 Hello, hello everyone. I am back to do a story time of my breast reduction surgery just to give those of you who are interested a little bit more insight of what it was like for me going through the surgery the day of. Now I do have a vlog of my recovery after my breast reduction and I will more than likely come back to do a three month and hopefully five or six month update. I don't want this video to go too long but I also wanted to give an insight on how I was able to get my insurance company to cover my breast reduction because we want them to cover it right. So all right let's just go ahead and get started. Like I said I had my breast reduction on May 17th. It was scheduled for 7 30. Check-in time was at 6 30. I had it at St. Joseph's Hospital here in Central Phoenix. My surgeon was Dr. or is Dr. Travis Holicum. He was recommended through a breast specialist. Now let me back up for a minute just to give you guys a brief background on some issues that I've had with my breast. Like 90 percent of women who have large breasts I have horrible back pain. Most of my back pain was I had. Most of my back pain was in my middle of my back right where my breasts were at and leaning forward. I had the classic indentions. They're still there as you can see from the heavy that my bra straps excuse me weighing me down. I was a 38 triple D right now. I'm still kind of swollen but I have bought some bras that are a 38 C. I developed normally through puberty at 11 years old but by the time I was 14 I was in a 36 double D and at that time I was probably a size 6. So yeah it was one of those situations where I was just getting big and big and big and then my breasts were getting big. I've always had large breasts. I was 11 12 years old unfortunately. I am 37 by the way 37 years old. I had one incident when I was in my 20s where I woke up with horrible spasms in my back to the point where I had to call a girlfriend. She took me to the ER and they administered some medication. That was in my 20s. I did not have any real issues with my breasts until after I had my child and I started working out and I started losing weight. So that's almost the catch 21. So you want to have a lower BMI so that your insurance company can cover it but on the flip side with me personally the smaller I got the more weight I lost the worst my back pain got. So about three years ago I was at my smallest. I was probably you know I don't know Tony on my size. I'm still a fluffy hell. I was around 162 164. I was intermittent fasting not really working out and my back pain was excruciating. It was horrible. It was inflamed all the time to give you guys that background so let me get back into the story time of the actual date of surgery. So like I said check in at 6.30 we got there a little bit early. One of the things I did and I would suggest those of you who are interested I actually registered online a week before. It took me an hour instead of showing up at the hospital filling out all that paperwork. Most hospitals right now you're able to do everything online. They'll want to know your medications of course your history your medical history emergency contacts all of that. Not only that but I also included a printout of my current medications and the dosage is okay. So it was fairly easy because of that they checked me in I went to the back. The nurse brought me to the back. They immediately told me to disrobe and I had to put on a you know one of those open front nightgowns take off my shoes and I have footies on. They put some they put some leg compressions on my leg to avoid blood clots and they basically compress and be compressed throughout the entire time. They began to take my vitals. My husband and my little boy was with me at that time they could stay in the bag but my poor son my little boy is only five years old when he saw all of this going on because he doesn't know I tried to give him a heads up but he started crying and it was the horrible sobbing as a mom you know your children's cries and it was a horrible moaning sobbing crying it almost got me almost started crying so my husband took him out and at that point they went ahead and left because yeah we wanted to get him this off the school so anyway then the anesthesiologist came around and she went over maybe she wanted to make sure if I had anything to eat or drink when the last time I had something to eat or drink and that information will come from your surgeon also they advised you not to eat and drink to avoid choking on the table girl so yeah I made sure that I hadn't eaten or drinking anything for 10 hours out so I was good she went over my medications my dose is just and all of that now the good thing I will say I know I had got off subject there just give me you guys a bit more background I was recommended through my OBGYN and a breast specialist my surgeon my surgeon has 30 plus years of experience and he was he's friends with the anesthesiologist they were on a first name basis so I think that makes a big difference so again anesthesiologist went over everything and then the surgeon came in my surgeon came in he say hey how you doing he had the nurse with him and then he was like okay let's just roll let's start marking up he starts marking me up and that took a lot longer than I thought it would to be quite honest marking me up I think for a while there he could tell I was getting nervous so he made it come in he's like you're a great model it's okay so after he marked me up we prayed together that's another good thing I knew he was a man of God he's a Christian I'm a Christian so for every doctor's appointment we prayed and before the surgery we prayed and then the anesthesiologist came back around and she's like okay I'm gonna give you something to make you feel good so she administered something into my IV they woke me around to the operating room I'm telling you as soon as they put that mask on it was like that I was out and those of you who haven't been under who haven't had anesthesia is don't be afraid I know a lot of people are afraid that oh my god what if I don't wake up or what if I wake up while they're in surgery that has happened to people but that's very rare that that happens this was