A Trip, or Two to the Allergist

Last month was the month of a million doctor's visits. Well, it's the second week of February, and we just had our first appointment yesterday......I think. Actually, this appointment was supposed to be in January too. Conan was supposed to have his appointment with the allergist on the same day that Miles had his at the end of January, but on the day of the visit, he had both strep throat and influenza, so we rescheduled.

Miles' meeting with the allergist went really well. He had already been tested for environmental allergens such as animal dander, pollen, dust, mold, etc. a couple of hospital stays ago. And, of course, he tested positive for everything, with dust and cats at the top of the list. I wanted to rule out any possible food allergies, so I got a referral for him at the same time that Conan was referred. Surprisingly, but not too surprisingly, he did not test positive for any food allergies. Nice! However, Dr. Moffat was pretty concerned about Miles' asthma history. Luckily, he's networked with Primary, so he had all of the Dr.'s notes from hospital visits, and he knows Dr. Uchida, Miles' pulmonologist well, so he had already discussed a potential routine to try to improve things. I really appreciated that he'd already done his research before I got there. When he listened to Miles' lungs, he was a little concerned about what he heard on his left side (and this was a healthy day), so he actually sent us down the hall for a chest x-ray. It ended up being okay. Miles just has a constant rattle in his left lung. At the end of the visit, Dr. Moffat didn't have the most encouraging words. He said something to the effect of, "His x-ray looked just fine. I don't think he has any pneumonia". I said, "Oh, good". Then he continued, "but I you need to understand that this is not good". He basically said that we'd do what we need to do to get the asthma under control, but it would take a long time, and it wasn't going to be easy. Fantastic parting words. He ended up increasing his maintenance meds even more and putting him back on Prednisolone. I've actually already seen an improvement, so hopefully, we'll be able to ween him from some of the steroids. I'm actually not sure where I'm supposed to go from here. Dr. Moffat wanted me to make a follow up with the pulmonologist if Miles' night coughing hadn't stopped within 10 days. It pretty much has, so I'm not sure if and if so, with who I am supposed to follow up with. Probably should've asked Dr. Moffat yesterday, huh?

Which brings us to Conan's appointment. Even though Conan is very young, Dr. Ditty wanted him to see an allergist because 1: just look at our family history 2: he does get a little wheezy now and then & 3: he's got super horrific eczema that we are having a hard time controlling, and eczema usually=allergies. He was tested for both environmental and food allergens. Actually surprisingly, Conan tested negative for all environmental allergens. Dr. Moffat did kind of burst that bubble by telling me that those results would most likely change in about 6 months, he's just really young right now. That would make sense. Miles didn't really react to anything until he was about one. Unlike Miles, Conan did test positive for some food allergens. Eggs and peanuts were the big ones, with a more mild allergy to wheat, carrots, and green beans. There may be more, but with the food they only tested the foods they always test (milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts) and foods he's been exposed to. For now, I have to exclude those foods entirely from his diet. Not too hard since he's just a baby and doesn't eat much anyway, but I do have to read labels, because as I was told, "you'll be surprised at what has eggs and wheat in it". I won't be surprised at what has wheat in it because I was on a wheat free diet all through elementary school. An interesting bit of information: Twizzlers have wheat in them. It did pose a little bit of a problem today. I was at the store looking for something to make for a fun Valentine's meal. Although Conan can't eat a lot, he has gotten used to our crumbs. I wanted to at least find a dessert that he could have some of too. It seems like everything that is wheat-free has eggs in it. I finally came up with maybe a fruit pie with a crust made with rice or oat flour. We'll see. There's got to be something easier and more obvious than that. Anyhow, I'm supposed to introduce a new food to Conan about every 3 days and watch to see if it affects him negatively at all. Today was squash. Hopefully, it works out because Conan really seemed to like it.

