Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Allergy Fail.

So, at the Just Between Friends consignment sale I attended a while ago, I entered to win something from a Mary Kay lady. Well, I didn't win the big prize, but I was a runner-up! Guess what I won? I won a free spa basket. In vanilla scent. Which I am allergic to. So I'm giving it to my friend. But the MK lady also came over to give me a little makeover. And, she asked me if I was bribeable. Uhm, yes, I am bribeable for free beauty products. She apparently has to tell so many people about becoming a MK lady themselves, and once she does, she gets a free purse. So, she already has 125 people under her, so I guess she just wants to do lip service, because she said she knows I'm not interested, but she's giving me a FREE Satin Hands kit to just come to my house tomorrow to talk at me about doing MK (don't worry, I'm not going to start selling MK). So, I guess it's not a total fail, because I'm getting a free expensive beauty kit that I love and am almost out of the one I already own. So... SCORE.

Also, it's been quite some time since I posted some pictures of the adorable baby I have. Enjoy the following cuteness:

First photo evidence of Wylie sitting all on his own! (Poor baby! See the drool rash?)

Yay! He just looked up at me and raised his arms above his head. So cute!

Do you see this? This is from today. He pulled himself to standing and was playing with the activity table ($10 CraigsList score!)... He is STANDING. On his own.

Oh, I almost forgot. We also had the six-month well-baby appointment this last week and the requisite chest x-ray, as per the pediatric surgeon's orders. Well baby stats:

Weight: 17 pounds, 8.9 ounces

Length: 26 inches

Head circumference: 17.5 inches

I would like to note, here, that he weighs one pound less than my cousin's 11-month old. LOL

Also, the chest x-ray was clear, which means that the CCAM has not grown (remember, it didn't show on the x-ray taken at birth either). So, at this point, I need to get the x-rays on CD and take them back to the pediatric surgeon for further waiting instructions. All in all, not a bad week!

A Freaking Rainbow!!

They say that when it rains, it pours. Well, if you've been reading along, Monday it poured! Between insurance, the doctor's office/appointments, and the Lamaze class, it totally cued a meltdown (i.e. read this for a refresher or this).

But over the course of this week, has it ever turned around! Just more proof that Jarvi was right when I was talking to her, if only I could've just calmed down enough to take that advice to heart. :)

Let's go back to Wednesday and I'll recap quick. Wednesday I went to the doctor's for an ultrasound (again); all is well my friends - the CCAM continues to become more difficult to view each time we go back. Mind you, it is not shrinking - but it is not getting bigger or more aggressive. Whew! Then, I spoke to them about my appointments. Got that all fixed too - btw they weren't happy when they realized (::cough:: I pointed out) that it's been five weeks since my last prenatal appointment (at Evans) and that I wasn't scheduled for one with them until another three weeks from now. Yes, this is what I was complaining about in my email to you all, people! But, they remedied that. They also moved up my periconsult so I have a chance to ask questions of the doctors instead of just seeing them real quick after an ultrasound. Score! My appointments are now all in order and sooner than they had been, thank God, so that way I'm not freaking out about that.

As the for the Lamaze class being canceled, well, we got a DVD to cover that, which I've already mentioned in previous posts. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.

And lastly, the last piece of puzzle, it fell into place today. I got a phone call this morning (read: wake up call) from the Patient Financial Services department at Memorial Hospital. Remember, I wrote my appeal letter to TriWest on Monday. Well, my friends, PFS called to tell me that TriWest had reversed their decision and ALL CHARGES WERE BEING COVERED!!! Hallelujah! I cannot tell you the sense of relief. They only way you would understand would be if you had found yourself in my position. It is extreme relief my friends. Like to the point that I was yelling, "Yay!" and my cat was following me around and echoing me. And maybe I gave the cats extra treats this morning because of my own good fortune. :) Hey, they were here personally for the meltdown, I figured they deserved a little recompense.

