Today was a good one!

Today has been a really good day. It didn’t start out that way since I missed my 4:30am Ibuprofen, so when I woke up I was in a lot of pain and hard to breathe. But, we had to get Kai to his Dr appt w/ his Primary Care Physician at 10am, so I took my Ibuprofen, ate 2 pop tarts & went back to bed for 30 minutes to let it kick in. Then I actually took a shower all by myself (well, except for Bryan washing my back for me) and I stood up the whole time and never got dizzy.

I actually got about 7 hours of sleep last night because of the increased frequency in taking the Ibuprofen and Tylenol in between the Ibuprofens. I took it thru the night. I was amazed I had actually slept that long. Today is Day 8 after my surgery and I have not had more than 3-4 hours of sleep a night since my surgery.

Kai’s pediatrician was surprised that I came to his appointment. She was also very surprised at how well he is doing. But, she thought he looked a little pale and his heart rate is way too high, still over 100 at rest. So, she called Dr Sharkey in St Louis and Dr Sharkey wants another echo done. So, tomorrow we go back to Carle Clinic to have an echo done and the results will go to both the pediatrician and Dr Sharkey. She said I was pretty pale too and she was concerned about me so she had her nurse check my blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and pulse as well. I really like Dr Pegram. It is nice that she is also concerned about me and I am not even her patient. My blood pressure is still high, but I am still building back up to my regular dosage of both my blood pressure meds. I think it will come down, but just may take some time. Plus, if you have pain, your blood pressure tends to shoot up anyway. She says she wants Kai to start taking the Iron & Vitamin C again to build his blood back up. His hemoglobin was borderline low when he was discharged.

I stayed on my med regime and felt really good today. I really didn’t have a whole lot of pain today. I think if I can keep this up and possibly extend the time between dosages, I can get thru this fine. I talked to a friend at work today for quite some time and it felt good. I miss all peeps!!!!!! Shout out to my peeps Then another co-worker stopped by to bring me a power cord for my PDA since it was dead and I couldn’t put any appointments on my calendar. She got to see my scar and Kai’s too as well as meet Linnea, Bryan and Spike. Spike stood guard over me the whole time she was at my house. That funny little dog. I think next week or the week after, some of my friends at work and I are going to have lunch together. I am really excited about that. Stacey said they are signing up for days to bring over dinner for us so Bryan can at least have one less thing to do and worry about. I think that is so nice. He has worked really hard taking care of all of us and keeping up w/ the house.

I just finished getting the photos and videos of my surgery uploaded, so if you are interested, go out and take a look. Again, I have labeled them Graphic and Non-Graphic for those of you who are squeemish. Dr Pegram said she didn’t even want to see them. I thought that was kind of strange for being a doctor. I, personally, think they are so interesting and you can see so much and learn so much from them. I plan to take my computer to St Louis w/ us on October 16th when we go see my surgeon to show him and verify what I am seeing. I am also ordering copies of everything. I want to scan and upload a photo of the heart cath I had done showing my aorta from the root up. You will die laughing. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. Shelly the anesthesiologist intern cracked up when she saw it too. I am not going to reveal what you will see in it, you will just have to wait (and it may be several weeks before I get it). I am going to ask my surgeon why the heavy set lady is doing so much of the work on me. I think she is a resident/intern. I am not happy about that. I was asked if that was ok. I don’t mind them watching and assisting, but not actually doing. My scar is crooked and she is the one who made the cut!

Today was Kai’s first visit from the Homebound teacher. I don’t think he is too thrilled about it. I think he thought this was going to be a piece of cake and he wouldn’t have to work too hard at it, but he is finding out differently. I told him that if he were going to school, he would be working from 8:30 – 3:30 so there is no reason why he can’t have that schedule here at home. Computer games, etc will have to be after the homework is done. I told the teacher that I would like her to write out exactly what is due the next day so there is no misunderstanding on anyone’s part about what needs to be done. He even admitted to one of his online friends that he can’t wait to get back to school! I bet he won’t say that again anytime soon, probably not till another surgery comes along.

I can’t wait to get back to work either. It’s nice having the time off, but I know by the end of next week, I will hate being home all day and not seeing my friends. I am hoping they will stop by often. I told myself, I would use this time to put the last 13 yrs of photos into photo albums (yes, I said 13 yrs!) I only have up until Kai was about 6 months old into photo albums. I’m horrible about that stuff. I also need to get more things listed on the ALFI to be sold. That would help declutter and God knows we could use the dough now.

Oh, get this……when Kai saw the Orthopedist back in April, they billed Blue Cross/Blue Shield $188. BCBS paid $143 which was the contractual amount. Then the Orthopedist turned around and billed my HMO, Health Alliance, the remaining $45. Health Alliance sent them a denial saying that their contractual amount was even less than what they had already been paid, so no payment was going to be made and the patient is not responsible for the balance. I got billed anyway a couple of months ago. I wrote to the billing company and asked them why I was getting billed, then I called Health Alliance and they said they would take care of it and not to worry about it. I got another bill from them. So, I call the billing company again today. The rep there told me that their legal department told them that they didn’t have to abide by any contractual amount for a secondary insurance. So, I said, “Do you have something in writing you can send me for proof of that?” She said she would transfer me to a supervisor, okay. Then she comes back and says she’ll have to try another one, that one wasn’t at their desk. Then she comes back on after a while and says that she was told to tell me that I would not have to worry about the balance billed. Can you believe that crap! I caught them in their own lies. When push comes to shove, they cowered in the corner. Just goes to show you, you HAVE to stand up for what you believe is right and make people/companies responsible for their actions. I am so fed up w/ dealing w/ insurance crap. It takes so much of my time trying to read their statements, calling the billers, then calling the insurance companies, etc, etc, etc. Why can’t they be like State Farm and pay what they owe. As a claim rep, that is what we were taught. Figure the amount and pay what is owed, no less & get it done in a timely manner.

Ok, so getting late. Gonna go to bed. Looking forward to another good night and good day tomorrow.

Take care everyone!