12 Day Update: Gum Graft

After poking around my blog I realized it had been far too long since I'd posted a TMI update photo of my gum graft. Thus, in the interest of documenting the healing process, I present to you more zombie/Frankenstein gums:

Raaaaaawwwwwwrrrrr!

As you can see, the palate tissue (light pink) is kind of a funny shape but seems to have remained successfully attached to my gums. It's completely invisible unless I pull my lip down so I think we can call it a success. My periodontist has offered to use microdermabrasion to sand down the graft in the future, but I can't imagine that would be particularly pleasant so I think I'm gonna pass. I don't think it's included in the original price either so it would probably be expensive.

My next appointment is on the 18th so I have a bit more time before I can call it healed. The donor site on the roof of my mouth is improving, I can't feel the edges anymore and the area feels smooth, but it's still a little tender and sore. It looks about the same even though it feels much better. Chewing anything on that side of my mouth is usually a bad idea but I've been okay to eat crunchy stuff as long as I'm careful.

Interestingly, I haven't received my bill yet. Don't worry, I had no doubt that they would NEVER forget to bill me lol. I know they submitted the report to my (old) dental insurance company but I haven't received any information on what they're willing to pay and what my portion will be. I've got my fingers crossed that it's not too much but I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least the price of a new macbook air. That sucks in all sorts of different ways because E actually needs a new laptop since his broke and I would much rather spend the money on that. Bleh.

I'm Insured!

When I woke up this morning I had an email from Kaiser waiting for me in my inbox.

The verdict?

I'm insured!

Apparently it is possible for a young, healthy individual with no pre-existing conditions to fork over a crapton of money each month for health care coverage. Honestly I can't believe how expensive it is, I'm going to be paying over four grand a year for the privilege of continuing to never go to the doctor lol.

My choices were the $25 co-payment plan or the $30/$1500 deductible plan. Both Kaiser, since there was no way I could afford the higher deductible plans offered by Anthem or Blue Shield. Those plans have $5000-$15000 deductibles which makes the insurance pretty much useless.

With Kaiser, there's about $100 difference per month between the plans. But, if we want to have a baby in the future it seems to pay to go with the $25 co-payment plan. With the $25 co-payment plan, a pregnancy and delivery is about $500. With the $30/$1500 deductible plan the same pregnancy and delivery would be about $2500. We're only talking about maybe an $800 difference when you factor in the higher monthly cost, but E felt it was worth it for the time being.

Either way, I'm really glad that I was deemed an acceptable candidate and offered insurance. There are so many people in the US who can't get insurance either due to a pre-existing condition or inability to pay the insane premiums. I'm so thankful that E and I are in a position where we can afford(ish) to pay for decent coverage. This way if I'm ever in an accident or we do decide to add some tiny humans to our family, we won't go completely broke paying for medical bills.

Gum-Numb Style (TMI)

As part of my quest to get all my medical things in order before I lose my insurance, I had the wonderful experience of gum grafting surgery yesterday morning. In general, the procedure is really common; things like genetics, braces and brushing too hard can cause your gums to recede in places, exposing the root which doesn't feel great. In my case, it seems to be a bad spin on the genetic wheel. Thanks to my sperm donor, I have had low gums in front of one of my bottom front teeth and the only way to correct it was surgery.
 

Swollen frowny face, with my good buddy, a towel wrapped ice pack. Even my nose is swollen from the palate injections :(

They numb you up, take a little piece of tissue from the roof of your mouth and sew it into place where your gum is low. The whole procedure only takes about an hour and is generally minor. In fact, the whole thing really shouldn't have been a big deal except that I happen to have inherited more unfortunately genetics, this time from my mother's side. From her side, I got both an inherited allergy to all opiate drugs and a charming resistance to Novocain!

What should have been a short, painless procedure ended up being nearly twice as long; as soon as the Novocain took effect it began wearing off and I had to get more charming injections. I also apparently have extra nerves in my mouth, which, you guessed it, required even more injections haha. My periodontist ended up giving me enough Novocain to numb a small horse, ugh. Since I've never had a cavity or dental procedure before, neither of us knew what to expect but it certainly wasn't this. For the aftermath, instead of the Vicodin that they normally prescribe, I'm taking Advil and Tylenol which I have to be very happy with since it's all I can really take. Plus, my allergic reaction to Vicodin is so so very much worse than the procedure was, I'd undergo a hundred gum grafts before taking even half a pill.

Now, I have to wait for the graft to take and for the donor site to heal. In the meantime, my mouth looks like a Frankenstein zombie creation. Gum tissue is nice and pink but your palate (the donor tissue) is actually pretty pale. Eventually the graft should blend in better and pink up once a blood supply is established. Though it'll never blend in perfectly, I don't expect many people to be looking way inside my mouth anyway.

RAWR!

Insure-Me-Woes

Like most people my age, 26 brings with it not just another year, but also the loss of... dun dun dun! Insurance! Health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, they're all goooooone! And just for me, my student loans and car insurance also happen to come due this month, because when it rains it pours people.

Putting aside the major suck that is going to be forking over the contents of my bank account for insurance every month, losing coverage also means I have to cram all the fun and scintillating medical procedures I don't really want to have into the next two weeks.

