Stephanie's brain aneurysm expenses

At the beginning of this year I started seeing doctors for various health issues. It was discovered that I had an elevated CA125 level and a growth was found on my ovary as well as in my uterus. My doctors ordered an MRI which my insurance denied saying it was medically unnecessary. My ob/gyn decided to begin the paperwork to just send me for a laperscopy hysteroscopy surgery instead since insurance wanted to play that game.

During this time I also went to a neurologist due to migraine headaches. Now I have had headaches since I was 15 years old but they had gotten worse and become a daily issue. For the first time ever this neurologist sent me for an MRI and MRA of my head and neck. They set up an appointment for me to come back weeks later to review the results. I got the MRI and MRA done about a week and a half after he ordered it and the next day I was called to come much sooner for the results. On June 14th the day before our wedding anniversary I was told that I have an 11.5 mm carotoid artery brain aneurysm at the ophthalmic junction. An appointment was made to see an endovascular surgeon 2 days later.

In the meantime my ob/gyn canceled the surgery they had scheduled for me the following week. They did not want to risk rupturing the aneurysm when putting me under anesthesia.

I have seen 3 neurosurgeons the first one was a real jerk to say the least, the 2nd will be my surgeon and the 3rd though I'm sure is a very good surgeon was not for me due to the fact he wanted to use older materials that would delay treatment for the ob/gyn issues. He also wanted the ob/gyn issues handled first but they would not touch me until the aneurysm was fixed....catch 22.

On the 16th of this month I will be getting a blood test to see if I inherited a blood clotting disorder from both sides of my family. As soon as possible after that I will be going in to have an embolization pipeline device placed. This will require at least one night stay in ICU if all goes well. This device is the newest one available and has a shield that mimics the coating on red blood cells. This device and 6 months of blood thinners should shrink the aneurysm to nothing. The older device which dr #3 would use required 2 yrs of blood thinners which would have meant no other surgery for 2 yrs.

This is the only option available to me to repair the aneurysm due to the location. My aneurysm is lower then the bed of my eye and surgical clipping, coil embolization, gel embolization etc. cannot be done lower then the bed of the eye. Also due to the shape of my aneurysm time is of the essence. My aneurysm is not round like say a bubble it is more like say a raspberry and which makes it more prone for rupture.

The current plan also allows that 3 months after the device is placed I would be able to come off the blood thinners for a couple of days to have the laperscopy hysteroscopy surgery. During this they would biopsy the growth on my ovary and in my uterus. Then at the 6 month mark I would need MRI's and blood tests to check the aneurysm. If everything with the aneurysm checks out then we can proceed with dealing with whatever the results of the biopsies were.

We have health insurance but we have a $5000 deductible so the insurance pays nothing until we meet that deductible. We borrowed the money to meet the deductible this year but will need to pay it back. Also this is all going to continue into next year so we will need another $5000 to continue care into next year. Also there are other lovely insurance loopholes where they try to get out of paying like tier 1 medications or when they deem something to be medically unnecessary in their opinion. This $10000 would at least help to cover the deductible portion making it easier for us to deal with the other nickle and dime games they play along the way.

****Surgery Update.....I had my pipeline placed finally on August 10th. The day of surgery it was discovered that my blood does not react to Plavix so I had to be placed on brilinta for blood thinner. Insurance considered this to be tier 1 medicine so they make me pay $50 out of pocket each month and this medicine is needed so that I do not have a stroke. They also discovered the aneurysm is 13.1 mm which is larger then expected so now they will not allow me to proceed with further testing for other issues as previously planned until February and only if the aneurysm shrinks. So due to that I was placed on another medication for endometriosis for uterine pain for now called orilissa which is also considered tier 1 and guess what another $50/month copay.*****