Hurry up ..... & Wait!!

I'm sure many of you have been there before, you need an appt or results of some lab work. And you have to wait, wait, & wait some more. Of course, the funny thing is when you need something from them you seem to have to spend a lot of time waiting. But when they need paperwork, or payment they want you to hurry up.. So it seems to be a Hurry up ..& Wait game. At least that is what I seem to be in right now. A never ending loop of hurry up & wait.

I want to take a moment to thank so many of you for checking on me & asking if I have a date for my surgery yet.. Well unfortunately, I do not have an appointment, yet. Why??? You might ask, Well.. The simple answer is MONEY!! The nurse from UAB called last week. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork & send it in. Got that done, or at least I was under the impression we had it all done. Unfortunately, NOT!!

I have no insurance, and it seems since I have no insurance. I may have to wait a while. Hopefully not too long, since my symptoms seem to keep getting worse, & worse. Also I have to have another test at the UAB before my surgery can be scheduled. I will have to go to the vascular center at the UAB  to have a test called an IPSS. I've posted an article about it below that explains what they will be doing. 

Anyway back to my appt. Like I said first I have to have this test done. Well the nurse has now informed me that since I do not have any insurance I needed to apply for some financial help from the UAB for the test, either that or I had to sign a form stating I could & would pay for this test before it is done. When I was told this, I naively asked, "Well how much is the test?" She then tells me she couldn't tell me exactly but I needed to be prepared to pay  at least $10,000 for just this test.. After I started breathing again. I said, Oh! There is no way I can pay that before the test. Let's face it I just don't have $10,000 just laying around. So I had to apply for financial help from the UAB from a grant or something. So we had to fill out a lot of paperwork, & my dear husband had to get a lot of different things together to fax to them. So he got all of that accomplished. I called as the paper told us too, once we got everything faxed to them. Well then I was told, you will have to call back in about 3-5 business days to give us time to get everything in our system. Okay, so hurry up... & wait. Well I called back yesterday afternoon. At which time it seemed like they asked me everything they could possibly think of, which is fine except, ummm well I'm not the best person to ask questions now days. So she would ask me, I would have to apologize and turn around to ask my hubby. This continued  on & on, for what seemed like forever. Finally got done with a million questions.. To find out they now need even more paper work. Some of which we didn't have and had to call to get, Of course when Morris called, all he got was a computer. We needed to talk to a human so we could ask them to fax it to us. But obviously, humans do not get to work answering the phone anymore. So the computer told him it would be mailed to us in 5-10 working days. So therefore I have to wait around a week to get all our paperwork. Then when I finally get it, & we are able to fax everything to the UAB. After they receive it we then have to wait another 3-5 business days. To talk to them again. The woman on the phone told me when we talk next time. They might possibly have an answer to if I'm approved for the financial help or it could possible take 2-3 weeks to get an answer. 

So we are just doing lots of praying that we get approved. And lots of praying about the surgery. Thankfully if we are approved it will also help on the surgery. So we are sending up lots & lots of prayers. Because if this 1 test costs 10,000 I do not even want to imagine what the actually surgery cost, along with the cost of the doctors, hospital stay & etc. Please pray with us. The nurse I talked to that told me to apply for help was really nice, she was just letting me know what had to be done according to their policy. She also told me to stress to the financial dept.. how important it was for them to hurry this along. Which I tried telling them, but they didn't seem to get the hint that it needs to be rushed along. And some of the paperwork they have to have just seems ridiculous. But we have to do what we have to do. 

I just wanted to let you all know what is going on and why sadly I do not have an appt. yet. I really hope things can get moved along. Thank you all for your continued prayers for my family & I. <3 font="">

This is the info about the test I have to have done before they will do the surgery.

Catheter placement during IPSS testing

This test is performed by a specialist called an interventional neuroradiologist and should be done at a pituitary center where the procedure is routinely performed. When done by an experienced neuroradiologist, this test is safe and well tolerated You will be awake during the procedure, but sedatives are used so it's likely that you will have little memory of the procedure itself Two small tubes (called catheters) will be inserted into your femoral vein (the vein in the inner thigh in the groin region) and passed up your veins to your head The catheter tips will be placed near the petrosal sinuses so that one is on the right side and the other on the left side of the pituitary gland Another catheter (called the periphery catheter) will then be inserted in a different area of your body (usually the forearm), away from the pituitary* Baseline (the first round of samples with which later samples will be compared) blood samples are then drawn to measure ACTH levels from all 3 catheters (right side of the pituitary, left side of the pituitary, and periphery) Next corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) will be injected into your bloodstream to try and stimulate the tumor to produce more ACTH Additional blood samples will then be drawn from the three catheters ("right," "left," and "periphery") at different time points. In the chart to the left you will see that these time points are 2 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes after the CRH injection† Your test results will be compared to determine where ACTH levels are highest First the "right" or "left" catheter ACTH levels will be compared with the "periphery" catheter ACTH levels. If the "right" or "left" catheter have higher ACTH levels, this indicates that there is a tumor on the pituitary gland, which is producing the excess ACTH (Cushing's disease) Next, the "right" catheter ACTH levels are compared with the "left" catheter ACTH levels. Higher levels indicate that the tumor is most likely on that side of the pituitary -Tina