Well, it's about a quarter to three in the morning, and Coney is UP. Sometimes, I will wake up in the middle of the night and look over to see two very wide eyes staring into mine. Creepy! When that happens, which it very frequently does, it's pretty much over. It really wouldn't be that bad since Ben is kind of on a reverse sleep/work schedule anyway, but I still have another child that is on a "regular" (I still use that term pretty loosely) sleep schedule. What does that mean for me? Practically no sleep. So, when you all see me with my eyes bloodshot and glazed over, I'm really not on drugs. I just haven't had a real night's sleep in almost five months. Depressing! Surprisingly, my body seems to be adjusting pretty well......my mind, now that may be another story (I'm using the lack of sleep as an excuse anyway).
Right now, I am at my parents house, sitting on my old bed, in my old room watching "Miracle on 34th Street". I love Christmas movies! My watching it really has nothing to do with the season. I'm sure I'd still be watching it even if it were July. All of my top movies are Christmas movies: "Home Alone" (1 & 2) "A Christmas Story" (my number 1 movie of all time!), "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Christmas Vacation" and the list continues. But that really has nothing to do with anything. I'm here because decorating day for Festival is in one week, and I am soooooo behind! I came in to get some work done, and it's just much easier for me (especially since Ben wouldn't be home from work until 4 am anyway) to stay here rather than drive home at night.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot accomplished today. When I pulled up to the house, an hour and a half late, a little voice came from a child that I thought was asleep in his car seat. "Mommy, I milked". To Miles, when Conan spits up, it's milking. I wasn't too excited to turn around to see what was waiting for me and for good reason. A bottle of milk and a 100Grand candy bar do not look so great a couple of hours after consumption. It was a grisly mess. Luckily, the majority of it covered him and not the car seat. We learned several months back on a cabin trip, that that particular car seat is nearly impossible to take apart to clean vomit. I guess I should've trusted Miles this morning when he came in and said, "Oh, Mommy, ouch my pummy (tummy)". I thought he was just itchy or something. Anyhow, he's been acting pretty normal despite all the puke. He has had a low fever all day, and he's talked a little funny, but he's still happy and playful and just as stinker-potted as ever. Good thing too because I totally left his medicine bag in the car that is not with me.
It is now 3:30 am, and Miles has joined Coney's and my party. I didn't realize that he had woken up until I was putting in a new movie, and I hear, "Oooh, toys! I play". I tried to convince Miles that it was not morning, but that's hard to do when mommy and brother are both up. After a little arguing, we came to a compromise. Miles could stay up and watch the movie as long as he was laying in bed. Hopefully, he'll fall asleep. Usually doesn't work that way though. BTW, Conan is still totally awake too. Awesome!
Although, I still have much to do in the way of Festival, I did get a few things done today. I got my sign painted and the vinyl lettering put on, and I got all of my "C"s and cookies painted. That probably doesn't mean anything to most of you, and I'm not going to explain it. You'll all just have to come to Festival of Trees and see for yourself . Still to do? I need to make the tree skirt and make a life-sized Cookie monster. Actually, Adele needs to make a life-sized Cookie Monster because I don't sew. I have all faith that she will be able to do it though. I also need to find a little table and come up with some sort of stove situation. I have some ideas, but we'll just have to see what happens. I'm super excited about this tree....which for me can be pretty dangerous. Ben will attest to this. When I get excited about something, I tend to set unrealistic expectations then I'm really disappointed when things don't work out perfectly. I have pretty high hopes for this tree, so hopefully, we can pull it together.
I've got two whining children, and it is almost 4, so I'd better wrap things up. In closing, I'd just like to say, once again, everyone come to Festival of Trees. There's a good time to be had by all, and it all goes to a great cause!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Falling Behind
Man, I really have fallen behind. It's been over two months since I've posted anything. Actually, I've blogged a couple of times but gotten distracted, never finished, then forgotten until the post was too out of date to post. I've had a couple requests for updates but just haven't gotten around to it, not that I don't have anything to say. I can always come up with something regardless of if anything is happening or not. It just so happens, however, that right now so much is happening that I haven't had time. After a phone scolding this morning, I thought I'd better get on it though. So, Heidi, my dear cousin, this one's for you. :)
I suppose I'll start where I left off. I last discussed Conan's 2 month checkup. Well, last week we went in for the 4 month, and I must say, I was a bit surprised by some of their findings. I was excited to get Coney's percentages because he really is quite, even super, fat. He also just seems really big in general to me. I was surprised to find out that he is only in the 25th percentile for height and even more surprised to find out that he's only in the 50th for weight. Honestly, I thought he'd be around 60th or so for height, and I really thought that he'd pushing the tops of the chart for weight. Shows what I know. In fact, Miles was was taller and at least the same weight at this point. And he always seemed little to me. I guess, if you are looking at percentiles, he is still twice as fat as he is tall. People have been asking me about his head size (it's a novelty in my family because the young ones tend to have freakishly gigantic noggins), but I didn't get that measurement. I'll ask next time we're in. I'm sure it will only be a week or so. We're there all the time. Actually, while we were there for the well-child, the nurse commented that it was so nice to have us there healthy. Everything else in the appointment looked good. No rare diseases so far. The only thing is some pretty bad eczema, and we'll take that. I'm also convinced that Conan already has allergies. They won't diagnose this early though. Dr. Ditty said that many doctors don't believe that kids can have allergies this young because they haven't be exposed to everything. I told him that I didn't believe that for a second. He chuckled and said that he didn't think I would (he doesn't either). He said that I would be the one to know, with Ben and I both having pretty severe asthma and of course, Miles. I can tell the difference between allergies and a cold, and I can say pretty confidently that Conan has allergies.
