When Tammy (Nick’s mom) noticed that Nick’s prosthesis was protruding all the ‘red flags’ went up as she suspected something was wrong. She requested an MRI of the head and was not given authorization by the insurance company to do the procedure because there was not enough reason to justify this expense. History of a tumor in that same location was apparently not enough to convince the insurance personnel on the other end of the phone that this test was important. We made a quick family decision to pay for it on our own and worry about it later. As the story unfolds, there was a large mass, it was a malignant tumor, and the insurance company paid the bill. A different story would be told if we didn’t have the money to get the test or the wherewithal to have it done. My advice here is not to trust the insurance company to make health care decisions for you!