The Waiting Game

This process moves so slowly. I am convinced the Lord is teaching me patience. I had an appointment set up on September 12 for the necessary 3 hours of audiology tests to determine the extent of my hearing loss and document it all for diagnosis and insurance purposes. The week before that appointment, the office called me and said I needed to meet with the physician first. So we cancelled the audiology appointment and set a physician appointment - for 2 weeks later.
I attended the appointment with the doctor on September 24 and was pleased with what he had to say. The doctor that did my first implant is no longer with the practice and I was worried that I might have to go outside of Toledo for my surgery. However, the doctor that I saw on September 24 comes to the office a few times a month and does the surgeries at St. Luke's Hospital, which is where I had my last one done. That was a huge relief that it will still be an outpatient surgery close to home. Dr. D was very nice and friendly and I liked him immediately.
I finally got that audiology appointment set with my audiologist, Dr. Jessica (same one who works with me on my right ear). She told me that instead of the usual 3 hours of testing, it would probably be only 2 because there would be things we wouldn't have to talk about and do because this is my second implant. (yay!!) I had my appointment on Friday, October 7. We got all the hearing tests done, filled out all necessary paperwork, and even remapped my right implant. It had been almost 2 years exactly since I'd been there for a mapping. She was still extremely happy with the results of my right implant. Friday's tests showed my speech understanding at 99% correct in quiet and 87% correct in noise. In real life, it's not always that amazing, but still that's pretty awesome! She told me she calls me her "rockstar" patient because of my fantastic results with the implant. She also warned me that the left ear might not have such great results. Every ear is different in how it accepts the implant and adjusts to hearing. I am completely ok with that because right now, I have NO hearing in my left ear. So something has got to be better than nothing.
Now, we just have to wait for insurance approval. This can take 6-8 weeks. Last time there were a few glitches that took several days of phone calls between me, the insurance and the physicians office to iron out the approval. Thank goodness for snow days to get that done last time! I am hoping that this approval will be smoother.
Once approved, we can schedule the surgery. Right now, Dr. D is booked up into December, so surgery will be late December or early January at the very earliest. If approval takes a long time, the surgery date could be pushed back even later.
So, I am waiting impatiently for approval and the next steps of this process. Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted!
God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!