In the last post, I also ranted for a while about insurance. The saga continues. Within about a week of having Conan, I received a bill for $500+. We had the same policy with Miles and paid nothing, so I already thought that this bill was probably not right. Not only that, I knew that there was no way that they could have submitted to the insurance and gotten a reply within a week of my hospital stay, so certainly I wasn't going to pay it. They were very persistent though. We seriously got this same bill almost weekly for about a month, so Ben finally called on it. I loved what the lady told him. In not so many words, "Oh, we always bill that amount right after someone has a baby because it usually costs at least that much". Really? Really?? Nothing had been denied from my insurance because they hadn't even billed them yet. I would love to know how many people who don't know their policies just assume it's legit, and pay it. Well, ours wasn't, so they finally stopped billing us after the call. That was about 3 months ago. My favorite part happened just last week. That $500+ bill was zeroed out, but I got another bill for interest on that bill. And when I called on it, the lady said, "Well, it was paid late, so you need to pay interest". That was after I explained the whole situation. Clearly, she didn't understand, and after much argument, I finally got it taken care of. Sneaky hospital billing. They're all seriously so crooked. As a side note, I've never had an insurance problem. Both, Aetna and Select Health have been so wonderful, helpful, and attentive to our family. It's always been problems with the hospital billing. (I have to stick in there that I love PCMC dearly, and I do like Alta View as well. It's just all of their outside billing that sucks) Again, I highly recommend going over every medical bill with a fine-toothed comb. Call on everything, regardless of if it's fishy or not. You may find something you shouldn't be paying for, and if you don't, all you're out is a phone call.
I missed a pretty big one last month. We went on an incredible Disney dream vacation. It was seriously so great! You know, I've been really Disney blessed. I've had some amazing Disney experiences, and this one was up at the top with Brooklyn's grand-prize winning in the "Year of a Million Dreams". (If you don't know about that one, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll tell you all about it in the next post. It was crazy!) Anyway, Ben was lucky enough to find a seriously smoking deal for a package stay at the Grand Californian. As the nicest of the Disneyland hotels, it's definitely not someplace that has ever really been in our budget, but we just happened to hit a great deal. To give you an idea, their most basic rooms, average right around $500 a night. We certainly didn't pay close to that though. But, we did get all the same benefits as someone who does. The hotel is right on site. In fact, we had our own private entrance to California Adventure, and Downtown Disney was right outside our doors. It was so nice to have everything so close. If the kids got tired or ornery, it wasn't a big deal to go back for a nap or lounge at the pool. With 6 days in the park, it was also our longest stay at Disneyland, so we didn't feel at all rushed. It was great. Ben's brother and his family joined us, which always makes it so much fun, and his mom flew in for a couple of days. It was great to have family there with us. Disneyland has always been a family place for me, so it's always kind of been the more family (especially the kids) the merrier.
Since we were staying in such a nice hotel at such a great price, and since we forfeited any vacation last year due to constant medical problems, we decided to try to have the full Disney experience this time. What were some of the highlights? Let's see, one of the greatest things, despite the bad service (only time I've ever said that about anything Disney) at the restaurant was the VIP access to the Wonderful World of Color. It was so cool! For anyone who doesn't know about this, look it up and watch part of the show on the internet. It's kind of a light/laser show on water at the pier at California Adventure. It's kind of like the show at the Bellagio, only a million times cooler. The pictures are as clear as movies, and the water shoots hundreds of feet high. It really is indescribable. I recorded most of it, but a video just doesn't do it justice.
We also had some really great meals. We had dinner with Alex and Jenn at my personal favorite, the Blue Bayou, while grandma watched the kids. It was so much fun to be able to have a double date in the happiest place on earth. It's been a long time since we've hung out with other people without little kiddies. It was nice. We also did character dining for the first time. We went to Goofy's kitchen, and had some great photo ops for the kids. And poor Minnie was terrorized by some little monster of a child to the point that she had to run away out of the restaurant for about an hour. You all have my permission to spank my children if they ever do something awful like that. We also tried out a new BBQ place by Big Thunder. We made friends with the cutest little waitress named Sundai, and we spent the hour just a couple tables away from Whoopi Goldberg and her family. My brush with greatness.
We got to be in the park while the Halloween season was getting underway. That was a lot of fun. Haunted Mansion was all dressed up for the season like Nightmare Before Christmas. It's pretty amazing how they can transform it so much. They also Halloweened up Space Mountain for the first time. It took me a couple of rides before I could keep my eyes open through the whole thing (or past the first poltergeist). I'm a huge wimp when it comes to rides, but I've never been one to be afraid of ghosts and such. This was totally the exception. The special effects were really terrifying. Speaking of me being a wimp, I did go on Splash Mountain this trip. I don't do falling. Ben thought that he was going to get me on Tower of Terror, and I ended up agreeing to go on Splash Mountain just to get him to shut up about the other. On the record, I still hate it.
Back to the present, Ben just started a new shift at Fidelity. This is a fun one. He leaves for work around 3:30 pm, and doesn't get home until about 4:30 am. Good times. He gets to do this Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. As crappy as this sounds, it does have some benefits over his prior shift. A: He gets to go to church, most of it anyway. B: We get a pretty sweet shift differential. It's also kind of nice that he gets 3 days off in a row. Not that the shift isn't bad enough as is, but Ben has training this week. That means that after getting off work at way-too-early o'clock in the morning, he had to be back at 8 am the same day, about four hours later. Yikes! Not only that, it also means that the poor boy is working 7 consecutive days this week, at least two of which are 10 hour shifts. Poor, poor, Benny.
Since he didn't have that much time between on and off today, Ben stayed in Salt Lake to save the 2 hours of driving. (Thank you Cathy!) I've got a ton to do with Festival, so I decided to stay at my parents last night. I didn't want to drive home in the rain tonight, so I'm actually still here. The day was very full, but quite productive. Festival of Trees is sneaking up very quickly, and I realized yesterday just how ill-prepared I am. Festival is only a few weeks away. I had gathered a little bit of this and that for my display, but I didn't actually have a single thing for the tree itself.......and I hadn't picked up the tree either. It makes it a little imperative to get going because the most important parts of my tree have to be homemade this year. I'm doing a Cookie Monster tree, and I think that this may be my greatest creation ever, assuming it works out, that is. And that's a pretty big assumption. Right now, we're attempting to dye undyeable fur fabric blue to build a life-sized Cookie Monster. This has the potential to be a super awesome tree. Unfortunately, it has the potential to fail miserably too. That's why it's so crucial to get it done early. That way, if it's too awful, hopefully we have time to come up with an alternative plan. I really hope that I can realize my vision for this though 'cause it's pretty sweet vision. Today, we did pick up the tree, got all of our ornaments and ribbon, started making some of our hand-made stuff and got the fabric dyeing....we think. The only thing that we still need are some of the required supports, a couple of chef's hats, wooden spoons, a cookie sheet, oven mits, a small table, stuff to make an oven display and a 36" sign board. Everything will be super easy to come by but the sign. I can't find anything suitable, so we'll probably have to cut our own. Oh, I also need to figure out how Cookie is going to stand up and be shapely. That will be interesting. Anyhow, I'm super excited about this tree. It's been a while since I've done a tree that strictly childish, and I think that they're the most fun.