Okay, the last thing I want to recap for you: the healthy moms and newborns class I took at Evans last night. Good information, both of initial newborn care, what to expect in the delivery and recovery rooms (in terms of what will happen with Munchkin), and then how to take care of myself and what to expect after birth in terms of what's happening to my body to get it back to pre-pregnancy. But, since we're having a boy (and so were several of the couples in attendance last night), we obviously had to talk about circumcision, since that will be happening, if we choose to have him circumcised (which we are) after he's born. Oh my goodness! Wow - the graphic pictures they showed. A few of the dads had to get up and leave the room! I'm not terribly squeamish, but I suddenly feel like an ogre for having decided we're going to have Munchkin circumcised. It was not pretty my friends - not pretty at all. But we stand by our decision. I just want to tell you, it was graphic.

Oh, P.S. For those of you who are waiting for me to slip and use the baby's name on here (instead of just "baby" or "Munchkin"), it's getting very hard! But I am sticking to my guns on this - you'll have to wait until after the birth!

Appointments and Laughs

So, after my own personal nuclear meltdown yesterday, I'm having a better start to my day. To be fair, things did clear up a little bit yesterday, just like Jarvs said they would when I had an over-the-phone meltdown with her mid-afternoon. God bless her!

I got the appointments scheduled and cleared with TriCare (thank God! Not going to make the same mistake twice, you know) for both the neonatal specialist and the pediatric surgeon. And man, are they getting me in fast! The neonatal specialist is seeing me tomorrow (!) and the pediatric surgeon is seeing me on the first. It isn't a rush, they just had openings to get me in. I have to say, I feel like that's a first - a doctor's office actually having openings to get you in sometime before, you know, you die. LOL Chad's trying to be really good about the CCAM, but I still think it really freaks him out and he's just trying not to think about it. I mentioned the other day that they were sending me to meet with the pediatric surgeon and he had a mini flip out; he said how he was trying to look at things positively and that instead of focusing on the negative, I should have positive thoughts. At this point, I don't think (and I don't think the doctors do either) that the CCAM is just going to disappear. Even if it's not visible on x-ray, they don't just magically disappear. And it's usually still visible on a CT scan. It's important to remove it because they have a tendency to turn cancerous later in life. And let's face it, with my family history, this kid doesn't need any more help in being pre-disposed to cancer. But I just smiled and nodded because it seemed like that's what he needed from me at the time. He was home yesterday when I made the appointment with the pediatric surgeon - he asked me what the appointment was for, and when I told him it was with the pediatric surgeon for a consult, he calmly accepted it and filed the appt. info in his astonishingly rainman-like memory. So, my conclusion is that sometimes, he has a daddy meltdown just like I have my more frequent mommy meltdowns. Hey, we're only human!

Meanwhile, I wrote a very frustrated email to the perinatal care manager yesterday explaining how I feel like my needs aren't being met in the Maternal Fetal Medicine practice (read: the only appointments I've had are ultrasounds - my actual appointment was canceled, to be rescheduled (by them), but I wound up having to do that myself too). I also vented about how I resent the lack of concern on their behalf. She forwarded it to their office manager, who was not in yesterday. I'm expecting to be greeted by some answers and someone who is willing to expend a little time to listen to my cares and concerns when I go in for my ultrasounds tomorrow. And they sure as hell better see me before the (rescheduled) appointment on October 16th. I'll be 37 weeks by then, and by God, if they don't fix it to my satisfaction, Chad said he'd go in there and tear them a new one. Poor guy - I know it makes him feel helpless to come home and listen to all the BS I've dealt with thanks to the doctors and insurance. I guess it's turning out that I'd rather, at this point, deliver at Evans (if it weren't for the CCAM), because I felt like people there actually cared about ME and not just what was going on inside my womb.

