Busy & Fun Weekend

On Friday I got a call from MDA about the insurance. The woman explained that we are still waiting and that if insurance refused coverage, we'd have to look at photon radiation. I explained to her that no, we are going to get proton radiation no matter what, we'd fight with the insurance company and if the worst happened, we'd find a way to pay out of pocket. She then changed her tune and said Plan B is to talk with benefits at the university, explain that proton radiation protects my intellectual and cognitive abilities, and have them explain to the insurance company that my IQ is essential to my value as an employee. I called Jason and he got on the phone with various people who know about insurance. He learned that the doctor here needs to talk with the medical director at the insurance company. He then called the insurance company and it turns out, MDA didn't even submit the "urgent" claim until Wednesday afternoon (the day treatment was supposed to start). The insurance person basically said they haven't even looked at the claim, let alone denied it, because they have 72 hours to review urgent claims. Ugh. So now we should hear by tomorrow what the first response is and if it's no, then the doctor needs to talk with the medical director. Then, if that doesn't work, we go to the university. Then we have 2 rounds of protest before an outside examiner weighs in. I'm hoping that we can sign something with MDA that we will be responsible if the insurance does not pay, then start treatment while still dealing with insurance. We are getting a little impatient.

Besides that, it was a fun weekend. Claudia, Bill, and Wendy all left yesterday. Alex Chaudhry (Rawls) came by today for a while. Alex Dailey (former student from my first class I taught at TTU) came by this evening and we had a nice dinner followed by some fun political conversation. So at least we have plenty of fun visitors to distract us and help the time go by faster, however, I'd really like to get this show on the road!

The diet is going very well. I'm learning a ton and I've determined after hours of reading that I need to keep my sugars almost non-existent and my carbs below 50g per day. I was able to keep my carbs at 21g today and it wasn't that difficult. What's interesting is how much fat (134g today) I'm getting in my food, but everyone I talked to at MDA said that losing weight right now is not a good idea. If anything, I need to put on a little weight to get ready for treatment. So I'm officially not going to think about weight right now.