In addition to the food stuff, we were put on a strict skin regimen. Poor Coney's skin is so bad. While I was getting him ready to go yesterday. I looked down to see blood just streaming out of his arm. It was just from him scratching an itchy patch. Every morning he wakes up with new cuts on his face where he's clawed himself in his sleep. So far, nothing has really seemed to provide anything other than immediate relief. So, here's our new routine: 1. soak Conan in a lukewarm bath (without actually bathing him) for 20 minutes, including a moist towel on his face for 20 minutes 2. lightly pat dry 3. immediately rub in one steroid cream from the neck down, focusing on particularly bad spots 4. rub in second steroid cream from the neck up 5. immediately following steroid creams, coat his entire body with a heavy moisturizer cream (Eucerin) 6. spot treat bad spots a second, possibly a third time during the day 7. take an oral medication at bed time to prevent itchiness. It's a lot to begin with, but it's all to get the eczema under control, then we'll cut back.

Lastly, Conan does get his own inhaler. Although, the doctor thought that his lungs sounded fine while we were at the office, based on our family history and what I had told him about what we sometimes hear from Conan, he thought it prudent to send us off with an inhaler. Next time we hear any breathing difficulty, we'll give him the inhaler and see how he responds to it. We are returning in about a week and a half to see how things have progressed. I suppose we'll see.

I posted something about Conan's allergies on facebook today, and I had a friend respond by telling me that she was impressed that I was able to stay positive. I had to tell her that I really wasn't positive about it all on purpose. (and I probably don't sound positive at all in this blog since it's kind of the medical update blog) Honestly, at this point, I just can't help but laugh every time we go to the doctor (barring any major ailment, of course). After Miles' diagnosis and surgery, nothing really seems like too big of a deal. And everything now is just another thing on the list. It's probably not very nice to our poor kids, but Ben and I really do chuckle each time something new is added. In regards to our unhealthy genes, I think it was Karri that referred to us as the "perfect storm". Yes, we have doomed our children. Sorry Miles and Conan, that's the price you have to pay for having such awesome parents. Ha. Ha. (especially since we parents are paying all those $prices$ right now)

On to something completely unrelated. While driving home from the pharmacy today, I compiled a list in my head of some recent pet peeves. I think I'll share, quashing anybody's assumption that I am a positive person.

1. people who wait for parking spaces--It doesn't matter if I am the person that is stuck behind you for ten minutes while you wait for someone to load their car to save you from walking an extra 30 feet, if I am the one loading the car while you impatiently wait for my spot, too close to my car for me to back out, or if I am completely on the other side of the parking lot just witnessing, I want to beat you up. The only time that waiting is appropriate is when the lot is full. Side note: the Walmart parking lot is never full; there are more spaces than there are Tooele residents.

2. business establishments that use the word "dollar" in their name, then sell their ware for more than a dollar--Dollar Cuts and Family Dollar, I don't understand you. Is it because you sell your product for dollars? Everyplace uses currency, I think. As far as I know, we've all outgrown the barter system. Maybe we should just change everything to a dollar store. We can call Albertson's, Grocery Dollar. Maybe McDonald's could be Greasy Drive-Through Dollar.

3. fund-raisers that don't actually do anything to raise their funds--Fund-raisers themselves are really annoying, but I understand that that money for your sparkly new drill-team uniform needs to come from someplace. However, holding a sign in front of Walmart saying give me money for our new rugby league is not raising funds, it's begging. Do something, anything, and I'll probably give you something. I would have given them my lecture, but they were raising money for high school rugby. That's football without pads.

4. smacking--Just smacking.

5. people who waive you on at a 4-way stop--Waiving someone on at a 4-way stop throws off the natural balance of things. It's not polite. It's just confusing. The polite thing to do is to go when you are supposed to. There are those rare exceptions when you all arrive at the same time, but those are special circumstances. The rest of the time, JUST GO! This applies double to downed traffic lights.

6..........Sorry, I got distracted by television and forgot (I'm sure that's someone else's pet peeve), so I'll have to get back to you.

My Favorite Miles Moments of Today

Miles is being particularly silly today, so I thought I'd list my favorite moments.

10:30am: (Miles is still asleep, but I need to run errands, so I go to get him up.)
Me: Miles. Wake up. You need to get dressed, so we can go to the post office.
Miles: Mehhh....
Me: Miles, wake up.
Miles: Mommy, Meeels (my son always speaks in 3rd person) sleepy. Turn the light
off.