Please, everyone come to Festival of Trees. It's very near and dear to my heart. Every cent earned from tree sales, ticket sales, food sales, etc. goes straight to Primary Children's Medical Center. There is not overhead. No one gets paid or reimbursed. Even the space was willed to PCMC. I don't know if everyone realizes that kind of like Shriner's, PCMC offers financial assistance to many patients who have no way of covering their expenses. We've been very blessed to have wonderful health insurance coverage, but I know how important this is to many families who don't. I can only imagine what a horrific strain it would be to try to deal with such a financial burden while also trying to care for a child that's suffering in the hospital. Despite not having taken advantage of this financial help, I really love this hospital. I couldn't have imagined, 13 years ago, when I first got involved with Festival of Trees, what a close relationship I would end up developing with this hospital. And while I hate that my baby has to be sick, and I hate that he has to spend so much time at Primary, I'm grateful that I've gotten to see up close how important and worthy charities like Festival are.
Opening night for Festival of Trees is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. There is a silent auction for the trees, etc. It is by invitation only, but if you think you'd be interested in purchasing a tree, I'm sure you could get invited. Festival is open to the public Dec. 1st through the 4th (I think). It's typically open from 10am to 10pm. It's really a lot of fun for the whole family. Hundreds of themed trees and wreaths are on display. There are also really ornate gingerbread houses and playhouses that are so much fun to look at. There are crafts for the little kids. Lots of fun gifts and treats to buy. There are two stages with performers, and Santa is there with photographers. Oh, and make sure that you visit the scone and sweet roll chalet. I wait all year for those scones. If you have any questions about Festival or would like to volunteer to host (stand behind the velvet ropes and tell people not to touch--also, tell all the heart wrenching stories on the back of the signs about dedicated trees to the passersby), feel free to give me a call or message or whatever. You can also get most of the info you'd need from www.festivaloftreesutah.org Hopefully, I'll see you all there. Oh, and the name of my tree is "C" is for Christmas. If I remember correctly, it's kind of by the scone and sweet roll chalet (in the middle of the large trees). I could be wrong though. It will probably be one of the only big blue trees, so it will kind of stand out. My name won't be on the sign, but there will be a picture of my cute little Miles in the display.
Well, this is lengthy. Hope you enjoyed it, Heidi......and anybody else who wasn't too bored to read it. I'll be sure to be back sooner than I had been. 'Til then......
I suppose I'll start where I left off. I last discussed Conan's 2 month checkup. Well, last week we went in for the 4 month, and I must say, I was a bit surprised by some of their findings. I was excited to get Coney's percentages because he really is quite, even super, fat. He also just seems really big in general to me. I was surprised to find out that he is only in the 25th percentile for height and even more surprised to find out that he's only in the 50th for weight. Honestly, I thought he'd be around 60th or so for height, and I really thought that he'd pushing the tops of the chart for weight. Shows what I know. In fact, Miles was was taller and at least the same weight at this point. And he always seemed little to me. I guess, if you are looking at percentiles, he is still twice as fat as he is tall. People have been asking me about his head size (it's a novelty in my family because the young ones tend to have freakishly gigantic noggins), but I didn't get that measurement. I'll ask next time we're in. I'm sure it will only be a week or so. We're there all the time. Actually, while we were there for the well-child, the nurse commented that it was so nice to have us there healthy. Everything else in the appointment looked good. No rare diseases so far. The only thing is some pretty bad eczema, and we'll take that. I'm also convinced that Conan already has allergies. They won't diagnose this early though. Dr. Ditty said that many doctors don't believe that kids can have allergies this young because they haven't be exposed to everything. I told him that I didn't believe that for a second. He chuckled and said that he didn't think I would (he doesn't either). He said that I would be the one to know, with Ben and I both having pretty severe asthma and of course, Miles. I can tell the difference between allergies and a cold, and I can say pretty confidently that Conan has allergies.
In the last post, I also ranted for a while about insurance. The saga continues. Within about a week of having Conan, I received a bill for $500+. We had the same policy with Miles and paid nothing, so I already thought that this bill was probably not right. Not only that, I knew that there was no way that they could have submitted to the insurance and gotten a reply within a week of my hospital stay, so certainly I wasn't going to pay it. They were very persistent though. We seriously got this same bill almost weekly for about a month, so Ben finally called on it. I loved what the lady told him. In not so many words, "Oh, we always bill that amount right after someone has a baby because it usually costs at least that much". Really? Really?? Nothing had been denied from my insurance because they hadn't even billed them yet. I would love to know how many people who don't know their policies just assume it's legit, and pay it. Well, ours wasn't, so they finally stopped billing us after the call. That was about 3 months ago. My favorite part happened just last week. That $500+ bill was zeroed out, but I got another bill for interest on that bill. And when I called on it, the lady said, "Well, it was paid late, so you need to pay interest". That was after I explained the whole situation. Clearly, she didn't understand, and after much argument, I finally got it taken care of. Sneaky hospital billing. They're all seriously so crooked. As a side note, I've never had an insurance problem. Both, Aetna and Select Health have been so wonderful, helpful, and attentive to our family. It's always been problems with the hospital billing. (I have to stick in there that I love PCMC dearly, and I do like Alta View as well. It's just all of their outside billing that sucks) Again, I highly recommend going over every medical bill with a fine-toothed comb. Call on everything, regardless of if it's fishy or not. You may find something you shouldn't be paying for, and if you don't, all you're out is a phone call.