Realistically, I've had issues with doctors and the medical profession for years now. I don't really trust doctors because I haven't met one who actually cared. There is a real lack of bedside manner, and don't give me that "they're overloaded" excuse. I had 120 students last year, and I knew what was going on in their lives, the things they worried about, etc. I saw all of them everyday - and I didn't get a chart to write notes down in and review real quick outside the door before I popped my head in. WTH are they doing caring for people if they don't really CARE about people?! Anyway, I'm not revisiting that rant right now - I've wasted enough time on it in the past. Just suffice it to say that until I meet someone who proves my personal assumption wrong, I'm going to continue on with my assumptions. So there. :P

Anyway, onto the second part of my posting title: the laughs. I recently joined parents.com (I've been on pregnancy.com for a while now), and I signed up for some of their daily email things. Why not? Knowledge is power. Anyway, in this email I got from them this morning, they mentioned some blogs on their site. Turns out, I'm late to the game, because the two I read have since been discontinued as of the end of August, but I was reading some of the back posts - holy crap did I laugh! The stories that these women posted were comically horrifying and strangely edifying a soon-to-be parent. It also is making me start to look forward to when our boy starts to manifest his personality, rather than just seeing him and holding him. I can't wait to hear what funny things our boy does and to see Chad teaching him all those little things about being a guy (like getting stubble, although if he's anything like his father and paternal grandfather, the poor kid is doomed to never being able to successfully grow a beard, mustache, fu manchu, etc.). It's nice, especially after yesterday, to find a chuckle and get back to looking forward to our son. Plus, it's nice to end a post on a high note.

Oh - PS - since we can't attend an actual birthing class, we've ordered a lamaze video to teach ourselves; it's not the same, but it's better than nothing.

SUPREME Frustration

So, after still not getting a call back from Memorial Health System's biller, I called TriWest again to see what I could see. This time, I spoke to a representative who explained things thoroughly to me. You see, what prompted me to call again was the fact that I double-checked that I doctor I had seen was a contracted care provider (she was). So I explained that I wasn't really in violation of my authorization paperwork. This rep explained that the reason I was being charged a co-pay was because even though the two doctors work in the same practice and both are contracted providers, I was authorized to see a multi-specialty doctor and the doctor I actually saw was an OB. (Smack forehead here.)

She said that she agreed with me that it should be covered, so she gave me all the information I needed to write an appeal. That's right, she said that I could appeal it - not that Memorial would have to appeal it. I explained that the last rep had said that I didn't have the right to appeal, which she said was wrong because I was being charged money - ergo, I have the right to appeal! Hallelujah! She gave me the claim number, explained what I should say in my letter, gave me the address, everything. She also said that she would look back to see who I had spoken to previously and make sure that the rep understood what she had done incorrectly and see how she could have better advised me from the start, instead of misinforming me and leading me on a wild goose chase.

Conclusion: there are still good people (like my mom) who work in insurance who aren't trying to screw good people over. And sometimes, you need to keep calling people until you find someone who can give you a valid response.

But that's not all folks. No siree. Last Friday, I was supposed to have a periconsult for transfer of care appointment with the perinatalogist at Maternal Fetal Medicine. Thursday, I received a phone call saying that, due to an emergency, my appointment had to be canceled and rescheduled. As a result, my OB appointment (which was supposed to be this Wednesday), would also need to be cancelled and rescheduled. She said that they would need to confer with the doctors and see when I could be seen, so she couldn't reschedule me at that time. Well, Friday came and went with no phone call. So I called this morning to get the appointment rescheduled myself. Now I have to wait ANOTHER MONTH to see a doctor!!! The last time I saw a doctor who examined me was FIVE WEEKS AGO! I was supposed to be on a bi-weekly appointment schedule already, but instead, it's been over a month since I've seen a doctor who has taken the time to examine me, rather than just a doctor who looks over the ultrasound images to make sure that everything is progressing as it should. So, by the time I finally see a doctor, I will be 37 weeks. Fantastic. At that point, I'm supposed to be seeing the doctor EVERY WEEK.

So I contacted the nurse in charge of patient care at the MFM clinic via email. I explained how angry and frustrated this is making me and that I understand that they are busy, but that I really feel like no one is taking an actual interest in my care. Chad and I are both getting frustrated. At this point, I don't even know that I'll see an actual doctor for an appointment beyond an ultrasound before I deliver. That's so comforting. So right now, I'm just angry and frustrated. Again, I'll post updates as I get them.

Oh, and today, which is officially the end of summer, has brought snow to Colorado Springs. Happy Monday.