I got a call a few minutes ago from the diagnostic imaging lab where I am scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday. Actually, where I WAS scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday. My insurance has denied the scan. My medical oncologist is appealing the denial, which will likely take some weeks to resolve. (Paying out of pocket would be $2000. Yuck.) I guess my Facebook tirade about insurance was prescient.

I am also not supposed to have an MRI within six months of having a surgery. So this means that I need to cancel my follow up appointment with my plastic surgeon to discuss next steps, if any, in my reconstruction. He told me that there’s no hurry and so it’s not a big deal except that I would have liked to put the Big Book of Surgeries away for awhile.

“Hurry up and wait” has been a large part of my breast cancer and treatment experience. And I’ve been spared this for awhile. The timing, given my overwhelming swirl of emotions is not good. I did not worry like this about my follow up mammogram last February. Then again, MRI’s in and of themselves are nerve-wracking. I’d much opt to get my breasts panini’d even in a PEM scan where each photo takes 7 minutes. (Yes, the squishy plates are in place for that long each time but gratefully not as tightly as we would all pass out. The whole thing takes about three hours. And you can’t eat any kind of sugar for 24 hours, which eliminates most foods. Okay, I change my mind. I would rather have an MRI.)

Thank you all for your kind support and encouragement. I am saving them for later.

In the meantime, I’m breathing and setting out for another walk.