I missed a pretty big one last month. We went on an incredible Disney dream vacation. It was seriously so great! You know, I've been really Disney blessed. I've had some amazing Disney experiences, and this one was up at the top with Brooklyn's grand-prize winning in the "Year of a Million Dreams". (If you don't know about that one, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll tell you all about it in the next post. It was crazy!) Anyway, Ben was lucky enough to find a seriously smoking deal for a package stay at the Grand Californian. As the nicest of the Disneyland hotels, it's definitely not someplace that has ever really been in our budget, but we just happened to hit a great deal. To give you an idea, their most basic rooms, average right around $500 a night. We certainly didn't pay close to that though. But, we did get all the same benefits as someone who does. The hotel is right on site. In fact, we had our own private entrance to California Adventure, and Downtown Disney was right outside our doors. It was so nice to have everything so close. If the kids got tired or ornery, it wasn't a big deal to go back for a nap or lounge at the pool. With 6 days in the park, it was also our longest stay at Disneyland, so we didn't feel at all rushed. It was great. Ben's brother and his family joined us, which always makes it so much fun, and his mom flew in for a couple of days. It was great to have family there with us. Disneyland has always been a family place for me, so it's always kind of been the more family (especially the kids) the merrier.
Since we were staying in such a nice hotel at such a great price, and since we forfeited any vacation last year due to constant medical problems, we decided to try to have the full Disney experience this time. What were some of the highlights? Let's see, one of the greatest things, despite the bad service (only time I've ever said that about anything Disney) at the restaurant was the VIP access to the Wonderful World of Color. It was so cool! For anyone who doesn't know about this, look it up and watch part of the show on the internet. It's kind of a light/laser show on water at the pier at California Adventure. It's kind of like the show at the Bellagio, only a million times cooler. The pictures are as clear as movies, and the water shoots hundreds of feet high. It really is indescribable. I recorded most of it, but a video just doesn't do it justice.
We also had some really great meals. We had dinner with Alex and Jenn at my personal favorite, the Blue Bayou, while grandma watched the kids. It was so much fun to be able to have a double date in the happiest place on earth. It's been a long time since we've hung out with other people without little kiddies. It was nice. We also did character dining for the first time. We went to Goofy's kitchen, and had some great photo ops for the kids. And poor Minnie was terrorized by some little monster of a child to the point that she had to run away out of the restaurant for about an hour. You all have my permission to spank my children if they ever do something awful like that. We also tried out a new BBQ place by Big Thunder. We made friends with the cutest little waitress named Sundai, and we spent the hour just a couple tables away from Whoopi Goldberg and her family. My brush with greatness.
We got to be in the park while the Halloween season was getting underway. That was a lot of fun. Haunted Mansion was all dressed up for the season like Nightmare Before Christmas. It's pretty amazing how they can transform it so much. They also Halloweened up Space Mountain for the first time. It took me a couple of rides before I could keep my eyes open through the whole thing (or past the first poltergeist). I'm a huge wimp when it comes to rides, but I've never been one to be afraid of ghosts and such. This was totally the exception. The special effects were really terrifying. Speaking of me being a wimp, I did go on Splash Mountain this trip. I don't do falling. Ben thought that he was going to get me on Tower of Terror, and I ended up agreeing to go on Splash Mountain just to get him to shut up about the other. On the record, I still hate it.
Back to the present, Ben just started a new shift at Fidelity. This is a fun one. He leaves for work around 3:30 pm, and doesn't get home until about 4:30 am. Good times. He gets to do this Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. As crappy as this sounds, it does have some benefits over his prior shift. A: He gets to go to church, most of it anyway. B: We get a pretty sweet shift differential. It's also kind of nice that he gets 3 days off in a row. Not that the shift isn't bad enough as is, but Ben has training this week. That means that after getting off work at way-too-early o'clock in the morning, he had to be back at 8 am the same day, about four hours later. Yikes! Not only that, it also means that the poor boy is working 7 consecutive days this week, at least two of which are 10 hour shifts. Poor, poor, Benny.
Since he didn't have that much time between on and off today, Ben stayed in Salt Lake to save the 2 hours of driving. (Thank you Cathy!) I've got a ton to do with Festival, so I decided to stay at my parents last night. I didn't want to drive home in the rain tonight, so I'm actually still here. The day was very full, but quite productive. Festival of Trees is sneaking up very quickly, and I realized yesterday just how ill-prepared I am. Festival is only a few weeks away. I had gathered a little bit of this and that for my display, but I didn't actually have a single thing for the tree itself.......and I hadn't picked up the tree either. It makes it a little imperative to get going because the most important parts of my tree have to be homemade this year. I'm doing a Cookie Monster tree, and I think that this may be my greatest creation ever, assuming it works out, that is. And that's a pretty big assumption. Right now, we're attempting to dye undyeable fur fabric blue to build a life-sized Cookie Monster. This has the potential to be a super awesome tree. Unfortunately, it has the potential to fail miserably too. That's why it's so crucial to get it done early. That way, if it's too awful, hopefully we have time to come up with an alternative plan. I really hope that I can realize my vision for this though 'cause it's pretty sweet vision. Today, we did pick up the tree, got all of our ornaments and ribbon, started making some of our hand-made stuff and got the fabric dyeing....we think. The only thing that we still need are some of the required supports, a couple of chef's hats, wooden spoons, a cookie sheet, oven mits, a small table, stuff to make an oven display and a 36" sign board. Everything will be super easy to come by but the sign. I can't find anything suitable, so we'll probably have to cut our own. Oh, I also need to figure out how Cookie is going to stand up and be shapely. That will be interesting. Anyhow, I'm super excited about this tree. It's been a while since I've done a tree that strictly childish, and I think that they're the most fun.
Please, everyone come to Festival of Trees. It's very near and dear to my heart. Every cent earned from tree sales, ticket sales, food sales, etc. goes straight to Primary Children's Medical Center. There is not overhead. No one gets paid or reimbursed. Even the space was willed to PCMC. I don't know if everyone realizes that kind of like Shriner's, PCMC offers financial assistance to many patients who have no way of covering their expenses. We've been very blessed to have wonderful health insurance coverage, but I know how important this is to many families who don't. I can only imagine what a horrific strain it would be to try to deal with such a financial burden while also trying to care for a child that's suffering in the hospital. Despite not having taken advantage of this financial help, I really love this hospital. I couldn't have imagined, 13 years ago, when I first got involved with Festival of Trees, what a close relationship I would end up developing with this hospital. And while I hate that my baby has to be sick, and I hate that he has to spend so much time at Primary, I'm grateful that I've gotten to see up close how important and worthy charities like Festival are.
