Center for Endometriosis Care

They called me back today. This is the LAPEX expert in Atlanta. LAPEX is what they call Laparoscopic Excision of Endometriosis, which is a more specialized type of laparoscopic surgery than what is more common (and what i've had 2 of), which is laser ablation. In laser ablation, they use a laser to burn the endo, which sometimes just touches the surface of the endo, leaving the disease's deeper implants in place (and thus often leaving the symptoms in place). In LAPEX, they use the laser as a cutting instrument to actually cut the endo OUT of the body. The chances of needing further surgeries are greatly reduced versus ablation surgery.

i've decided i definitely want to pursue LAPEX. If the surgeon gets inside and can't fix it all or at least fix the bilateral hydrosalpinx issue, then they can do a hysterectomy at that time. The CEC does a free records review of previous medical records. i'll have to get all the papers from the doctors and send it to them for review. It takes about a week, and then the doctors themselves give you a call.

The problem remains: They are out of network. They did say the hospital and anesthesiologist are almost always in network, and only their fees are OON. But even so, i can imagine they charge $10k, $20k, maybe even $50k. i think the surgeon bill alone on my ACL reconstruction (major knee surgery) was $24k, which was thankfully in network. So i can guess these guys charge at least that. i forget what out of network is for us, but i believe the insurance pays 70% of out of network charges. Which could mean pretty much every penny we have saved up for IVF. Which means by the time i got to do IVF, i would be 35 and the success rates would take a huge dive. :(

Have i mentioned that all this sucks donkey balls? Just checking.