Saturday, June 27, 2009

And he’s OK

Better than OK actually.  Owen has already eaten 4 eggs (carefully chopped and cooled), 2 bowls of cereal (Rice Krispies soaked in milk), ice cream, rice stew and a banana.   He just won’t do the clear liquid diet so the docs said as long as the food is soft and he’s eating something – we’re OK.  Actually, why don’t I back up?

It’s been a very long two days so forgive me if I go astray…But when I woke up this morning could of sworn it was judgment day.  Whoa!  See what I mean?  I’m slightly delirious from lack of sleep.  In fact….You know what.  I’ve got to go to bed.  I’m suspending this mid – post and getting some well needed rest.  I’ll post tomorrow on his surgery.  You’ll thank me.  I’ll be much more coherent.

For those who have sent their well wishes THANK YOU!!! Owen did great and is recovering very well from his tonsil, adenoid and ear tube surgery!  I will at least give you pictures for now!

 

We took Owen to the Splash Pad to get a final run in before surgery and a summer full of earplugs.

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BEFORE SURGERY

He was as happy as a little clam going into surgery.  Below are some of my favorite pictures.  Click into the album for more!

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Uh…Owen?  Where do you think you are going?

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Somebody catch that kid!

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AFTER SURGERY

No explanation needed.

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RECOVERING AT HOME

Owen was ecstatic to get out of the hospital!  And when I came home from picking up his prescriptions with 6 rented videos from the library, I’ll really got the feeling that he was thinking the whole thing was worth it if for nothing else but those videos.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Stress, stress and more stress

F*^k optimism.

Just kidding. I thought that would grab your attention though. Aaarrrrggg….

I’m not gonna lie, it’s a very, very stressful time around here. Beyond the miscarriage which has caused me to be poked and prodded like cattle – there are 3 other major things causing our stress.

#3 – I’ve been extremely busy. It’s just been one of those crazy months that I haven’t been able to sit down, relax and take a breather. I haven’t had a no-kid day off in I don’t know how long.

#2 – Owen is having his tonsils and adenoids out and ear tubes put in on Friday. Set aside the enormous anxiety I feel about the surgery, if you knew what it took to actually get him in, you would understand the stress. We started out with a referred ENT in Flint because we didn’t want to have to drive to Ann Arbor for yet another doctor. He scheduled us for tubes right away but didn’t look at his tonsils while we were there. Well, this oversight escaped me until he had an appointment with one of his (yes I said one of his) neurologists to discuss his mild obstructive sleep apnea. The neurologist suggested we cancel the tubes and have the tonsils, adenoids and tubes all done at once. Good idea. We decided that if we were going to do the T&A, we may as well stick with U of M.

Flash forward to 2 weeks later and we still don’t have a phone call from the otolaryngology department (yes, I Googled how to spell that). After several phone calls and several days, still no one calls me back from U of M despite my notes that it’s urgent and a note from the neurologist ordering an ASAP consultation. They finally get me a consultation date of July 16th. Uuuuhhhh, yeah, not going to cut it. I’m furious about lack of urgency for at least the tubes. Everyday week that goes by, Owen is further delayed and at further risk for permanent hearing damage. I finally had to call the neuro’s office back and have the doc send a personal email . Even then they didn’t get back to us until we had decided to go back to our original ENT. It’s the first problem I’ve had with U of M before (aside from billing naturally), but I hope it will be the last.

#1 – Due to some changes, we will be switching benefits. Unfortunately, these benefits are going to have a major effect to our medical care. We were previously enrolled in BCBS which worked very well for us. With the new insurance co, our out of pocket expenses double and most of our doctors are not in network. If we go to a doc out of network, it will cost us 40% of the billed expenses in most cases. Of our family’s 7 doctors, 4 are not in network including Dr. Pauli, the family doc I’ve been seeing for 25 years, Owen’s neurosurgeon and Dr. Tykocki the wonder OBGYN. Beyond that U of M hospital is not in network nor is the hospital that Dr. Tykocki is affiliated with meaning, even if I could work something out with his office, he couldn’t do my prenatal care because I would have to pay 40% of my hospital stay when I had the baby.

I am literally sick to my stomach over it. I haven’t slept well in 2 days because we are not quite sure what we are going to do. Private health care doesn’t look like an option because of the expense especially with Owen. I don’t even know if anyone would cover him with a preexisting condition and if they did it would be at a huge cost.

On top of it all, we have $1000 that we’ve paid into a flexible spending account that if we don’t use by July 1st, we lose. I don't think that stools and light extenders will be covered but are their any suggestions for equipment/needs that a FSA will cover that Owen could use? Anyone have any suggestions or product recommendations?

Also, please tell me your T&A surgery stories. I’m completely freaked out. My main worry is that something will go wrong with the anesthesia or which the surgery and we will lose him. Ahh….ease my mind please!

Uuuuggggg….I rarely wallow and I really don’t want to after the last post, but I’m just really stressed out.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Optimism: The Right Stuff

The title of this post pays homage to a speech I wrote as a sophomore in high school for an Optimist Club Oratorical Contest.  I actually ended up winning the entire state competition and a college scholarship with that speech.  I’m a natural optimist as is my husband and it’s times like these that we really have to dig in and find the bright spots in tough situations.

Dan and I have very unfortunately lost the baby.  Last Monday I began to bleed and went to the ER on the advice of my doctor.  Although an ultrasound revealed a gestational sac with a yolk, no heartbeat was detected.  I’ve spent most of last week in the Quest Medical Lab getting blood drawn to detect my hormone levels, which have steadily been decreasing.    All my pregnancy symptoms disappeared as well.

I have another ultrasound tomorrow and more blood work to determine weather or not I will need a D and C.  My doc doesn’t seem to think that I will.  Good news.

Dan and I are dealing with it.  The first few days I pretty much just wanted to curl up in a ball and not speak to anyone.  I was devastated.  We were really ready for this baby and excited to give own a sibling.  Furthermore, we are nervous about the implications of this being  our 2nd miscarriage. 

Luckily, my OBGYN seems to be most wonderful doctor EVER and wants to get the bottom of whatever may be going on.  When I saw him last week – remember this is the first time I’ve ever met him – he said, “So it looks like we might be losing this baby huh?” I said yes and he said “That’s bullshit.”  I thought to myself, ‘You know what?  He’s right!  This IS bullshit!”.  I will write more about Dr. Tykocki in another post.  He deserves a full post. 

I don’t want anyone to feel bad for us.  We’re good.  It is a sad situation, but we are optimistic people lucky enough to have an unbelievable network of family and friends.  People have gone through tougher times than us.  Besides, this gives Dan an excuse to “practice” making more babies.  Whatever happens, we are blessed enough to have Owen.  He makes everything better.  He is our right stuff.

Thank you in advance for all of your support and well wishes.  If there is one thing I have learned from blogging, it is that the support system is astonishing.   I know that you are all there for us and it means so much.