Opening night for Festival of Trees is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. There is a silent auction for the trees, etc. It is by invitation only, but if you think you'd be interested in purchasing a tree, I'm sure you could get invited. Festival is open to the public Dec. 1st through the 4th (I think). It's typically open from 10am to 10pm. It's really a lot of fun for the whole family. Hundreds of themed trees and wreaths are on display. There are also really ornate gingerbread houses and playhouses that are so much fun to look at. There are crafts for the little kids. Lots of fun gifts and treats to buy. There are two stages with performers, and Santa is there with photographers. Oh, and make sure that you visit the scone and sweet roll chalet. I wait all year for those scones. If you have any questions about Festival or would like to volunteer to host (stand behind the velvet ropes and tell people not to touch--also, tell all the heart wrenching stories on the back of the signs about dedicated trees to the passersby), feel free to give me a call or message or whatever. You can also get most of the info you'd need from www.festivaloftreesutah.org Hopefully, I'll see you all there. Oh, and the name of my tree is "C" is for Christmas. If I remember correctly, it's kind of by the scone and sweet roll chalet (in the middle of the large trees). I could be wrong though. It will probably be one of the only big blue trees, so it will kind of stand out. My name won't be on the sign, but there will be a picture of my cute little Miles in the display.
Well, this is lengthy. Hope you enjoyed it, Heidi......and anybody else who wasn't too bored to read it. I'll be sure to be back sooner than I had been. 'Til then......
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
A Very Average Baby
Today was Conan's 2 month well-child check-up. He seems to be doing well. He's growing just as he should. In fact, he is as average as it gets. 50% in height. 50% in weight. 50% in head circumference. Honestly, I expected his weight to be quite a bit higher than that. He eats constantly and just seems a lot bigger than Miles was. Miles was not nearly as proportionate as Conan is. I believe at 2 months he was as follows. 73% in height. 25% in weight. 95% in head. It's a little confusing to have a child in this family with a normal sized head. I still don't have any hats to fit Conan's head because Miles started out wearing about a 6 month.
The rest of the visit (well, the whole visit) was pretty usual. Everything was normal. His heart sounds great, something that his pediatrician always pays very close attention to. The only little problems this far are pretty normal ones. He has terribly dry skin. Of course eczema comes with asthma and allergies, so it's something we just expect. He has some reflux issues, but I attribute most of that to his severe over-eating. Because of the reflux, he has some breathing/snoring problems at night, but we're going to try to get that taken care of with Prevacid. He's about the gassiest baby ever, but again, probably related to his eating habits. It's pretty hilarious, actually, to be sitting in church and have him let a monstrous gas during the passing of the sacrament. It doesn't sound like a baby toot. It is a full blown man fart, so it's not usually attributed to him. The only issue he found that wasn't completely expected was a little bit of an astigmatism. Apparently, the light didn't reflect evenly when shone in his eyes, which I suppose indicates an astigmatism. It's not a big deal and can't even be diagnosed by the optometrist until he's 6 months. Maybe he'll end up being one of those cute little babies that have to where glasses right off. I've always wondered how parents get those babies to keep the glasses on. Maybe I'll find out.
Since we were already in the medical mood today, I decided to call on a couple of medical bills. It's something that I do maybe a couple of times a month. When we're in the hospital and at doctor's offices as often as we are, we constantly get medical bills. Often, it's difficult to tell what we're being billed for, especially when we're not billed for several months after service. Additionally, I have learned that hospitals sometimes like to send the patients bills prior to receiving payment from the insurance just to see if they will pay. We frequently have this problem, so I call on most bills. I would recommend this to everyone because regardless of if I should be paying the bill or not, I've found that I've been misbilled about 60% of the time. And isn't funny that it's never been in my favor...hmmm..... Anyway, I called on a small bill for a co-pay the other week that I thought had been paid. It hadn't, but in reviewing the date of service, the person that I was talking to found that I had paid a bill that the insurance had also sent payment on. The account representative told me that it looked like I should be receiving the credit, but it was in process, so he couldn't be positive if it was coming back to me or to the insurance. (side note: if the insurance pays something, I'm sure they meant to, so the money always goes to the patient) Then, there was another potential credit from our last hospital stay. It was our understanding that, with our new even awesomer insurance, we would not have an emergency co-pay if we were admitted to the hospital (making our stays 100% free, yippee!!!). I called the insurance the other day to clarify this. Yes. Our assumption was correct. We should be getting our co-pay back. I wanted to know when I should expect checks, so they didn't accidentally get thrown out, so I called Primary Children's billing department. My first frustration came when I got a message saying that it was billing for all Utah IHC hospitals, that they were in a meeting, and to call back later. Really? I can't even leave a message for someone? I hate that. Well, I called back later. I asked about both situations. After several minutes on hold, the accountant came back and said, "It looks like we do show a credit for both of those days, so would you like us to issue a refund?" "Yes. Of course, I would like a refund." "Ok. I will submit it, and you should be receiving a check in about a week." So, that sounds like if I hadn't called, I wouldn't have gotten a refund. Who knows? Perhaps, I would have received a credit toward a future bill (doubtful since the one bill was from back in March, and we've utilized Primary's services since then), but who's to say there even would be a future bill. Moral of of the story, study you insurance benefits, and call on all medical bills. It will probably save you some money. Because of this one phone call, I should be getting a refund check to the tune of some $300. Would've been nice to have never lent that to IHC, but I'm still happy I get it back.
The rest of the visit (well, the whole visit) was pretty usual. Everything was normal. His heart sounds great, something that his pediatrician always pays very close attention to. The only little problems this far are pretty normal ones. He has terribly dry skin. Of course eczema comes with asthma and allergies, so it's something we just expect. He has some reflux issues, but I attribute most of that to his severe over-eating. Because of the reflux, he has some breathing/snoring problems at night, but we're going to try to get that taken care of with Prevacid. He's about the gassiest baby ever, but again, probably related to his eating habits. It's pretty hilarious, actually, to be sitting in church and have him let a monstrous gas during the passing of the sacrament. It doesn't sound like a baby toot. It is a full blown man fart, so it's not usually attributed to him. The only issue he found that wasn't completely expected was a little bit of an astigmatism. Apparently, the light didn't reflect evenly when shone in his eyes, which I suppose indicates an astigmatism. It's not a big deal and can't even be diagnosed by the optometrist until he's 6 months. Maybe he'll end up being one of those cute little babies that have to where glasses right off. I've always wondered how parents get those babies to keep the glasses on. Maybe I'll find out.
