Whew this was a busy week and mixed in with all of the craziness we experienced the first road block to having the stimulator placed. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans ... They went to a complete halt when the insurance company denied the procedure.
Fortunately we are not out of hope, last year my head ache specialist recommended I obtain the help of a nurse advocate through my insurance company. Who knew there was such a person, but, there is and while at the time other than establishing a relationship we did not need the nurse's help. Well, when I got the rejection letter one of the first calls I made was to my nurse advocate. The nurse helped me understand the appeals process and encouraged me to work closely with the my referring doctor to submit it. In addition in the processes of reviewing my circumstances she discovered I had been pre-approved for as many Botox treatments as my Dr. feels I need through Feb 2012. One of the reasons Botox treatments have been an issue is the length of time for the pre-approval (now taken care of) and scheduling the Dr. required usually about six weeks of misery before the treatment is done and kicks in. So at least one hurdle has been knocked down and should shorten the time I spend in headache misery.
So moral of the story expect rough seas and get a nurse advocate at the very least they can talk through options with you. -SG
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A New Hope
Yesterday I had an appointment at OHSU with a Dr. who specializes in Occipital Nerve Stimulation. Going to the appointment my wife and I were afraid the Dr. would say I was not a candidate for such a device, we were wrong. Much to my surprise we learned that I was a candidate for a nerve stimulator and as we have been feeling and fearing it is pretty much my last hope.
You may ask why pursue this when the Botox works well? The answer is simple Botox lasts for me around 2- 1/2 months followed by six weeks of complete agony if not heck. For instance the last five days prior to the Botox treatments I was taking no pain meds but two anti nausea meds, muscle relaxer, and for good measure blood pressure medication (the last two did not do any thing at all) and still I vomited 16 times (once 5 different episodes in one day). So when the Botox works life is good but when it wheres off the headaches are completely unmanageable.
So that leaves us with the occipital nerve stimulator. I still have lots of questions about it, but feel at-least there is hope in front of us to improve the overall quality of life and not just 60% of the year with the other 40% in a complete meltdown. But for now it is a waiting game as we can not pursue the stimulator until the Botox wheres off. If past history is an indicator of future results my prediction is sometime between May 8th - May 15th. I never thought I would anxiously await the return of my personal beast and in reality I am not, I just have hope for the future.
I will update the blog as I find answers to my questions and have results from our latest adventure. -SG
You may ask why pursue this when the Botox works well? The answer is simple Botox lasts for me around 2- 1/2 months followed by six weeks of complete agony if not heck. For instance the last five days prior to the Botox treatments I was taking no pain meds but two anti nausea meds, muscle relaxer, and for good measure blood pressure medication (the last two did not do any thing at all) and still I vomited 16 times (once 5 different episodes in one day). So when the Botox works life is good but when it wheres off the headaches are completely unmanageable.
So that leaves us with the occipital nerve stimulator. I still have lots of questions about it, but feel at-least there is hope in front of us to improve the overall quality of life and not just 60% of the year with the other 40% in a complete meltdown. But for now it is a waiting game as we can not pursue the stimulator until the Botox wheres off. If past history is an indicator of future results my prediction is sometime between May 8th - May 15th. I never thought I would anxiously await the return of my personal beast and in reality I am not, I just have hope for the future.
I will update the blog as I find answers to my questions and have results from our latest adventure. -SG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)