope.
It wasn't a denial. My insurance company approved me. Without a fight. That's practically unheard-of in the lipedema community. I've heard of people having to go through appeal after appeal, finally ending up in third-party review, some even needing to get attorneys or patient advocates to fight for them. And still, many fail. Their insurance just gives them denial after denial.
In the insurance world, liposuction is still often seen as a cosmetic procedure. While early-stage lippy ladies can and do get cosmetic results from their liposuction, this surgery is not intended to make our legs look better. I'm at such a late stage that nothing will ever give me conventionally pretty legs. I'm simply wanting functional legs. Liposuction will, hopefully, give them to me.
I guess my insurance company recognizes that fact. I have many things going for me that maybe other lippy ladies don't. For one, the hospital through which the surgery will be done is part of the network that employs my husband. Both the hospital and the doctor are in-network for my insurance. I'm also at a fairly late stage but I'm not yet suffering from a lot of generalized obesity, which can mask the condition and cause insurance companies to insist that women lose weight first as a conservative treatment measure (which, to be fair to them, MIGHT help reduce the pressure on the joints -- the problem is that the lipedema fat skews the metabolism and makes it really hard to lose regular fat as well, leaving women with few options apart from weight loss surgery).
But they approved me. And while I'm thrilled to my toes, I'm also pretty scared because, well, surgery is scary. On top of that, I feel guilty that it was so comparatively easy for me. I went to the doctor, submitted to some essentially naked pictures (ugh, ugh, ugh), and he sent the pictures and my records to the insurance company.
Two weeks after my pre-surgical consultation, I got a thin envelope in the mail from my insurance company. I knew right away what it was: my denial. Good! I thought. Now I can start on my appeals and get this puppy moving forward. It was disappointing for sure, but at least I had an answer. Then I opened the envelope.
It wasn't a denial. My insurance company approved me. Without a fight. That's practically unheard-of in the lipedema community. I've heard of people having to go through appeal after appeal, finally ending up in third-party review, some even needing to get attorneys or patient advocates to fight for them. And still, many fail. Their insurance just gives them denial after denial.
No one should have to fight so hard to get essential healthcare.
In the insurance world, liposuction is still often seen as a cosmetic procedure. While early-stage lippy ladies can and do get cosmetic results from their liposuction, this surgery is not intended to make our legs look better. I'm at such a late stage that nothing will ever give me conventionally pretty legs. I'm simply wanting functional legs. Liposuction will, hopefully, give them to me.
I guess my insurance company recognizes that fact. I have many things going for me that maybe other lippy ladies don't. For one, the hospital through which the surgery will be done is part of the network that employs my husband. Both the hospital and the doctor are in-network for my insurance. I'm also at a fairly late stage but I'm not yet suffering from a lot of generalized obesity, which can mask the condition and cause insurance companies to insist that women lose weight first as a conservative treatment measure (which, to be fair to them, MIGHT help reduce the pressure on the joints -- the problem is that the lipedema fat skews the metabolism and makes it really hard to lose regular fat as well, leaving women with few options apart from weight loss surgery).
But they approved me. And while I'm thrilled to my toes, I'm also pretty scared because, well, surgery is scary. On top of that, I feel guilty that it was so comparatively easy for me. I went to the doctor, submitted to some essentially naked pictures (ugh, ugh, ugh), and he sent the pictures and my records to the insurance company.
On a side note, what does that say about my legs that the insurance company doctor took one look at them and said, "Holy heck, someone get this woman some lipo stat!!!"
There are so many women still fighting for their surgeries, and it's hard not to feel a little (lot) guilty that it was so easy for me. But at the same time, maybe the ease of it is a sign that the times, they are a-changing. Maybe more insurers are recognizing that this is a serious, debilitating disease and that paying for surgery is a lot cheaper than paying for joint replacements, weight loss surgeries, vein surgeries, and the numerous other serious treatments and procedures that can become necessary once the disease starts causing complications. And it will. Unless a woman is lucky enough to stay in stage one or two (and many women do), late-stage lipedema invariably brings terrible complications with it.
I'm lucky. But I shouldn't be. Safe, timely, appropriate healthcare should be our right. We pay for our insurance -- a lot, if my premiums are anything to go by. So it just seems fair that it's there for me when I really need it. I hope that soon every lippy lady will be able to be diagnosed and get whatever proven treatment that she and her doctor deem safe and appropriate for her needs. (I say proven because obviously insurance isn't going to want to pay for chicken sacrifices -- but early liposuction studies have demonstrated that its benefits last at least seven years and likely more for lipedema patients).
Now, the day after I got my approval, I got a much bigger envelope in the mail. This envelope had something different in it: a denial. The insurance company was happy to pay for my legs but not my abdomen or my arms. They say there's not enough distortion in them to qualify for treatment yet. Well, it's a start. And while I'm not worried about my arms -- they're absolutely hideous and quite painful but also still completely functional -- I do worry about my abdomen. I see lippy lumps starting to grow there, visible lumps, and it concerns me because abdominal fat can strangle the organs and increase the risk of heart health problems. So while I might be happy to back-burner my arms, I will likely appeal the torso procedure once my legs are done. I don't want to die of heart disease thanks to lipedema. I want to live a long, healthy and ACTIVE life.
No comments:
Post a Comment