my fourth surgery so I was pretty calm and okay this is the third time I've gone under now my last one my wake time because they put you in a recovery room after you have to surgery my wake time from my previous surgery that took quite a bit of time coming out so I think they gave me too much drugs so I didn't let the doctor know that during the time and they didn't into consideration but no everything was great I mean it literally feels like you're falling asleep and then it feels like boom one or two seconds later you're woken up you know you can't tell that two and a half hours have passed went by if that makes sense so woke up my husband was there the doctor was there he said everything was fine and I was pretty I mean I wasn't drowsy or anything I just felt a little tired but I was pretty okay they put me in a wheelchair my husband went to go get our car vehicle and we rode home no I know some women have complained about the right home was bumpy and it hurt not for me they wrapped me up and I'll include a little footage here they did a little crossbow and then they wrapped me around a couple of times with these long ace bandages or wide ace bandages because I did tell my husband I said look when we go home you need to take the most delicate route home because I didn't want to feel anything because I will say when I have my c-section I could feel every bump didn't get there they're cutting you at your belly I could feel everything but with this one I was fine I didn't really feel anything I was up vlogging a couple of hours after my surgery y'all so I think I've been very very blessed in that in that aspect so that was the day of surgery if you are interested in what it's like and the recovery I will be linking below my blog for that week like I said we're two and two and a half weeks out for almost three weeks and I'm great the only thing I will say cuz I'm gonna be honest with y'all the only thing I will say is that if I overdo it the day before and in all honesty it's not even really overdoing it last night I clinked our bathrooms and I vacuumed and the middle of the night I was sore extremely sore so something as simple as everyday household duties you may not be able to do for a while so yeah my husband's been helping me out and but I'm a I'm a little controlling I will say that so I'm like I gotta do some stuff so yeah but right now I feel good it's a little tender up underneath and I could tell it's a little swollen but I feel great okay so that's what it was like for me for the day of everybody is different every body is different and how you react is different and I will say one thing and this is something as I mentioned in my blog I had a very positive outlook for my surgery I listened to positive affirmations I listened to healing scriptures basically I got my mind prepared for the surgery and for what it would be like afterwards so I really do think that matters all right so now we're gonna discuss how I was able to get my insurance to cover it because it has been like a two-and-a-half year or deal with insurance and all that so the first round of me trying to get this done I was with United Healthcare depending on your insurance they would have certain guidelines or what they require to have a breast reduction to help y'all out I will be posting the United Healthcare guidelines and sickness which is what I have right now United Healthcare just reading you know blogs and all this they can be strict and I just took it upon myself to contact some plastic surgeons while I was under the insurance plan to see okay what can I do what can I do a lot of them wouldn't even accept insurance meaning the plastic surgeons they wouldn't work with insurance a lot of them wouldn't accept United some of them were like you need to go through at least six months of PT meeting physical therapy before we would see see you so I was like okay forget it that's when I was like I'm not doing this I so I put it on the shelf I didn't worry about it because so it towards December this is in 2016 December my company was like okay we have new insurance so you have we could select from etna, Cycna and United so I was looking around I'm like maybe I'll I'll switch to Cycna because I don't think that United is yeah so let me switch to Cycna so I switched to Cycna going into 2017 I figured okay I need to do something else I started having a little bit more back problem and I started seeing a chiropractor my husband's chiropractor actually and we really really hadn't established a plan of care I just was going like once every two weeks or something and I will say the first few adjustments were painful I mean there were a couple like the first two I could barely walk when he was done but it slowly started getting better I wasn't as consistent the first half of 2017 him but it was something I wanted to do I will say this when he took my x-rays the chiropractor he was basically like I'm going to keep your x-rays just as what do you say you say your structure is very unique I mean my entire core was turning to the right my neck my spine was turning I had issues with my heel where after wear like inserts in my shoes because I'm off by a few inches it's all types of fullery so I was pretty jacked up so seeing the chiropractor I also started started going to the gym a lot more three to four times a week now I'm still fluffy but I was going to the gym at least three or four times a week okay so then I figured okay the summer of 2017 let me readdress this this is last year let me see about actually getting my breast reduce so my OBGYN referred me to a breast specialist who actually recommended this this doctor okay went to go see the plastic surgery this was like November of last year who was like okay great you or be a great candidate for plastic surgery 600 cc's removed here 700 you know a little almost 700 moved here I'm like wow they took pictures of my breast we went over my symptoms and there was something else going on with my insurance to where we couldn't submit that year we had to wait to this year to submit now let me also say this seeing the chiropractor was great going to my OBGYN and she was like yeah you need to go see a breast specialist who recommended