the day before

Got up at 6 a.m. this morning and took a quick peek out my window to see my car was still covered in snow from the previous day. Hoped there wasn't also ice covering the car hidden beneath the snow. I got dressed and piled up all of my stuff next to the door, and made sure I had everything I needed for the trip. Then I went outside to deal with my car.  Yep, ice on the car, kind of thick too. Darn it! Took several pushes of the "Unlock" button on my car remote and finally the stupid car unlocked. Started it up, turned on the defrosters, and got to work. Scraping ice off the car sure is tiring work but I eventually got it (even after trying the de-icer my sister got for me... that just kind of made a bigger mess instead). I eventually packed up all my stuff in the car, cleared up my windshield as best as I could (using the window washing fluid as that had antifreeze stuff in it too), and made my way over to my mom and stepdad's house. Eventually we got all of our stuffs in his car and we hit the road, first swinging by McDonald's for some breakfast.

I ate my breakfast sandwich and hashbrown, got comfortable, and doze off to sleep. Quick refuel stop in Cheyenne, and we kept on going. We finally arrived at Denver and went to Chili's for lunch. Just as we were pulling into Chili's, I got this relay message in my email:

i711.com RelayOperator 1557F
(f) i am a hospital provider my name is lois we have to cancel for appointments in denver for tomorrow uhm as i have not been able to obtain an authorization from wyoming medicaid and we cannot contact your doctor

Ahhh! Wait a minute! Medicare's supposed to be covering the surgery, and from what I had been told, we didn't need a pre-authorization from Medicaid for them to cover the remaining 20% that Medicare didn't cover. What's going on?! So I shot off an email to the CI surgery coordinator so she could help get this figured out. Tried to call the CI center with the relay app on my blackberry with no luck. While we were seated, I did end up getting another message from the same person at the hospital.

i711.com RelayOperator 80774M
(F)
meghan this is lois from swedish medical center in denver. you can disregard my earlier message your surgery is still on. you do not need to call the doctor. lois.

Whew! I calmed down, and ate a bit of my lunch, and we checked out. Stepdad dropped mom and I off at the hospital, and left. Mom and I made our way over the office building where all the different medical offices are since I had a pre-op appointment with Dr. Kelsall first. I checked in, signed some forms (consenting to the surgical procedure, consenting to a student audiologist observing the surgery, that sort of thing). Mom and I sat and flipped through magazines and chatted. Surgery coordinator got me and we talked of what went on during lunch. Turns out Medicaid wanted a paper trail of everything going on, so she had faxed everything over to them. Said everything was still on for tomorrow, no worries. Whew!  Went back to the waiting room, and was eventually called back to Kelsall's office. I waited a bit longer in his office until he showed up. He said my MRI results were still clear, no signs of ossification or blockage, yahoo! Definitely great news there. We chatted a bit about the surgery, he answered a few of my questions and such, and confirmed we're doing Advanced Bionics in the left ear. Then I was sent back to surgery coordinator's room so she could make copies of the paperwork I had filled out earlier to take with me to the hospital. She also wrote down directions so Mom and I could find our way to the pre-admission area.

Finally we left the CI center and walked over to the hospital. I checked in, answered some questions, handed over my insurance cards and such. We were led to the pre-admission area and met with the supervising nurse so she could get my interpreter request taken cared of. More waiting, then shortly after 3 a nice nurse named Pat led us into a small room. We went over my medical history, list of meds I take, allergies, all that stuff. She also drew some blood just to make sure my count was normal. Then we were done! Yay! All set for tomorrow!

We went outside the front of the hospital, about where stepdad dropped us off at. Mom had to call him to let him know we were done and to get us. Got to the hotel for a bit (stepdad got our suite while mom and I were at my appointments), had dinner with stepdad's sister and niece, then back to the hotel. It's been a long day, and I'm tired.

Still not quite sure if I'm nervous yet or not. All I know is it's been a long day so I will probably get to sleep soon enough... Whenever mom and stepdad get back from snack hunting. :) Hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow with the CI surgery! We will spend the night at the hotel tomorrow night, then head home Thursday if I'm up for it.

Oh, it turns out my dad won't make it. He was going to drive up from New Mexico, but he ran into some road closures in Raton (due to snow) and had to turn around. Darn it! The weather sure has been pretty nutty lately.