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Thursday, April 8, 2010

Letter of Necessity and Tailbones

So...went to my PCP yesterday.  My husband and I set up a joint appointment with our PCP to talk about providing letters of medical necessity for our lapbands.  My husband sees him about once a year for a physical but I NEVER go to the doctor.  If I need antibiotics or something, it's because I'm sick and this guy is not good about getting you into the office in a timely manner.  In light of this, I go the Urgent Care or the Minute Clinic to take care of it instead.  This is why my 5 years medical history came from my lady doctor because that's the only doc I see religiously (except for my lapband surgeon, of course  :o) ).  So...anyhoo...I was afraid he would fight me on the letter since he doesn't really know my history.  He didn't.  He asked for a sample letter from my surgeon (which we have) and said he'd forward it right away so WAHOO!  So...I'm providing the sample letter with some personal information about me and my hubby to help him out when writing it.  I'm going to have to get creative with mine since we're kinda missing the whole comorbidity piece. 


The other reason I was at the doctor was for my tailbone.  Yes...my tailbone.  No...I didn't fall.  Ever since I had my second daughter (so two years ago), I've had a come-and-go type pain when I sit for long periods of time.  It was so come-and-go that I never got it checked out.  For the last month or so, however, it has been consistent.  If I sit for more than 15-20 minutes, I get this pain and then when I go to stand up, it's a sharp pain.  Once I'm up and walking, I'm good.  Unfortunately, I have a job that requires me to basically sit for 8 hours a day.  While I do get lunch and two breaks, they aren't every 15-20 minutes apart.  Truth be told, I oftentimes don't get the breaks at all and I'm on TONS of conference calls that require me to stay at my desk as I do not have a wireless headset.  So...finally sucked it up since I was at the doc's office anyway.  He says it's one of two things:
  1. A broken or dislocated tailbone
  2. An irritated or enflamed tailbone
Okay...I'm not going to get into the mental images I have of an irritated tailbone...as if it's yelling at my bowels to move over or PMS'ing about something.  Doc said that if it's enflamed, he'll send me to a specialist that will numb the...ahem...area and give me a few shots of medication directly to the bone which should take care of the pain and allow it to mellow out.  He didn't tell me what type of actions are taken if it's broken or dislocated but he did send me for an xray.  Exciting stuff getting your tailbone xray'd.  So I went and got my xray but it's at one of those imaging centers so an xray tech takes the xray and gives it to a radiologist who looks at it and makes a diagnosis and sends a report to my doc who will report the findings to me. How convoluted can we make this process?  It's a tailbone for God's sake!  Anyway, I should know something about my tailbone next week.

The doc also sent me for bloodwork to check my cholesterol, sugars, etc.  He ordered it so he'll have some kind of record since I've never done a full physical with him before, but I'm hoping we find some kind of comorbidity in the results.  I know, I know.  I shouldn't want a comorbidity but I can't help wishing for just a small one. 

Since I had all these appoitnments in the morning and the day was a wash anyway.  My husband and I spent the rest of the afternoon going to the movies.  We saw Clash of the Titans.  It was REALLY good!  It's not a big thinker...I mean...it's visually stunning and just a fun watch but don't expect any deep insights.  We didn't see it in 3D as those movies tend to give me headaches but we enjoyed it just the same.  I recommend it if you're looking for a fun flick.  Hope y'all are having a good Thursday!

7 comments:

~ Katie ~ said...

I liked Clash of Titans but was let down that it lacked what 300 brought. It was a good movie though. Congrats on getting the PCP to write the letter.

carla said...

That sucks about your tailbone...I can imagine how painful it is. SO glad the doc is going to write the letter for you. What a nice way to spend the rest of the afternoon. Hope you get the xray results soon

Lap Band Groupie said...

I had tailbone problems three times in my life (all from falls) and it hurts! They make blow up donughts that help the long sitting.

Here's hoping for a comorbidity!

MandaPanda said...

I know all about the donuts...my dad had to use one once. I would be MORTIFIED to have to bring one to work! My partner would never let me forget it. LOL!

Miss Tori said...

Have you had a sleep study? My surgeon didn't think I needed one, so I didn't get one before surgery (nice thing about self-pay is you can skip alot of the non-sense that insurance puts you through). However, I was recently sent to an ENT due to persistent ear aches. She ordered a sleep study and they found that I have bad enough sleep apnia that it warrants a CPAP machine. Go figure. So maybe you can get a study done to see if you need it, and if so, there is a comorbidity for you!

Sorry about your tailbone. I've not had problems with mine but it just sounds uncomfortable!

MandaPanda said...

Thanks for the advice! I had a sleep study years ago (before I gained a lot of the weight) and didn't have it then. Can't hurt to have another one. I think we'll try to submit to the insurance without one first and then if denied, give it a shot.

LDswims said...

I hope the tailbone resolves quickly and easily. I can only imagine what fun the x-rays were. I had a similar issue with sitting for too long with my first sit-down job and my mom told me to exercise more. She was right, when I'd go home and swim/weightlift, my sitting for long hours would be fine. But if I skipped exercise for a day or two, the tailbone would go right back to what you described. But there's the trick - if you exercise too much, you'll probably lose too much and the insurance approval is more important right now! I hope your doc gets to the bottom of this (hehehe) and it's an easy fix!