Since continuing my current coverage through cobra isn't an option, unless I want to pay triple individual rates, it looks like I will not be buying a separate dental or vision plan. That makes vision and dental stuff top priority to get done before I lose my coverage.

Thus far, my to do list is:

• An eye exam - No changes, all good
• Order backup glasses - Still need to do, and quickly!
• Dental cleaning - Check!
• Oral surgery consultation - Done!
• Gum graft surgery - Ugh. Next week.
• Apply for Health Insurance - Don't have any words for this one. I still haven't done it yet although I've done all the pre-work. 

 

Genetically, people on my sperm donor's side of the family have crappy mouths.  They have genetically sucky gums in the front, genetically missing teeth and a whole host of other weird dental stuff. Luckily, I've escaped almost everything. I've never had a cavity and my teeth are great, but it's become apparent that the bastard gave me his shitty gums in One tiny spot. Literally just one teensy spot while the rest are perfect. I have to have a little graft to fix it and it looks like I'll be squeezing it in just under the wire, literally days before my coverage ends. Even with the coverage I'm sure I'll still be out at least a grand, but it's better than owing the whole bill.

Now I just need to decide which insurance plan I want. It's all unnecessarily complicated - Co-payments? Deductibles? Out of Pocket Max? Do I want an HMO? A PPO? Ugh. It's all so much more expensive than it should be, and it seems that no matter how I slice it, I'll end up paying either upfront, ie month to month, or in the end, with a deductible. I've got to get a better handle on what each plan means.

Los Angeles Car Hell

This summer has not been good for cars. My fiance's got rammed by a crazy lady trying to make a right turn into the side of his car from the middle lane. My tutor's got rammed by an emotionally unstable woman who had to be talked down by her therapist before she could hand over her insurance information. My friend's car got hit, repaired, hit again, and then impounded by the DMV because they had outdated records. My other friend's car was supposed to be shipped to him in AZ, but it's still sitting in CT and the shipping company hasn't even put it on the truck yet.

My poor car, my precious 2002 Jetta "Sydney", has now been hit. By a 6 inch metal disk. That fell off some P.O.S. sea foam green compact that drove away. This tiny little disk apparently managed to crack my transmission housing, causing me to leak fluid in the middle of the 10E in pre-rush hour traffic. There was nowhere to pull over and she seemed fine, until 3 blocks later my gas pedal stopped working. My transmission fluid was leaking = no more power to move. I turned on my hazards, hung out the window and literally coasted 3 lanes over to the shoulder. I just barely made it and I got incredibly lucky. The actual car not moving/coasting was not scary, but I felt a bubble of panic once I made it to the shoulder and thought about how expensive it would be to fix my precious car and contemplated how likely it would be that someone would hit my Sydney on the shoulder.

I pulled out my Crackberry, it hasn't worked quite right since it went through a few airport scanners in Europe but it served me well, and made some calls. I called 21st century, who promised me a tow truck in about an hour. I called my honey and convinced him that he wanted to come wait with me so I wouldn't have to sit in my hot car. Luckily, a friendly CHP officer pulled in behind me who commiserated with the suckiness of being stuck on a freeway, and called me a CHP tow truck that arrived just as my honey pulled up behind me. For 160 dollars, he towed me 10 minutes away in traffic to a very reputable body shop that made me feel comfortable and okay about my car repair. I thought everything would be okay.

Once I got back home, I called up my friendly 21st Century claims department and because of the one sentence description she had of my car "damage to the under carriage in the transmission area with a fluid leak", she said that Sydney was 1 point over their damage point system and they would try to total my car. This makes no sense. Syd only just hit 50,000 miles, her biggest accident was having her bumper bumped by a drunk neighbor, and there's no other substantial damage on her other than this hairline crack and dent in the transmission housing. Even if I needed my entire transmission replaced, a used tranny is what, 1-2k? Dealers are still selling my Syd with more miles than she has for 13k. I won't let them total her. They want to take her to some storage facility while they contemplate her fate.

I'm going to call my official claims person tomorrow and see if I can convince them to just fix her. I started saving for this car at 12 and I can't let her go.

EDIT 8/11/10: After finally talking to some people actually familiar with cars, my Sydney is officially on the mend. She's going to need a bit of work - new front bumper bottom, new transmission (the new housing was 6 grand but an entire used one was 1.5 grand, so we're going with the entire used one) and a few new power steering lines. I should have her back by Wednesday and since things falling off cars falls into the "Acts of God" category, I only have to pay my $250 deductible. Phew.

EDIT 8/21/10: So it turns out my Sydney is not on the mend. In fact, they ordered the wrong transmission and cannot find the correct one used. This means that not only have I been without a car for 11 days while she sat at the mechanic untouched, but they might be possibly trying to total her again. The insurance adjuster hasn't called me back so at the present moment I have no idea what's going on with my car.

EDIT 8/26/10: The insurance people have pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to order Sydney a new transmission. They still won't give me a rental car. I really really hope this is the last update before I get my car back.

EDIT 9/2/10: The new tranny is in! But the punctured power steering line is not -_- I'm hoping for next week...