Well, I had promised myself that after the holidays were cleared out, it was time to pursue GCS. With Sue's help we dug into the insurance company search engine and tried to find what they call GRS surgeons. Well... it's not a search term they allow. You've got to choose from prepopulated pulldown lists, and it isn't a choice. "Gender" isn't an allowed choice, either. You have to know who you're looking for and where they are, then do a search by area and name. Luckily I've been collecting names for the last six months.
The ones I found that were in-network were: Bowers, Gallagher, Kuzon, Oates, Schechter, Bluebond-Langner, Rumer, and Ting.
Bowers would be wonderful. But there's no way I can wait four years. I need to wrap it up this year in case we lose insurance coverage next year. Kuzon in Ann Arbor is interesting because it's close to my home town, and I could recover at the Mother ship. But I've never heard of him or his work. Bluebond-Langner has a good reputation, and Gallagher seems to be up and coming. I don't remember much about Schechter in Chicago. I haven't heard of Oates in Boston, and I've been steered away from Rumer.
But when I saw the last one, my mind went "ting!" Where did I hear that before? Ah, Mt. Sinai in New York. And he's been doing the peritoneal method. Verrry interesting. I went to his website, and got to thinking, how can you go wrong at Mt Sinai? And he was trained by Marci Bowers. And... that dang peritoneal method keeps grabbing my attention. So I went to the page to request an appointment, filled in the form... and stared at the submit button. And stared. And finally went to bed.
The next morning there it was still, glaring at me like a big green eye. I stared. And I poked it in the eye. Off those electrons ran, all the way to New York. The next morning a reply came with general descriptions of how they work the process and what paperwork I needed to provide. On the first visit you meet with medical, social work (whatever that is) and mental health providers, in what are apparently three different interviews. The next visit would be with the surgeon. Those four consultations could all be handled in one trip, and theoretically they can set a date after the interview with the surgeon. The next trip then, would be for the surgery itself.
They requested a copy of my driver's license and insurance card, plus my address and phone number, which I provided. And that's where we stand at the moment. I don't know yet if this is the right way to go, but it looks like I'll be traveling to NYC soon.
And to be honest, that scares me a lot more than the GCS. I'm extremely uncomfortable in big cities, and they don't come much bigger. I've never been there, and am completely clueless on how things like subways and taxis and, well, anything works there. But I've broken down lots and lots of barriers to get where I am now. I can get through that, too. I'm keeping my eyes on the prize...
Stephanie
