Meeting with Surgeon and Surgery Cost

Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a quick update.  I went to visit my surgeon again today.  He is again very pleased with the way things are coming along.  I can say between the last two days the swelling has reduced a bunch.  I still talk a little funny because my bottom lip and chin are still numb but everything else seems to be getting vastly better each day.

I told my surgeon about the leakage and he said thats probably due to just a small opening somewhere with the stitches but that its nothing to worry about.  He just said that I should really focus on applying the mouth wash to it with a Q-tip, and to make sure I brush my teeth after each meal to prevent any infection.  He told me I should be taking my rubber bands off for each meal to work the jaw a bit more and brush my teeth and re-band.  He told me that since I'm starting to get the tingling feeling in my lips and cheek (which is extremely annoying by the way) that I should have full feeling back in my lip and chin by next week.  So thats great news.  He didnt even mention the stitches on my face so I guess I can just go over them with a regular razor now and shave.

I told them I would be going back to work on Monday so they completed all the insurance work for me.  She actually told me I could have off longer if I wanted to but we both agreed that it wasn't really necessary and I didn't want to take advantage of the system.  So it appears that at least my 2nd week out of work was covered by insurance and the first week was fully funded by sick time for those who want to know that.

Last night I got an e-mail telling me that I had a new claim update on Aetna's site.  I'm still not 100% sure on this because it wasn't an actual bill.  But I'm pretty sure the total cost of the surgery was about $10,000.  That includes all the surgery itself, hospital bills, shots, medicine and anesthesia, all of it.  My doctor was in the network and I believe I got a significant discount just for that, then my insurance covered the majority of it from there.  Pretty much I think I'm only going to owe $655.  Initially I thought all this was going to cost at least $20k and then my insurance would cover 80% of that so I would owe 4k.  So $655 compared to $4k is pretty amazing, I just hope that really is the case!

I'm feeling a bit lazy and don't really feel like taking pictures right now, maybe tomorrow.  I do have an appointment to see the surgeon yet again next Wednesday.

Cheers!