Money money money

After a few embarrassing phone calls to family members and a couple of crying sessions, I asked my boyfriend's mom if she would co-sign on a loan to help cover my $2500 in costs, which are due at my History and Physical appointment on August 3rd. YAAAAY! She was really nice about it... she's great!!

I went into my orthodontist's office yesterday and explained that I am having my surgery on August 11th and that I sure hope I'm ready for surgery because I haven't been into the orthodontist's office since March and my bottom teeth have shifted a little bit. She was only able to squeeze me in for an appointment on August 7th, which I'm a little worried about, being that it's only four days before the surgery.

I also found out yesterday who my assistant surgeon is... Dr. William McMunn, who lives in Denver. Yeah, I so googled him.

I totally ordered a couple zip-n-squeeze bags and the cool jaw wrap (zipnsqueeze.com)... I'm hoping (more like praying) that stuff will be here in time. I also ordered The Sims 3 to help ease the pain :)

I'm having a bit of a dilemma with school. My surgery is August 11th, and school starts August 24th. Ummm. Yeah. I'm probably not going to make it the first week. I guess I'll have to send all my professors emails and hope that I won't miss too much the first week. I'm hoping (again, more like praying) I'll be able to go by the second week of school, which will be 3 weeks post-op. Anyone have any insight (besides "you are stupid for scheduling surgery right before school," haha)?

On a more personal note, I am kind of proud of myself for getting this far all by myself. It's been really hard, being that I had no idea braces and surgery were really plausible back when I stumbled over kristen's blog a couple of years ago. I had some bad experiences in the beginning... it seemed like no one wanted to help me, and I felt completely lost and hopeless many times. I am so lucky that insurance covered my braces and (seriously, out of sheer luck) surgery, and I hope that this is all worth it in the end. Thank you to everyone for being so supportive and helpful. Had I not found all of your blogs, I probably never would have gotten this far. much love, much love.

Also, if anyone is interested, here are my orthognathic surgery fees, right off the paper Dr. Vetter's office gave me:

Initial Consultation: $175.00
Progress Checks with Dr. Vetter (per visit): $50.00
History and Physical Appointment (models, photos, facebow, wax bite and records): $130.00
Surgical Fee (includes Dr. Vetter's fee, 3 months of follow-up care and post-operative radiographs): $7,650.00
Assistant Surgeon's Fee: $1,912.50
A new face and newfound confidence: priceless k, i added that

These are just Dr. Vetter's fees; I know that I have a $400 co-pay at the facility where I'm having the surgery, and insurance is paying their facility and anesthesia fees.

Again, I am only being required to pay the assistant surgeon's fee, my current account balance (from my consultation), and my history and physical fee up front. They kindly waived the up front Surgical Fee for me because I whined and cried and stomped my feet a lot (not really, but I told them I couldn't afford that craziness).



So, that's where I'm at. ;)