To Debbie from

[Guest guest]

Debbie: Thanks so much for your words of advice here. I have taken

this very seriously and so glad that you wrote to me. I just

finished writing an email to Chrissy...and it's 4:22 to be exact the

morning of 5 August..I just can't sleep, I guess for obvious

reasons..job worries, health worries, etc., etc. Anyway, what I

wanted to ask was did your health insurance cover the visit to see

Dr. Lehman? Or did you run into the " out of network " problems? I

have Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal, as I'm a government employee

and it is NOT an HMO...but POS (point of service) based plan. I'll

have to read my 2004 brochure carefully to see if it'll cover and

I'll call the business office just to check. I agree with you that

I don't want to fool around with the ERCP. Like I said, my GI doc

that I saw prior to this one kind of made it sound like I was going

to go see a car mechanic or something. Not to slight car

mechanics...at all...I've come to have a newfound respect for them

over the years and wish I could do some of that stuff myself!!

Anyway, please let me know more info if you would I'd like to know

anything and everything about your condition and how you felt about

the treatment plan, etc., w/Dr Lehman. He sounds fantastic from

everything I've heard about him and I agree I don't want to mess

around w/something that could potentially CAUSE damage to occur

needlessly!! I've never had what could be termed an acute attack of

pancreatitis and my enzyme levels have only been slightly raised

once. Given that and the fact that no visual damage has yet to be

seen...I guess I can sort of (I stress sort of!) see how some of

these docs would be loathe to actually diagnose cp even if I have

all of the symptoms and they do admit that at least and so far, have

proceeded in that direction. Anyway, thanks for your email and

please let me know more if you would.

thanks in advance