Girly Bits & General Frustration

To say that I'm frustrated is the apex of understatement.

Yesterday I returned home to discover a letter from the Writers' Guild Health Fund. My request for reimbursement for $7,000 I had paid out of pocket to fix my girly bits had been denied. After medical review, the treatment had not been deemed "medically necessary" for my condition.

My condition, of course, being something called VVS. VVS is NOT an STD. They don't know what causes it, but the theory is that long-term antibiotic use (which I underwent for my jaw surgery) can be a factor.

Basically, the nerves in your girly bits become so sensitive that the interpret everything as pain. It feels like your genitals have been rubbed with sandpaper and then set on fire. I went to my doctor multiple times; she finally suggested that perhaps I was making it up. I explained things to my now-ex-boyfriend, but it didn't help that our sex life crashed and burned, and ultimately figured into our breakup.

This went on for about a year. Putting on panties was painful. Exercising was excruciating. I gained twenty pounds. I was insanely depressed. After I moved out of the house, I finally found something online that sounded similar to what I was going through. Two doctors were recommended in the Los Angeles area. One at UCLA, who took insurance. The first available appointment was in October.

The second was in Torrance. He didn't take insurance, but I could get in the following week. Once a week for six weeks, I drove down the 405 to see Dr. McDonald and pay him $1200 to give me three shots. In the box.

I'll give you a moment to uncross your legs.

However, the treatment worked, and suddenly my Death Star was fully operational. And has been for the past six months. But the real pain has been submitting my paperwork to insurance. First they lost it. Then they asked for medical records. And different medical records. And my doctor's qualifications. And then, whoops, they lost the billing. And then they wanted the insurance codes.

And finally, yesterday, the final determination, after me having appealed the decision multiple times, is that my treatment was not medically necessary. All I can think is that if a guy had the same problem, they'd cover the limo, icepacks, and a concubine to bring him orange slices and fan him with ostrich feathers.

I have called and documented and researched and faxed and there's nothing left to do. I'm out $7,000. It was, it is worth every penny. But the fact is, friends, I'm broke. I need that money.

I grabbed two beers from the fridge and crawled into my bed with my laptop to check my email, my skype voicemail, and get some writing done. I thought there'd be a few messages to download for GG2G.

Not. One.

There are a thousand people who read this blog and the slack. I have over forty saved IM conversations from forty different boys asking me forty different dating dilemmas. Please. Call. I hate asking for anything from anyone; it's completely against my nature. But my back is against the wall. This has been the year that everything fell apart: my relationship, my living situation, my career, my health. I don't bitch about it because there's really not much that can be done about it. My philosophy has been that shit happens and you work on the stuff that you can work on and try to remain cautiously optimistic.

So I have been. I have been working my ass off. I don't know what else to do. I'm working insanely hard to create something new, and with this project I need your help. So call. You don't need Skype, you can call from a regular phone. Crosspost. Spread the word.

Thanks.

Comments

[norbizness]

Slack: I sincerely hope you can call in a few favors to appeal that horrible (i.e. par for the course) decision by some faceless, probably non-medical bureaucrat. You're in CA, which should be one of the more progressive states in patient-HMO/insurance plan balance of power.

As for the phone project, I wish I had something to contribute, but I don't. I am a regular reader here and would suggest a PayPal type donation system for those emergency costs; I have happily given to and promoted the causes of deserving bloggers who give so much for free. So we'd be communists. Big deal.

[the slackmistress]

@norbz: I have the "tip jar" but I don't think I could ask for money. It's just so not me.

OF course, talk to me in a month or so and I may be selling naked photos. :)

xosm

[Brak55]

I am so frigging sick of HMO's and insurance companies. Ours just cut back drasticly on drugs they will cover. Karen has been taking one for joint pain for a couple of years that is part pain reliever, part stomach coating so it doesn't screw up her stomach. Nope, too expensive now, so they are forcing her to try two generics that a) don't take away the pain and b) throw her stomach into a real tizzy.

Not really comparable to your situation, but just another example of how the asshats have us in the corner.

[celticfeminist]

What absolute fucking BULLSHIT.

Of course, I'm talking about your medical insurance, not this column.

This stuff just makes my skull collapse and my brain bleed out of my ears. There is no doubt in my mind that had you been male and your disorder something affecting your male bits they would have covered it without even a second fucking glance. But, you see, women aren't supposed to be sexual creatures or want our girly bits to feel good because that would be admitting we're fucking humans who enjoy fucking.

Fuck.

This makes me want to smite something. And you're not the only friend I have who's dealing with bullshit medical insurance.

This also reminds of me of when I worked at the EPA and the insurance company threatened to stop covering birth control pills because they weren't "medically necessary" but would still cover fucking Viagra.

I will spread the word about Skype, even though I have a reading audience of roughly 2.37 people. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. I'm more than willing to pitch in where I can to do what I can. God knows you deserve a bit of good news this year.

[greg wilcox]

can you say "f@#cked up, ladies and germs? wow. insurance companies really suck. i've always thought this. now i KNOW it. it seems like they just rolled the dice on you, slack and figured you were the one case they didn't have to reimburse that month or something. that's bullshit. you're right. if it was a guy with privates afire, he'd get the whole nine and a limo ride for a month, PLUS a celebratory stripper when his problem cleared up.

do you know of anyone else who suffered a side effect from that medication?