Rick,
Condolences on your terrible situation. Like you I am very athletic and can't imagine having to become sedentary.
I would suggest
this book. This woman was facing a terminal condition without a treatment that her insurance company would not cover. This is her story of getting them to cover the procedure; and yes, now 6-8 years later, she's doing well. She gives a lot of advice and examples on getting insurance companies to cover non-covered treatments. She claims to have dozens of successes with only two failures.
BTW, I have never heard a kind word spoken about Anthem BCBS.
If you are open to it, there are much cheaper ADR options in other countries.
This site and
this site both connect US patients with health care services in other countries; Germany, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Mexico are all popular lower cost destinations (I went to Spain).
Good luck!
Jeff