Hurdler

Well, I've cleared the tiniest of hurdles by scheduling my pre-op appointment at Beth Israel, one round of blood donation, and my x-rays and appointment with Dr. Kim - May 28th is going to be a LONG day! Still need to figure out my other autologous (that means for me and me alone!) blood donation, though, since I'll either need to make another trip to BI or pay for the Red Cross to ship it down for me, which insurance may or may not cover. The lady at the BI blood place said it cost "a pretty penny" but had no idea of a ballpark figure. We'll see - much as I don't mind driving to Boston, there's the issue of timing the donation as well (and that pesky "also going to work" problem) to contend with.

Meanwhile, I've begun the joy of dealing with Blue Cross on the matter, and spent a good 15 minutes doing battle with the damnable Request for Prior Approval pdf. Jeez! Talk about user hostile! Absolutely no rhyme or reason to when it would and wouldn't let me fill in a box. And the whole point of the thing is to fill in boxes! Grrr. I was also reminded yet again of the value of calling customer service at least twice, so you can get at least 2 different answers to your question! It's always been that way, and this instance was no different - one told me I needed a form for both my pre-op and surgery, and the other said I just needed one. The marvelous Annette told me, however, that I'd only need one, and that woman knows her stuff! Dealing with out-of-network insurance from at least 3 states on a regular basis - I don't envy her, but I'm sure glad to have her as a resource!

Ew, and my blood donation is supposed to take 90 MINUTES! Jiminy! Add to that the fact that the last time I donated blood the tech told me she'd never seen anyone's blood flow so slowly. Oh man, I am not looking forward to it!