Medical Self-Advocacy (and no weight loss talk!)

I advocated for myself today. I have a tooth that had an inadequate root canal last May and it's causing me increasing pain. My dentist sent me to a specialist, who agreed it needs to be re-treated. At the time it wasn't causing much pain, so when we learned my insurance only covers a re-treatment every 12 months and I'd have to wait until May, I sighed, was a little bit disgusted by insurance running my health care decisions, and put a note in my calendar to call the office in April to schedule.

A couple weeks later, my tooth is really bothering me. So today I called my dentist and asked if they could help me advocate to my insurance company that the procedure really needs to happen sooner. Bad news - they were told it's every 24 months, not every 12! Good news - there is a process to appeal this. My dentist is working with the specialist dentist to have them send the required x-ray images and narrative to the insurance company. It could take up to 4 weeks to review but at least the ball is rolling.

In the meantime, ibuprofen is gonna be my best pal.

On a side note, it's really nice to be having a health issue that no one, but no one, thinks is my own fault because of my weight, nor that it could be solved by weight loss. Being treated for my specific health concern with nary a whiff of a suggestion of drastic weight loss tactics is a novel experience, and one I'd love to be able to get used to!!