It occurred to me a few weeks ago that my insurance company’s website might have some indication of the status of my pre-authorization, and it turns out it does — there’s an “Authorizations and Referrals” page. I’ve been checking it once a week or so, and finally, late last week, it showed that my CI revision has been approved!

However, a week later, my surgeon’s office still hasn’t called me to schedule. I called them a few days ago, but got sent straight to voicemail; their message says they’re understaffed due to COVID and not to call more than once or it would take them longer to respond. I am SO frustrated! I really want to get this done, preferably at a time that doesn’t get in the way of my plans. I have a few things coming up, and scheduling around them will be tricky, especially since I will need to factor in recovery time and make sure I’m not exposed to COVID too close to my surgery. But short of going to their office in person, I don’t know how to get in touch with them when they don’t answer their phones.

I get that everything is messed up due to COVID, but the numbers are way down in this area so I would have thought that things would be getting back to normal. The rates were higher last summer when I got my second CI, and yet they got back to me within days after I saw the surgeon.

Anyway, I just needed to vent. I spend every minute of the business day glancing repeatedly at my phone, willing it to ring…but so far it’s only been spam calls.

Not much new news, unfortunately. I saw the surgeon a few weeks ago and am now waiting for insurance approval for the revision. I’m impatient — I just want to get this over with already.

I also did end up going back to the audiologist to get my left processor changed back to the previous program, as the tweaks to compensate for the bad electrodes were driving me nuts. As it is now, the volume and quality are worse than the right side, but I can live with it until I can get the revision done.

I ordered waterproof cases for both my processors, and I got a CI Wear shirt — this is a really cool product that someone on the CI Community Discord told me about. It has a closed pocket on either sleeve for the waterproof case, and inside the pocket is a sturdy elastic to clip the case to, as well as a hole to allow you to thread the cable through the sleeve, up the back of the shirt, and out the neck. I believe this is going to be my solution to the roller coaster problem; it might not keep the headpieces from coming off my head, but they won’t get lost. Now it just needs to get warmer so I can try it out!

But in the meantime, just waiting, waiting, waiting for that insurance approval….