F****** Waste

[nothingworse]

I waited a month and a half to see a specialist. I get there and I was referred to him by my GP. I have painful gynecomastia and Aetna insurance. I wait about an hour in the waiting area, and then 30 minutes in a little room. I get into talking to him for about 1 minute and he is like your looking for Aetna to pay for this. He said that they absolutely won't. I never knew pain wasn't covered? Beats me. I am so pissed right now, I locked myself in my room. I have given up hope. The only thing this whole thing has been is wait, wait, wait, and I am tired of wasting time. I just want to die I have absolutely had it with this to point maximum. He called in my claim and said he would give me a call in 3 weeks. I know it is going to be a call of denyal. If this doesn't happen I am going to move fast. I am going to hit my Grandma up for a loan. Sounds pretty hard up I know. But, she has money and never uses it. Try 1.2 Million unused dollars. She is tight with her money but, I am willing to plead. How can she be tight with her money. She has all that money and doesn't use any of it. Does this sound right also. When I went in the specialist said my glands were not that hard and he would break them down and lipo them out and lipo the whole area? I asked him aren't you supposed to excision it? He is very skilled in these surgeries and has done pleanty. He does mostly womens breasts. DAM Atena. My parents pay $6000 in insurance a year and it is the best insurance plan in the U.S. They paid for my dads defibulator $75,000 surgery and paid for my Moms thyroid $6,500 surgery. But, can't fork out an estimated $4000 for my surgery. I am going insane I think. I put a lot of hope in seeing him but, that too much time down the drain. If all else fails I am hitting up Grandma because I refuse to go another school year with this. My last year of high school I want to feel good again and I want this year to be a good one. Not another one from hell. So I can tell most of you from this lesson NO INSURANCE COMPAINIES WILL COVER THIS IN THE U.S. You were right JOHN sorry for having doubt. I just wish I could have known this would have happened. I buy and sell items like antiques and other stuff. I could have made the money by doing a lot of sales in that past month. Man I am running out of time.

[nukem2k5]

Dude, I'm really sorry to hear that things didn't work out how you hoped.  Your plan does sound good about getting a loan and having your surgery.

What he said about breaking up the gland and sucking it through the liposuciton tube...I wouldn't buy that.  My surgeon did something similar but he didn't try and suck up the gland through the tube.  He broke it up and pulled it out with a small clamp-like tool through the liposuction incisions under my armpits.  This way I have no scars on my nipples.

Have a look at his before / after pics of patients who have had this procedure to see if he can actually get it all out.  You may want to seek out another PS to see how he does it.

I believe Dr. Bermant's technique involves breaking it up and sucking it out.  Care to shed any light, doc?

[dallasguy12]

Sorry to hear things didn't work out the way you wanted them to. I hope you come up with a convincing and persuasive speech for grandma.

If you're a senior in highschool than you must be getting close to 18 years old. When you turn 18 why not take out a loan with a bank?

[nothingworse]

I talked with my grandma on the phone today and told her things are probably not going to work out. She said if you need this she would borrow me the money. My parents are going to negotiate on the price and get it for an estimated $2500-3000. I have been selling lately and will have $1000 in a few weeks. If my parents don't want to cover the rest if I end up having to pay I will borrow from her. Borrowing money from her is like hell because she wants it back everyday. My dad had that problem a few times. But, I should be able to pay her back in no time. I would rather get this now so I can at least have half of my senior year in happiness. I hope aetna decides to approve it. Chances are most likely 50 50 in my case but, denial is a larger chance. The thing that makes me think this is they didn't cover my moms blood work test which was only $25 dollars but, that is chincy. They are starting to get real fussy and bad. But, somehow I will make this work-out. When my grandma said she would help me out I felt like I was in heaven. Thank god for her because most of my family is having bad times in some way. Taxes are so high by us it is rediculus and living costs are getting insane. If this was 5 years ago everything would have been taken care of. I am not blaming bush fully but, ever since he got in things keep getting worse and will probably continue that way. Again I am going to note, if anyone has to pay for there surgery try and negotiate first. It will work with every surgeon. Even if you only get 10-15% off the surgery you will be saving hundreds that you can use on something else important. If I buy anything big like a car, or something important I always negotiate and it has saved me tons. So getting that $4000-5000 surgery it "is possible" to get a huge chunk of it off negotiating. The best way at doing this would be for example, I am going to pay up front for the surgery "can you do a bit better on the price". The only surgeons that probably won't give you much or anything off are surgeons that have major business. It is just that there are a lot of people who pay sticker or the price noted. Before Chevy offered cars at dealer prices my father had heavy discounts and dickered heavily and was actually on average paying dealer price or $100-200 dollars more. The fact is they still get their 3% holdback which is a couple hundred dollars in profit or enough to survive. Car companies are this way just like a surgeon. Some people may disagree with this but, it is a fact. You can negotiate in price on virturally anything. But, not something like a $15 cd at wal-mart. So, if you are saving for surgery and negotiate it may speed you up on your surgery process and put the money you save back into your life. I appreciate everyone on this board being helpful in and I wish you all the best of luck.

[Spleen]

Man I am running out of time.