Since we were already in the medical mood today, I decided to call on a couple of medical bills. It's something that I do maybe a couple of times a month. When we're in the hospital and at doctor's offices as often as we are, we constantly get medical bills. Often, it's difficult to tell what we're being billed for, especially when we're not billed for several months after service. Additionally, I have learned that hospitals sometimes like to send the patients bills prior to receiving payment from the insurance just to see if they will pay. We frequently have this problem, so I call on most bills. I would recommend this to everyone because regardless of if I should be paying the bill or not, I've found that I've been misbilled about 60% of the time. And isn't funny that it's never been in my favor...hmmm..... Anyway, I called on a small bill for a co-pay the other week that I thought had been paid. It hadn't, but in reviewing the date of service, the person that I was talking to found that I had paid a bill that the insurance had also sent payment on. The account representative told me that it looked like I should be receiving the credit, but it was in process, so he couldn't be positive if it was coming back to me or to the insurance. (side note: if the insurance pays something, I'm sure they meant to, so the money always goes to the patient) Then, there was another potential credit from our last hospital stay. It was our understanding that, with our new even awesomer insurance, we would not have an emergency co-pay if we were admitted to the hospital (making our stays 100% free, yippee!!!). I called the insurance the other day to clarify this. Yes. Our assumption was correct. We should be getting our co-pay back. I wanted to know when I should expect checks, so they didn't accidentally get thrown out, so I called Primary Children's billing department. My first frustration came when I got a message saying that it was billing for all Utah IHC hospitals, that they were in a meeting, and to call back later. Really? I can't even leave a message for someone? I hate that. Well, I called back later. I asked about both situations. After several minutes on hold, the accountant came back and said, "It looks like we do show a credit for both of those days, so would you like us to issue a refund?" "Yes. Of course, I would like a refund." "Ok. I will submit it, and you should be receiving a check in about a week." So, that sounds like if I hadn't called, I wouldn't have gotten a refund. Who knows? Perhaps, I would have received a credit toward a future bill (doubtful since the one bill was from back in March, and we've utilized Primary's services since then), but who's to say there even would be a future bill. Moral of of the story, study you insurance benefits, and call on all medical bills. It will probably save you some money. Because of this one phone call, I should be getting a refund check to the tune of some $300. Would've been nice to have never lent that to IHC, but I'm still happy I get it back.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
10:05am
Things seem to have improved drastically. They've taken him back off of the oxygen, and while his levels are still dipping down below 90, it's at least better than it was. His heart rate also seems to be a little more consistent. He's awake now, and is in really good spirits. He's been playing with a Little People bus and is throwing toys and being naughty as ever. He's still really mucousy and coughing a lot, but that's actually a good thing. That means that all the goo inside is breaking up and coming out. There is a much better chance that we will be going home today. Yay! Miles has to be able to stay off of oxygen and keep his levels at least in the high 90s. Even if he gets there immediately, they're going to keep him for a little while. They want to observe him during his nap since he seems to drop while he's asleep. So, the nap will kind of be the moment of truth. Keep your fingers crossed.
Day Four....Barely
Well, it's nice and early on Thursday, and of course, we're still at the hospital. It's only 6:30 am, so certainly we're not discharged yet. And who knows when, or if we will go home today. Miles was doing great yesterday. He was very happy, playing, and to be honest, driving us all nuts. We were able to give him a bath and wash all of the past couple days stinky sickness off. That was really nice 'cause he was getting pretty ripe. The other day, Ben ran his hand through Miles' hair, and it stayed. It was gross and hilarious at the same time. You can check out the pics on facebook. But I digress. He was excited once the bath was over because in order to take it, they had to take off all of his "tethers" (the pulse/ox and such). When he was done, he was able to run around and play outside of his bed. Being tied to a bed is the most frustrating thing when we get stuck here. He is not what you would call a stationary child. Anyhow, he was doing super. No oxygen, and they didn't even hook most of his monitors back up. I was a little confused about why we weren't released last night, but they wanted to be safe and watch him through the night.
And this is why they are the doctors, and I am not. I woke up throughout the night to beeping monitors because his heart-rate kept dropping down into the 60s then going up around 200. His normal hospital (I say that because I don't know if it's different at home) hr is between 115 and approx. 140. I asked one of the nurses about it, and she said that part of it was because the hr was being read just by the pulse/ox on his toe and also because he was sleeping. I feel pretty confident that there's more to it than that though. Additionally, when I got up around 5 am this morning, he was back on oxygen, and his levels were still in the 80s with it. Not good.
A doctor came in and checked him out around 6:15am, right as Ben was leaving for work. He came back in for the check-up. We didn't learn too much. She said that she was going to discuss his stats with the team, and they'd all be back later this morning. With that not so encouraging news, Ben called his boss to let him know that he'd be staying here....at least until we know what's going on. When Ben stepped out of the room, he heard the doctor talking to some nurses about how they expected Miles to be going home today but now it was "just so frustrating" and she didn't know if that would be possible. So, I guess we'll see what happens and what the team has to say.
Hopefully, things will improve once Miles gets up for the day. If not, and we do have to stay, I think that I will go home and get Conan, maybe stay in Tooele tonight, and leave Ben with Miles. I love my little Miles so much and want to stay here, so I know everything that's going on, but I really miss my baby, and I can't leave my 1 1/2 month old for a third day in a row.
I guess that's all for now. I'll be back later today. Oh, and a bit of good news. The CF test came back as unlikely.
And this is why they are the doctors, and I am not. I woke up throughout the night to beeping monitors because his heart-rate kept dropping down into the 60s then going up around 200. His normal hospital (I say that because I don't know if it's different at home) hr is between 115 and approx. 140. I asked one of the nurses about it, and she said that part of it was because the hr was being read just by the pulse/ox on his toe and also because he was sleeping. I feel pretty confident that there's more to it than that though. Additionally, when I got up around 5 am this morning, he was back on oxygen, and his levels were still in the 80s with it. Not good.
