Hello everyone,
First off, I would like to thank each one of you for sharing your experiences and helping others like me to get more information that makes us stronger specially during this difficult times.
Everything started this passed May 2nd, when I was diagnosed with a 4.7 cm AN tumor. Basically all my life passed in front of me, I have two toddlers and all my plans started to fall. However, after I met this forum, AN Association and met a few doctors, things became clearer and I was more aware of my situation. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and with God’s help, we are coming through.
It has been over three weeks that I was diagnosed, I have spoken to four different doctors and I have still not made my choice. Mainly, I have had issues with my insurance. I live in Northern New Jersey, and unfortunately my health insurance (Horizon BCBS) does not cover out of state doctors. I realized that most of experienced doctors are out of state. I already spoke to Dr. Friedman (UCSD), Dr. Bederson (Mount Sinai) and Dr. Liu (University Hospital NJ). We are more for California but since we are close to NY and have two toddlers, it might also be a good option Dr. Bederson at Mount Sinai.
So, here are my questions:
Have you had the same issues with your insurance companies, not letting you go out of state. Is there any way to go around this situation? I currently have Horizon Bronze plan but my husband recently updated to Gold which is pretty expensive, we are aware that health is first but this would slowly take all our savings.
Do you have any doctor recommendation for New Jersey? Since my tumor is large, I do not want to take any risk and I rather have a doctor who has done this before several times. Dr. Lui told my husband that it was possible hat this surgery could be split in two stages, this really scared me and I decided not to go for it. There are many things involved with one stage surgery and two would be too much.
Thanks agin for your feedback, God bless.
