Old and Breaking Down...

well, tomorrow morning i'm suppose to bring chiyang to the doctor by 630am for his back surgery. he's been having leg pain and back pain since may 2005, after lifting a patient who fainted during a routine blood draw. he has gone for physical therapy, epidural injections and well, finally we are moving into considering back surgery.

the tricky part is, this is part of workman's compensation. and the insurance company is cheap and won't allow it. so today we met with an attorney and he has agreed to fight the case for us. for free!!! actually, we are okay either way. i mean our health insurance will cover the cost. however, based on the principle, it's not right.

it's not right that the insurance company has sent chiyang to a lousy doctor who gave a bad diagnosis and bad treatment options. then later wasn't aggressive about his care of chiyang. then much later after some hankering from us, sent chiyang to another doctor who would recommend surgery, but only to have the insurance company tell us we can only do with that one doctor and only do it at one location. this would be all wonderful if this doctor was the best in town, reoccurance rate was low and recovery period was fast. but his recovery period is 2 to 3 months. and also, his reoccurance rate is higher than this other doctor we have sought out. unfortunately, this doctor that we favor isn't favored by the workman's comp insurance company, and so they have pretty much told us they won't cover anything.

this is where the attorney comes in... he is a workman's comp attorney and he has clarified to us the laws of workman's comp, and he has informed us that we have a case. it may go 50-50, but still, he said it's worth fighting, just because it is wrong to let insurance companies get away with bullying their way out of not needing to pay out.

soooo... we'll just have to see how things go... but right now, just pray that the surgery will go smoothly and that there will be no complications. i would love it that chiyang feel better and not have to constantly move around because he is in pain. that he would be able to carry cody without saying that he over did it and that he was hurting from simply playing with our son...