A doctor came in and checked him out around 6:15am, right as Ben was leaving for work. He came back in for the check-up. We didn't learn too much. She said that she was going to discuss his stats with the team, and they'd all be back later this morning. With that not so encouraging news, Ben called his boss to let him know that he'd be staying here....at least until we know what's going on. When Ben stepped out of the room, he heard the doctor talking to some nurses about how they expected Miles to be going home today but now it was "just so frustrating" and she didn't know if that would be possible. So, I guess we'll see what happens and what the team has to say.
Hopefully, things will improve once Miles gets up for the day. If not, and we do have to stay, I think that I will go home and get Conan, maybe stay in Tooele tonight, and leave Ben with Miles. I love my little Miles so much and want to stay here, so I know everything that's going on, but I really miss my baby, and I can't leave my 1 1/2 month old for a third day in a row.
I guess that's all for now. I'll be back later today. Oh, and a bit of good news. The CF test came back as unlikely.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Day Three
It's day three, and we're hoping to be released later tonight. I don't know how likely that will be though. We definitely won't be able to go home prior to dinner, but we were told that if Miles responded well to some new medication, was able to stay off of oxygen, and drank enough that later tonight would be a possibility. That's not to say that Miles is doing poorly right now. He's doing quite well. He's in good spirits, and he took himself off oxygen last night, and they just left it off. The reason for staying is observation on new medication, and I think we're also waiting for more test results.
Right now Miles is having a Xopanex treatment every two hours. They're lessening that to every three hours today to see if it makes any difference. So far, the Xopanex hasn't really seemed to make much of a difference (that's what we were treating him with at home, and it didn't seem to help much). While he has the nebulizer mask on his oxygen levels will go up to 100, but once he finishes, it just goes right back down to what it was prior to the treatment. Who knows if it would be worse if he didn't have it though? That's why they're cutting the frequency, to see if he gets any worse. If not, sounds like he just doesn't need that medication.
After talking to a team of doctors this morning, it sounds like we're adding a couple of new medications. Since Miles has become quite the expert at taking medicine, he's going to get a big boy inhaler, like mommy and daddy. That will be nice to have something a little more portable than his nebulizer. He's also most likely going to be put on Singulair for maintenance. They'll start him on that tonight and kind of observe its effectiveness, part of the reason we'll most likely be here another night. I believe that the Singulair will be an addition to the Flovent rather than in lieu of it. Apparently, Singulair is more helpful with the allergy side of things.
Speaking of allergies, his panel has partially come back. We haven't gone over it in detail, but one of the doctors did tell us that he's pretty much allergic to everything but flamingo feathers (and I kind of don't think that was a joke). She did say that he was especially super super allergic to cats, about as bad as you can get. Sucks for him, but it's nice to have some identified triggers. The more we know, the more we can avoid.
What else is on the schedule? He's having his meals , or at least a meal, observed by a speech therapist today. It is still assumed that poor swallow reflexes are contributing to the problem. His left lung especially is almost always cloudy, and that's most likely from fluid getting in when eating. To help resolve that, we're back to thickening all of his liquids.....and I'll have to actually stick to it this time. She may also be looking at his fluid intake because he's only been drinking about half of what he should since he's been here.
I think that about covers what we know. We haven't heard anything on the CF test yet, so I can't give you anything on that. What happens with these tests is they'll collect blood or mucous or in this case sweat to be tested, but there are certain days assigned to certain tests. So, even though a test may produce relatively immediate results, the actual test may not be run the same day that the sample is collected. I think that that's the deal with the CF test. We'll certainly keep you all posted. I'm sure that he does not have CF though. I just wanted the test run, so I wouldn't consider it a possibility.
All in all, things are going well. The doctors are all working hard and do amazingly well at making you feel like yours is the only case in the hospital. It's so nice to be in a place where our concerns are taken so seriously, where they are doing all that they can to find the cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms. I love Primary Children's, and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful place so accessible. It's also been great to be able to have Ben here with me. He met us at the ER after work on Monday, and yesterday was his day off. Today, he was sent home (or to the hospital, I guess) after a couple hours. It's been nice for me and for Miles to be able to have him with us. It's also nice to have both parents here to talk to doctors. I just wish that Conan could be here with us. I miss my baby. I know that it's best for a one month old to not be around a bunch of sickies though.
Right now Miles is having a Xopanex treatment every two hours. They're lessening that to every three hours today to see if it makes any difference. So far, the Xopanex hasn't really seemed to make much of a difference (that's what we were treating him with at home, and it didn't seem to help much). While he has the nebulizer mask on his oxygen levels will go up to 100, but once he finishes, it just goes right back down to what it was prior to the treatment. Who knows if it would be worse if he didn't have it though? That's why they're cutting the frequency, to see if he gets any worse. If not, sounds like he just doesn't need that medication.
After talking to a team of doctors this morning, it sounds like we're adding a couple of new medications. Since Miles has become quite the expert at taking medicine, he's going to get a big boy inhaler, like mommy and daddy. That will be nice to have something a little more portable than his nebulizer. He's also most likely going to be put on Singulair for maintenance. They'll start him on that tonight and kind of observe its effectiveness, part of the reason we'll most likely be here another night. I believe that the Singulair will be an addition to the Flovent rather than in lieu of it. Apparently, Singulair is more helpful with the allergy side of things.
Speaking of allergies, his panel has partially come back. We haven't gone over it in detail, but one of the doctors did tell us that he's pretty much allergic to everything but flamingo feathers (and I kind of don't think that was a joke). She did say that he was especially super super allergic to cats, about as bad as you can get. Sucks for him, but it's nice to have some identified triggers. The more we know, the more we can avoid.
What else is on the schedule? He's having his meals , or at least a meal, observed by a speech therapist today. It is still assumed that poor swallow reflexes are contributing to the problem. His left lung especially is almost always cloudy, and that's most likely from fluid getting in when eating. To help resolve that, we're back to thickening all of his liquids.....and I'll have to actually stick to it this time. She may also be looking at his fluid intake because he's only been drinking about half of what he should since he's been here.