this this is great but one thing I also wanted to add that I had to think about I'm like oh my god I never went to go see my MD I never went to go see my medical doctor my actual doctor so in the summer of last year I went to my doctor and was like look I'm having pain and she charted that documentation she charted that and said okay I'm gonna give you some medication gave me some medication I never took it but medication because I have gabapentin some other so I didn't need it so I never refueled it that was in the summer of last year I went back to her again in the fall I'm having pain gotta gotta okay here we go we go while we're doing this keep in mind I'm still seeing my chiropractor now come the fall I got very very consistent with my chiropractic visits we were I was going two to three times a week I had already met my insurance deductible by this time so yeah by the fall I was going two to three times a week we had a plan of care my chiropractor even wrote me a letter of recommendation that this girl needs to have these these titties sorry this girl needs to have a reduction so plastic surgeon had to held off submitted everything January of this year I immediately got a response and I have the letter right here and I'm gonna read some of it to you January 23rd from Cygna you can see that so it says at the review and the information we have we determined we cannot approve this request this means the service is not covered this letter explains why it is scribe it describes your right to ask for another review it also describes the steps you or your healthcare professional can take to make this request so when I saw this I was of course like are you serious and this is dated January 23rd they received everything on the 17th so on the back it says well the front it says we reviewed information from Dr. Travis holocaum your health planning any policies and guidelines we found the service requested is not medical necessary so on the back here it says after review of the clinical information received medical necessity has not been established because of the following and is letting me know what's going on no photographs were received we took pictures so I have no idea why no pictures were received okay records do not show you completed at least one continuous three-month trial of conservative treatment such as weight loss broad support medication or physical therapy records do not show that other causes for the neck or shoulder shoulder pain have been excluded so this is what I get I read all of this and it says request a review if you disagree with the coverage decision you your authorized representation representative or your healthcare professional can appeal this process within a hundred and eighty days so I went to work literally the next week I went to my chiropractor I requested all of my documentation all of my records for that year I went to my doctor requested everything that we had gone over I went to my gym and asked them to print out a report of all of my gym visitations yes I was very serious about this at the end of the day I have 40 pages of doctor records doctor notes 40 pages I then contacted my plastic surgeon and they were like yeah back set over it will make sure I said oh no I am driving this down to you so I'll drove down and I remember the young lady at the front that she was like wow this is like I saw you this is just for a year and a year is worth a documentation of my chiropractor my chiropractor visits and I also have physical therapy in there by the way my OBG went in my the report from my gym and then my doctor showing steps that I've taken to actually take medication so a year is worth for documentation submitted all that and then I got a letter on February 8th your health plan requires some services to be reviewed and approved for coverage before you receive them on January 17th dr. Travis holocaum asked us to review and approve the following reduction of large breasts at the review on your medical information and health plan we have approved this request bam so now one thing that they put up here in a top authorization effective dates between February 19th and May 19th yes so you have in between that time span to schedule your breast reduction I mean they will they were ready to do it like the next month but I had to check with my husband's schedule and that's why we did it for me 17th so yes you guys that was the process it was a bit much for lack of better words but we scheduled it I then received a package from my plastic surgeon here which is considered an outpatient surgery so they had all this information a guide of outpatient surgery and just some information from the plastic surgery itself about no drinking no food you can't take anything like blood thinners you also can't take certain vitamins or supplements that act as blood thinners or that can affect inflammation like tumor and I take tumor pills you can't take tumor I'm just gonna name just a few ginger is another one ginseng vitamin e fish oil which I take every now then Kanye Kanye but you can't take aspirin ibuprofen so things like that and this is information that you know you should get from your plastic surgeon so yes that was everything I am very very happy with my results like I said I'm a fool see you right now I haven't had any of the symptoms that some women have complained about I count myself very lucky even when it comes to itching I know Jordan she's a family vlogger from Louisiana she had complained about itching and it itches but I'm still two and a half weeks out there is a little itching up underneath but not a lot not a lot no no real big pain issues I have a lot of perks that still up in there but not a lot of pain just soreness okay I did make a DIY scar cream that I will start using next week my I have an appointment another post-op appointment on the 15th of June and they're gonna let me know whether not I could start using the DIY scar cream but besides that it has been a very pleasant journey for me and I like I said I feel very blessed out a lot of people praying for me so that is it you guys if you have any questions list them down below and I'll try to get to everyone but thank you so much for watching take care bye