fml or how i reached my insurance deductible by february for the second year in a row

boo.

if you have been reading this blog since i was pregnant, then you know about our insurance ordeal(s).  if not, let me (quickly) explain.

in september 2009, my happiness in having my first baby was turned to fear when i learned that my husband's company (which i hate with every fiber of my being) was "revamping" their insurance plans.  this meant that on january 1, 2010, we would be covered by a new plan, with a new, much higher deductible.  our deductible which was once $300, would now be $2,000, $3,000 or $4,000 (and after that only 80% of costs would be paid until you hit your max- which is double your deductible).  the only things that would be paid would be "preventative care."  so in essence, they want their employees to be healthier, go to their dr's for preventative appointments in order to avoid other appts and to cut down on unnecessary er visits when you could wait to see your dr. in the morning.  what they failed to realize is that emergencies happen, and that PEOPLE HAVE BABIES.  this company did not care that i would only be pregnant 3 weeks (not even) of 2010.  my condition was not "pre-existing."  in other words, i, a perfectly healthy woman was being punished for having a baby.  we tried to deliver early, ian's lungs weren't healthy enough, we had to wait, we got slapped with $4000+ worth of bills and we are STILL paying for the birth of my son 13 months after his birth.

dave & i will probably not have another baby while he is working for this company.  sad, isn't it.

so, january 20, 2011- my son's 1st birthday.  we go to play group and have a good time.  monday, january 24, ian starts coughing.  i learn from another mother that her son was diagnosed w\ rsv over the weekend.  rsv takes 4-6 days to show up- explaining why this baby wasn't sick until the weekend and why ian wasn't sick until monday.  at this time ian also appears to have all 4 of his top front teeth coming in.  yay.  we're also on the brink of a wonder week.  joy.

saturday, january 29th ian throws up after nursing from coughing so much- it's the 2nd time it's happened that week.  we are able to get him in to see the pediatrician, who almost writes us off after we explain ian's "symptoms" until i finally get ian to drink water from his sippy- which causes him to cough.  the dr. doesn't say one way or another whether ian has rsv, but his cough is consistent, he has a runny nose and he has lost 5 oz.  we go home irritated.

wednesday, february 2nd.  dave & i are watching a movie when all the sudden ian wakes up screaming in terror- we usually give him a few minutes- and we did, but the screaming doesn't subside.  i go in and pick him up, but he's still screaming, i rock him, i walk with him, we turn the light on in the room- still screaming.  i take him into our room, lay him on  our bed, try to sit him on the floor to crawl, give him to dave- he was still inconsolable.  i sent my friend a text b\c i was so worried, and she called me back- the screaming was terrible- her husband could hear him.  i talked to her for a few minutes, and then called my mil.  we finally decided to page the pediatrician's office- the pediatrician was SO RUDE (there are 8 dr's at our practice and thank God this wasn't my dr.).  he told us that we should take ian to the er because "he couldn't help me over the phone" (ass).  this was our worst fear- do we wait and see if he gets better & risk something bad happening b\c we are afraid to take him to the er b\c of the cost or do we take him and know that we're going to get slapped with a bill that could range up to $6000 (i call this fear-mongering, husband's company calls this "insurance.")

so we bundle our screaming kid in his snowsuit (please remember we had a BLIZZARD that had just ended 8 hours before this) and drive as slooowly as possible on the awful roads to a hospital i'm not familiar with (the hospital i delivered at was just too far to go to).  it's almost midnight.  ian is calm for the car ride.  we get him checked in, they take his temp (no temp), weigh him (he's now lost 8 oz) and ask us some questions, then we go into our er room.  the nurse comes in and asks questions, we tell him about the possible rsv, the blood that's been in the diaper for 3 months, etc.  ian goes back & forth the entire night between screaming in terror/tiredness/anger/confusion and laughing or being calm.  he wants nothing to do with me, and only sleeps in small spurts when dave is holding him.

tests performed at hospital:  catheter for urinalysis, rsv test, breathing treatment, chest x-rays, iv and blood draws (had to leave the room for that one), ultrasound, and abdominal x-rays.  everything comes back negative except for "inflammation" in the blood work, which gets us admittance to the regular hospital (around 6 am).  ian is asleep on dave, so i drive home, grab snacks, extra clothes/diapers and fight morning traffic back to the hospital.  we're in our room (which they don't have a crib for) and waiting on the ped.  we finally see the ped who goes over all the inconclusive tests- and says that maybe ian just had gas (i will refrain from punching anyone in the face at this time).  we're told to monitor is intake & outtake for a few hours, and they'll let us know when we can leave.  finally after sitting in a hospital room all effing day doing nothing- we get discharged around 2:30 (and ian is asleep).  so we wait until he wakes up, we get his iv out, and we go.  we have no answers, and now we have no money.  awesome.  we also got to visit the pediatrician again on friday the 11th for blisters in the diaper area- we got the honor of seeing the dr. for a full 3 minutes for him to tell me to keep doing what i'm doing for it, and that maybe the concentration of his urine is what caused the blisters.  grrrrrrrrrrrr.

