Insurance update

So my HR department contacted the insurance to tell them about there not being in-network options for LAPEX in Nashville. The insurance company came back with a list of Vandy doctors who supposedly do LAPEX.

i have mixed feelings. On one hand, this is good news because it would only cost $2000 instead of $6000 deductible. i wouldn't have to leave the state, and i wouldn't have to beg a judge for permission to take D out of state or to make the incredibly difficult decision to either leave Alan at home with D and recover alone (or at my brother's insane house) or to leave D with someone at about the age when she'll be having separation anxiety to take Alan with me. Those are wonderful things.

On the other hand, i've never heard of these docs. i'm not even entirely convinced that they do LAPEX, or full LAPEX. (Cliff's Notes for newer readers: normal laparoscopy burns the endo off with lasers, but it returns. Lapex, or laparoscopic excision of endometriosis actually cuts the endo out so it can't return.) None of the endo forums or websites online list these docs as endo experts able to do LAPEX. i called to speak to the nurse but was transferred to the person who schedules surgeries, and she told me she's the one who orders the equipment but could not tell me what instrument the surgeons use to perform the LAPEX. (LAPEX is *so* specialized that there's not a mass-produced surgical piece of equipment. Most of the qualified surgeons have designed their own instrument. One uses a teeny tiny pair of electrical scissors, one uses lasers not to burn the endo off but to peel it away, etc.) She didn't look it up, either. i have an appointment with one of the surgeons on 12/30, so hopefully that will shed some light on it. Meanwhile, if any lurkers out there happen on this blog and know anything about the docs at Vandy and their experience with this specific surgery, please comment or email me!