Friday, September 30, 2011

Some days I am too lazy to come up with a title.

Let's see...where did I leave off? Hmmm...oh yeah, it was Tuesday, she was sick and we were going to see the pediatrician the next day. So that's what we did! Her lungs didn't sound stellar, but there were no obvious crackles yet. Yet being the key word, as this is KayTar's pneumonia pattern. URI that resolves, a couple of days later she has a new onset fever, wet cough...we go to the pediatrician and her lungs sound yucky, but not quite crackling, so we wait and see, and 1-2 days later, we are back in for full-blown pneumonia! So this time, the pediatrician just decided to call it and treat. Generally speaking, I'm not in favor of antibiotics in these iffy cases and prefer to wait it out, but we've been through this enough for me to be pretty sure of where she was heading if we didn't treat. She hasn't had antibiotics since her pneumonia last February, so I was okay with it, as was the pediatrician. So she is on a course of Suprax and using Pulmicort once daily until she's sounding better.

We got her prescriptions filled on Wednesday, we paid $50 for them. On the pamphlets, it said, "Your insurance saved you $303.99 and $603.99." Can you believe that? $908+50=$958...high enough to be rounded to A GRAND! This is why I have a series of small panic attacks every time we resubmit our CHIP paperwork. This was just one illness...a drop in the bucket compared to the overall costs of keeping our girl running!

Speaking of CHIP, our appeal to change health plans was denied. We have to wait until our yearly renewal period to change health plans. Ugh. I'm not happy about this...I really, really want her to be seen by pulmonology. I feel like we've already been sitting on these breathing problems for too long, several more months is not acceptable to me. Not to mention, we are supposed to see the new geneticist in two weeks...and not doing that will delay further testing and our next appointment with her mito doc. I'm not sure what we need to do here, but I'm not really okay with putting it all off for so long. At least we HAVE insurance, though.

At the pediatrician visit, she and I discussed how KayTar's gut issues have been since the last visit. She brought up something I mentioned to her in an email after the GI visit, which was that the GI suggested that it may be disease progression. She said that she thinks of KayTar as a kid who has some challenges and limitations, but she's made such great strides and is always moving upward, so she never thinks of her in those progressive disease terms. She said, "It kind of made me..." and she paused, looked at me with a bit of concern in her eyes, put her hand on her heart, and frowned a little..."to think of her like that." It was one of those moments where I thought, "Gosh, we're lucky to have a doctor so invested in our girl." and "That is the kind of doctor I want to be." all at the same time. A lot of things are uncertain in life with KayTar, but it is much easier to handle with wonderful people on her team.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boo for pneumonia, Yay for insurance (even if you can't change the plan just yet) and awesome doctors.

Shellye said...

How is KayTar doing today? I hope she gets to feeling better soon.

I am praying for her healing.

It's good that she has awesome doctors who don't think of her in terms of progressive disease. That's a real privilege.

As for the insurance, it can be a hassle to deal with, but it's good that you're able to have it and take advantage of it, especially for KayTar.

Hope you have a good day today and that KayTar is on the mend now.

leah said...

I am always shocked when I see how expensive Nexium is - and so relieved that our insurance covers most of it. We only pay $40 per month for the Zantac and Nexium, though the real cost is much higher! I hope you can enroll in your new plan soon.

I also hope that KayTar knocks that pneumonia bug soon! Her pediatrician sounds WONDERFUL - it is great to have amazing doctors on your side!

Cate said...

I hope kaytar is feeling better! It sounds like you have a great pediatrician. I hope the health insurance thing gets sorted out... can you find a different doc that's covered by your current plan? The 14 weeks I've been in third year have really made me see how screwed up our system is...

Magpie said...

you have a great doctor there.

Ang said...

Love amazing doctors in our lives but I think one of the hardest things to hear is when one of the "positive thinking" ones feel like there is progression. It hits me so very hard....

Glad she got abx and hope she makes a full recovery soon!!

InTheFastLane said...

That is how JJ's pneumonia went last year...all three times. I am hoping we are not doing that again this year.

That "progression" thing..... it must hurt your heart to think of it in those terms. But, what a great support team you have surrounding you all.