so thank you to everyone who asked about ian during these last 3 weeks.  i wish i could say i knew what was going on with him that night- or during these last 3 weeks.  he's currently doing really well- happy and smiling and laughing- he's being himself.  me- i'm recovering.  i was pretty depressed during that time- it was worse than anytime after i had given birth to him.  it was hard.  we're glad to all be back to normal.  now, to win the lottery and pay off those medical bills!

a couple photos to remember this by...

ian in the hospital crib- which looks like a cage.  and finally asleep after being discharged.

(trip to atlanta, pt. 2, saturday)

saturday wasn't quite so busy for us, which was nice. we all loaded up and headed into olde town conyers for family photos (by the way we went with option 1 for the pictures- except that my mom had gotten ian some jeans, so he wore those). they went really well. we did pictures with the 3 of us, and my parents, then we did some with my grandparents, and then we did some with just the 3 of us. ian started to get fussy while we were doing the pictures with just us, so we called it a day.

dave and i had an appointment at 2:00 to get our taxes finished, so we let ian go back to the house with my parents. we discovered on the way out that we were going to be super-early, so we made a stop at chick-fil-a. yummy. i can't get enough of that place! strawberry milkshake- i love you!

as soon as we arrived to get our taxes done we had good news! instead of a mistake that had us owing the gov't $4k, we were actually getting refunds from the feds and the state of illinois- only owing georgia! whoo hoo! this was especially good news because while i was a nanny we saved money for tax purposes, and we get to keep all of it! it will be nice to have some cushion around with all our ridiculous hospital bills (thanks, insurance).

when we got home we napped and then we watched basketball. unfortunately, michigan state lost, so we were a little bummed. we decided shortly after to call it a night because we were so exhausted!

so perhaps a boring day, but nice and relaxing. i didn't even see ian too much, he was being hogged by the relatives- but i didn't mind for their sake!!

i promise, photos later... our other computer isn't working, so i can't get them up!!

last 4 week appointment

Today was the last of my 4 week appointments, and boy was it a doozy. It was also my glucose screening, so I was kind of dreading that because of all the horror stories I had heard.

I was told to eat 1-2 hours before my appointment. My appointment was at 10, so I dragged myself out of bed around 8:45 and tried to see what I could make for breakfast that didn't have sugar in it. I had woken up around 6 to use the bathroom, and ever since then all i could think about were sweets. I wanted cereal, a banana, strawberries and a pumpkin spice latte for breakfast- it was all I could think about. I decided to go with the recommendation from the nurse at my last appointment-eggs. I scrambled 2 eggs with some cheese and pepper and poured myself some milk. When I was drinking the milk, I was shocked to find it had sugar listed in the nutritional facts. Hopefully I'm safe. I arrived at the office, and per usual had to pee in a cup. I had already gone twice that morning, but managed to go again. After that, I was given my Glucola. I got the fruit punch flavor, was told I had 5 minutes to finish it, so off I went. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected, and I finished it pretty easily. I had to stay in the office an hour to have my blood drawn, and I waited to see Dr. Uma as well.

We finally got back to see Dr. Uma. ::sidebar:: There, Dave & I had a spirited discussion about our house. Most of this stems from my inability to let this house go- which I don't know if I can do. Our house was up for rent from February-September, and has now been on the market for a few weeks. We have it listed for $80,000- a huge loss for us- today our agent emailed Dave & suggested we drop the price to $40,000. It just floors me that we are reduced to doing this. A of all- we own our house- we are not in forclosure (yet), B of all- our house is in immaculate condition. We need a quick solution for this, and for once in 2009, perhaps for the Lord to show us a little mercy. Between the house and our insurance woes i'm near the end of my rope.

Back to Dr. Uma- We asked her about our shots- Flu and H1N1 are both recommended. She wrote a note for me for my flu shot, which I'll be receiving from GE on November 5. Don't know anything about availability of the Swine. Then she spoke to me about my recent back pains. Pretty much I'm in pain from the moment my feet hit the floor unless I'm lying down or sitting with my back against something. I had to call out of work yesterday because it had gotten so bad. She asked me about where the pain was, and was shocked to hear how far UP my back it was. She poked around and ruled out kidney infection by my not punching her in the face. She told me I'd need to take ANOTHER urine test to check for kidney stones. If that were to come up negative, I would be sent for physical therapy. Luckily, the urine test was clean, so physical therapy it is. I called and they were able to get me in for tomorrow morning, luckily. I have today & tomorrow off work, so it will be a relief to get some answers before I work again.

