To be fair to the February doctor, he was always helpful in previous years--when I had the money to pay him. The next appointment is for a full physical; if I'd just made an appointment for the hip alone, I'd probably have been able to get an earlier one. But I need a full physical as soon as possible and they told me I couldn't have two appointments in their computer at once.

I'm told that nearly everybody who makes it to a second appeal gets approved, so here's hoping and keeping my fingers crossed.