Running out of time?  You're in high school!  Get to work and earn the money and stop worrying about all the money Grandma has or that thos selfish insurance companies will spent $$$ on Dad's trivial defibrulator but not your soul-crushing gynecomastia.  You're not entitled to anything, so if you want something done it's time to grow up and do it yourself.  Best of luck.

[Grandpa Bambu]

If he is in high school, he should get the surgery as soon as possible! these are the  years where you develop your personality and who you will be for the rest of your life.

We develop most of our personalities when we are infants. 1-3 years of age.

John.

[nothingworse]

I am starting to get cash together again. I now have $500 soon to have $1000. I know if I have to pay I can pay about half but, will have to borrow half. This stuff is just driving me nuts and I want to concentrate on my college career and getting on with daily life. I have changed my ways over the past few years from being a trouble maker to a caring and responsible person that wants to be normal and successful in life. I now never judge people by there looks like I did when I was a younger foolish kid. I don't want perfection from this and don't expect it, I just want to feel normal again and concentrate on the most important parts of my life family, career, friends, life, and hapiness. I don't expect my parents or grandma to pay it. She said she would borrow me a little cash if I need it. And I will pay her back every penny in as fast of a time as I can. I don't want to hide and run away from the problems anymore I want to take care of it all as fast as possible and improve and move on with my life. I live a decent lifestyle and don't get everything handed to me. If I want something that costs $200 like video games or something not that important I pay for it. My parents do give me generous gifts. If I can get this and even though I have to pay all of the money back to my grandma it would be in my mind the greatest gift I have ever recieved. I wondered what gynecomastia was for years, only learning this a while ago was painful. But, I waited it out and will not continue to wait. Everyone on hear should look for the solution not the wait. If this ails you it is more important to get this taken care of and move on with your life than sit and wait and hide and wish it away every night. It is just a plain and simple fact in most of the cases it is not just going to go on its own you need to look for the solution. A lot of you guys on this board are in your 30s and 40s and didn't know for a long time and probably had to wait a long time for the solution. I tried my best to get rid of it on my own weight loss/diet, wait, etc. But, I don't want to wait years more with this I want to enjoy my 20s 30s and 40s. I was taunted half of my teens years and am now living out the rest of them in hiding. I had a few good times but, the bad times especially the taunting stick out more and I remember them specifically. I grew angry at one time and became very antisocial because I though everyone was judging me. Most of my family is overweight and all have problems of there own but, I don't cut my sister, father, and mother down for being who they are. My friends and I used to make fun of my sister for being overweight and I feel disgusted towards myself for every doing that and appoligized to her for every time I ever made fun of her. I hated myself and my friends for doing that. Even though I am older now most of my friends still act juvinille and I don't hang out with most of them anymore. This condition has helped me with one thing and thats being serious. I never judge people or look at people differently anymore. Even if I got this surgery and it turned out great I would still be the same person inside maybe just more active in life but, would still never make fun of anyone like I did at one time. I am going to take the help offered from my grandma because I am paying her back. I will pay her back every cent and everytime I borrow money from anyone I pay it back. I am an honest person and when someone offers a helping hand I won't refuse it. I am sure anyone on this board, like the people who posted responses to save up and get do it myself. If you didn't have the money for surgery and someone like a family member or friend said you can borrow the money for the operation I understand what is going on. Just pay me back when you can - you all would take it. Because you are still paying for it in full in the end with a little assistance. My sister has asked me for money before like $200 for something that may not even be that important but, I will give it to her if I have it. I love my family, they have helped me and I will take there help, if someone in my family needs help I will help them. Like my Aunt needed to redo the grass and planting in her back yard. I worked for 7 hours and she offered me $75 to do it. I did it for nothing she has given me so much in the past I could do so much for her and it would never repay her for what she has given me. The biggest point of this whole statement is my grandmas money that I would pay back could help excel the solution to my gyne. I don't see the hurt in borrowing (if you pay it back in acceptable amount of time). Paying by credit or loaning from a bank would bring about large amounts of interest. My parents have huge charges they can never get down on their mastercard and are now looking for away to pay it down. I don't want to build up interest and never be able to pay it back. Sorry for all the long posts but, I am just telling it how it is.

[nothingworse]

This Dr. Lowenstein I am going to see to get this done is good at what he does. He has done hundreds of gynecomastia cases as well as Womens breast reduction. Breast Reduction is his specialty and he is very skilled at what he does. He is an older guy and has done plastic surgery since 1980. He is one of the top regarded PS's in Milwaukee. My parents and I before we see him to get this done are going to get a little more clarifcation about breaking the tissue up and sucking it out. I am going to tell him I want the tissue out and most of the crap sucked out. He said he would use ultra sound to break up the tissue and suck it out along with any extra fat with the Canula. I have very little fat that needs to be sucked out. Because it is mostly tissue that is what causes my puffy nipples. I hope and know getting rid of the tissue would get rid of most of the puffy nipples or get rid of it totally and I wouldn't have the pain and uncomfort of the tissue pushing against my skin really hard. He said if my tissue was a bit harder he might have to do excision but, he said it is soft enough to break up and suck out. I can see what he is saying just need a little reassurance. He said he is estimating 80% + of the stuff he needs to remove is tissue and there is very little fat to be removed. All I want is the tissue removed so the pain and the puffy nipples cease.