I think that about covers what we know. We haven't heard anything on the CF test yet, so I can't give you anything on that. What happens with these tests is they'll collect blood or mucous or in this case sweat to be tested, but there are certain days assigned to certain tests. So, even though a test may produce relatively immediate results, the actual test may not be run the same day that the sample is collected. I think that that's the deal with the CF test. We'll certainly keep you all posted. I'm sure that he does not have CF though. I just wanted the test run, so I wouldn't consider it a possibility.
All in all, things are going well. The doctors are all working hard and do amazingly well at making you feel like yours is the only case in the hospital. It's so nice to be in a place where our concerns are taken so seriously, where they are doing all that they can to find the cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms. I love Primary Children's, and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful place so accessible. It's also been great to be able to have Ben here with me. He met us at the ER after work on Monday, and yesterday was his day off. Today, he was sent home (or to the hospital, I guess) after a couple hours. It's been nice for me and for Miles to be able to have him with us. It's also nice to have both parents here to talk to doctors. I just wish that Conan could be here with us. I miss my baby. I know that it's best for a one month old to not be around a bunch of sickies though.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Deja Vu
Well, here we are on the anniversary of Miles' heart surgery, and where ARE we? Why, at Primary Children's of course. Miles has been having a difficult time breathing for the past couple of days, but it hasn't been too terrible, so trying to make a decision about what to do wasn't very obvious. But, after 3 or 4 days of not improving and two useless doctors visits, I finally decided it was time to bring him here last night. He'd gotten pretty bad after a nap yesterday evening, and it made the decision a little easier, but I felt kind of silly when he'd drastically improved by the time that we got here. Ben met me at the emergency, and my slight embarrassment was quashed after Ben asked a doctor very directly, "Are we being wusses about this? Is this something that we should have handled at home". The doctor immediately countered, "No, you did the right thing". She explained that after days of not responding to treatment, coming to emergency is the appropriate action. She also explained that just because his oxygen levels weren't terrible that didn't mean that he didn't require emergency care. Although, technically, his levels were only borderline, he was struggling a lot because of his constricted airways, making his respirations high, along with his heartbeat, etc. She said that we shouldn't focus on numbers but more on his action/appearance. I really appreciated it because we are literally blown off every time we try to take Miles to an Urgent Care or Instacare because his oxygen levels aren't usually too awful. As usual, we've had a bevy of medical staff visit, and they have all (without prompting from the other doctor, I think) pretty much echoed what she said. Even the head of the ER came in and talked to us about how it was a good thing that we had brought him in. He had a student with him and was comparing Miles to a previous patient. He was telling her something to the effect that you could tell by his retractions, etc. that he was in more distress than the other despite his oxygen levels. Anyhow, it all made me feel much better about my motherly instincts.
After a positive reaction to the initial treatment he received last night, I was hopeful that our stay would only be overnight if we were admitted at all. Sadly, it was just a hope. Not too long after the treatment, his breathing actually got worse than when I had first brought him in, and he registered a fever, so we were sent up to a room. Funny thing. Miles calmed down, and was acting pretty good, wanting to eat my dinner. I went to give him a bite, and noticed that he looked kind of red. It was dark though, and I thought it must just be the lighting. After Ben agreeing that he did indeed look red, I asked the nurse, "Does Miles look red?" She took a look and got very surprised. My child, was indeed, bright red all over. He looked really funny (I can say that because he was acting fine). I got pictures. The doctors are pretty sure that it was just a heat rash, but heat rash plus my child's practically see-through white skin equals fluorescent red.
Albuterol and steroid treatments, along with motrin (for his fever), continued through the night. Just after I went to sleep, he was also put on oxygen to help him while he slept. I think that the intention was to just use it to compensate for the slow in oxygen intake during sleep, but he's still on it now, and it doesn't look like he'll be coming off of it anytime immediately. Today, has been a day of tests and evaluations. He's had an allergen test and a sweat chloride test for CF, along with the normal stuff (he tested positive for peri-influenza--no results on the others yet though). A dietitian, pulmonologist and speech therapist (not because his speech is bad, something to do with swallowing) have been in today. Looks like we're back to thickening his liquids. We're also having to do a calorie count, and we'll probably be adding another maintenance medication to the list. He was given an iv this morning because he hasn't been drinking, but so far they haven't had to pump anything into it. Hopefully, he'll start drinking on his own, so we don't have to.
I think that that's everything that we know at this point. I feel bad for my little Miles, and I miss my little Conan (who can't be here for obvious reasons). Thank you mom & dad and aunt Jenn for taking care of him for me.
After a positive reaction to the initial treatment he received last night, I was hopeful that our stay would only be overnight if we were admitted at all. Sadly, it was just a hope. Not too long after the treatment, his breathing actually got worse than when I had first brought him in, and he registered a fever, so we were sent up to a room. Funny thing. Miles calmed down, and was acting pretty good, wanting to eat my dinner. I went to give him a bite, and noticed that he looked kind of red. It was dark though, and I thought it must just be the lighting. After Ben agreeing that he did indeed look red, I asked the nurse, "Does Miles look red?" She took a look and got very surprised. My child, was indeed, bright red all over. He looked really funny (I can say that because he was acting fine). I got pictures. The doctors are pretty sure that it was just a heat rash, but heat rash plus my child's practically see-through white skin equals fluorescent red.
Albuterol and steroid treatments, along with motrin (for his fever), continued through the night. Just after I went to sleep, he was also put on oxygen to help him while he slept. I think that the intention was to just use it to compensate for the slow in oxygen intake during sleep, but he's still on it now, and it doesn't look like he'll be coming off of it anytime immediately. Today, has been a day of tests and evaluations. He's had an allergen test and a sweat chloride test for CF, along with the normal stuff (he tested positive for peri-influenza--no results on the others yet though). A dietitian, pulmonologist and speech therapist (not because his speech is bad, something to do with swallowing) have been in today. Looks like we're back to thickening his liquids. We're also having to do a calorie count, and we'll probably be adding another maintenance medication to the list. He was given an iv this morning because he hasn't been drinking, but so far they haven't had to pump anything into it. Hopefully, he'll start drinking on his own, so we don't have to.
I think that that's everything that we know at this point. I feel bad for my little Miles, and I miss my little Conan (who can't be here for obvious reasons). Thank you mom & dad and aunt Jenn for taking care of him for me.
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