Lastly, we asked her about our insurance issue and what she would think about delivering our little guy in 2009. She saw that I would be at 37 weeks, but still 20 days early would give her some worry. I am measuring right at where I'm supposed to be, so we're not "ahead" of schedule. She wanted to talk to Dr. Duval- who did my ultrasound- and is also a perinatologist. She says he could just say "yes" or he may want to see me again. I would more than likely have to have an amniocentisis a couple days before the induction to check for lung maturity. Usually the baby's lungs are fully mature at 37 weeks, but there's a 1-2% chance that they would not be. Amnio isn't an appealing aspect to me, but from what I've read so far, it's WAY safer at 37 weeks then it is at 20 weeks or sooner when checking for abnormalities. So right now we're just waiting to hear from Dr. Duval. We'll see...

On a final note. I've gained 10 lbs since my last appointment on September 21st. Good grief. This puts me right around 23 lbs with 10-13 weeks to go! AHH!! Dr. Uma told me I needed to cut down on candy, juice and replace carbs with proteins. She obviously doesn't know my cravings! I'm going to try to be good. Lots more water and lots less candy! We'll see. Hopefully when I have my next appointment in 2 weeks things will look a little better. I'm just hoping my weight was the Glucola talking.

Today is the last day of my 2nd Trimester~ Unbelievable!

names, insurance, and other nonsense

my sister in law's results were confirmed: it's a girl! the first girl grandchild. although, i was hoping it would be me, I digress...

with finding out the sex of your baby, (and even when you don't) you must pick names. i just recently bought 100,001 baby names, or as it should be called 99,999 stupid baby names. I guess I shouldn't say stupid just b\c i'm not going to name my baby some Scandanavian name, but I am having a really hard time with names. I used to have all these names picked out that I loved, but now I am older, and some of those names could be catagorized with "Apple Martin" rather than being a good baby name. Anything I seem to pick out, Dave hates. Dave also is dead set that we're having a boy, and therefore has vetoed every girls name I have suggested to him; even going so far as to refer to our child as the boy name that he has picked out. The one I told him was "ok" and that hasn't been set in stone yet... So as the field of names that I like (i'm in "J" in the baby book and have selected maybe 5 names) is getting smaller and smaller, I'm trying to figure out what to do. I have ridiculously made a list of everyone I know who is expecting since we have found out we were expecting. From that list I have tried to list whether they are having a boy or girl, and from there what name they have picked out if they have made it public. My list is at 30 people. THIRTY. So far, 4 have given birth. Also, so far, only 7 are having girls, 1 isn't finding out the sex and 10 aren't far enough along yet to know. Also, in more craziness: only 5 of these people are due after me. This presents my problem. People are so weird about baby names. Some people don't tell (i have considered this), but most people don't want you using their name. This means I've got to wait out 25 people worth of baby names and pray to God above that none of these people use my names. Because I'm telling you now, once I pick out a name that I like, and husband agrees on, nothing is changing my mind. NOTHING.

Of course, we also have 5 weeks to go until we find out the sex, but still...

Today is week 15. Threw up yesterday, hoping that by NEXT WEEK that this is all behind me. Of course, my sister in law is still throwing up at 22 weeks. I'm also waiting on my hair to start growing Rapunzel-style. I had these really long Freddy Krueger-like nails, but they started breaking off one by one, and yesterday I had to trim them all down to a suitable length. Now they just feel weird.

I'm sleeping better at night, thank the Lord. Yesterday at my appointment I asked my Dr. about sleeping on my back. She said eventually I wouldn't be able to because it wouldn't be comfortable, but for now, i'd be fine. She also said that women labor on their backs, and that non-pregnant people sleep on their backs all the time, and none of them are dead yet, so that I would be fine, and that she wishes those books wouldn't have some of the info that they have in them.

The worst thing to come out of this may be with our insurance. We just switched to United Health Care from Blue Cross/Shield of GA with our move. My doctor's office has 2 locations: 1 at Sherman Hospital (which is completing construction on a new state-of-the-art building due to be finished in December), and one at St. Joseph-Provena. I chose Sherman for obvious reasons. My Doctor is awesome. Not only is she young and very friendly, and knows her stuff, but she looks like Uma Thurman. She's great! When I was leaving the office yesterday I saw a sign hanging in the waiting room that I wish I hadn't seen...

"Attention All United Healthcare Patients" (you know this can't be good)

Basically, the sign says that contract negotiations between Sherman and UHC have reached a stand still. On June 15th Sherman sent UHC a letter to cease operations between the 2. The contract expires in October. We will be continuing to try to reach an agreement with UHC.

By this time I will be 6 months pregnant, and will not be wanting to look for a new hospital or doctor. I don't even want to do that now at 3 months. To top this all off, there was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago saying that St. Joe's will no longer be delivering babies and sending all their patients to Sherman.

Should having a baby really be this difficult?! Just be praying for an agreement between United & Sherman b\c starting all over with a new Doctor\hospital would be the pits.