Can't Believe it...

We're still in shock over here.

Last week my cardiologist's Medical Assistant called to say my cardiologist was trying to get in contact with my neurologist to decide the best course of treatment for me. Yesterday the MA called me back to say that after consulting with the neurologist, he felt that closing the hole "wouldn't be unreasonable". I was pretty shocked since I had prepared myself for more of the same disappointment. I had to actually ask her what that meant a couple of times to understand she was saying he agreed to do the surgery. Wait, huh? YAY! We are still completely confused about what caused the turn around exactly, but we decided not to push it and ask for more explanation. (I might ask more AFTER the surgery). I then made a thousand phone calls to insurance and trying to figure out family coming to babysit. Now that we had the procedure codes we could find out if insurance would cover it for sure. They specifically asked me if I was having it because of migraines. I said no. They said that I could then be covered. HALLELUJAH! It will still be thousands, but not the $40k it would have been out of pocket. I am so glad we waited, even though it was so hard. We could have jumped the gun and said to heck with Dr. M, we'll have Dr. G do it and just pay for it ourselves. But I really felt we should just play Dr. M and IHC's "game" and see where it gets us. I do think it's a complete injustice to all those people with a PFO and who suffer from Migraines. This procedure could help them and HAS helped a lot of people!

The MA had given me the option of having it done April 5th by Dr. M's colleague, but she then called me back and said Dr. M wanted to do it himself because he is familiar with my case, but wouldn't be able to do it until April 10th. I'm pretty confused about this, seeing as he didn't seem too eager to even talk to me, let alone perform the surgery himself. I agreed to wait until April 10th, again-trying to just be easy going and not tick anyone off until I get the surgery. I haven't had a stroke thus far, so waiting 5 more days should be ok, right? (If I happen to have a stroke before April 10th, you can all point at this and laugh, I give my permission)

We are super excited over here and can't wait to put this behind us. I would actually like to take a walk or ride my new bike and you know, live life (although does this mean I have to do laundry again? lol). I'm excited to exercise finally, all those steroid treatments and being down for so long has wreaked havoc. Hopefully after the surgery we will then finally be able to rule out or rule in MS and get rid of the tingling in my face and the weakness in my arm and leg. They said it could take up to a year for the tissue to grow around the device, so I won't be back to myself for a long time, but I'm excited to get started!