10:37am: (Miles finally wakes up)
Miles: (panicky and accusatory) Mommy, Meeels padtoos (platypus) shirt. Take it off!
I happened to be wearing a Perry the Platypus t-shirt (love me some Phineas & Ferb)
Miles has a similar one and was convinced that I had stolen and was wearing his shirt.
Yes, Miles, mommy is wearing her 2 year old's clothing.

11:00am: Miles: (excitedly) Mommy, where you going? A dentist?
Me: No, we're going to the post office, then to Walmart.
Miles: No, mommy. A Walmart and a dentist.

approx. 11:15am: Miles eats the Valentine's chocolates in the cart at Walmart.

approx. 11:20am: Miles eats the Valentine's suckers in the cart at Walmart.

approx. 11:30am: Miles eats the sliced mushrooms in the cart at Walmart.

approx. 11:301/2am: Miles spits out the sliced mushrooms in the cart at Walmart.

2:30pm: Me: Oh, are you watching "Choo Choo Soul"?
Miles: No, mommy, it's "Choo Choo (with the second choo exphasized) Soul".

2:53 pm: Miles: (holding an empty bag of beef jerky--an economy size bag that had been mostly
full) Mommy, Meeels eated more meat.

2:56pm: Me: What do you want to do, Miles?
Miles: (tapping his lip with his index finger) Hmmm...... Poop!

3:05pm: Miles: Mommy, Meeels poopy.
Me: What? You're poopy again!? (I had just changed him about a half hour ago--I guess
he was serious about the poop thing)
Miles: I do. See. (throwing a poopy diaper at me)

4:00pm: Me: Hey, Miles, do something funny.
Miles: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Me: That's just laughing. It's not very funny. Do something funny.
Miles: (much louder) Ha, ha, ha.

4:30pm: Me: Give me that book back. That's mommy's special book.
Miles: (waiving his hands in mockery) Oh, give it back. It's special booky.

5:30pm: Miles: (stealing money and running out of my bedroom) I have to buy Meeels canny.
Me: Oh, really? You have to buy candy, eh? And how much does it cost?
Miles: Chenty dollas.

6:04pm: Me: (catching Miles with a handful of assorted inhalers) Hey, what are you doing
with all those inhalers?
Miles: Mommy, I just wasting them.

You know, looking back on this list, it has come to my attention, that Miles isn't just silly but a huge stinker. Anyone want a slightly damaged 2 1/2 year old?

We're Supporting the Entire Medical Industry!

Let's see, in a week, we will have had four doctors visits, ten new prescriptions and four specialist referrals. And that doesn't include all the over-the-counter crap that we've bought over the past couple days for Ben and myself or whatever comes of my doctor's appointment tomorrow. Plus, we've still got the results of all of those specialist referrals. Guh! A new year. A new opportunity to accumulate medical expenses to meet our deduction minimum. (I think it took until all of February in 2010) I suppose I should explain.

Conan had his 6 month appointment last week, and boy, was it fun. It really wasn't too bad, just much more came of it than expected. Since birth, Conan has had really bad eczema. I've tried just about everything over-the-counter that exists but with no success. This time, we not only got a prescription cream, but we also got a prescription vitamin drop and a referral for a dermatologist. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. You see, eczema, allergies, and hay-fever share the same gene, so we also got referred to an allergist. This is super uncommon for infants because as a rule, they haven't been exposed to enough to test accurately. However, when you have a history like my dear little family and the symptoms like my dear little (big giant) Coney, you do what you can to nip any potential problems in the bud. The truth is, we all know that any offspring that Ben and I produce are going to be plagued by respiratory problems untold. May as well try to figure their triggers out right off. Miles also got a referral for the allergist. Although he did get tested during our last stay at PCMC, he was not tested for foods. Conan is also being sent to the eye doctor. He shows a little bit of an astigmatism, but not a big deal at all. Miles went at this age too.

It's interesting that we have been so busy in the medical sense because this has been the longest that we have gone, since Miles' first birthday, without him being in the hospital. We've done surprisingly well considering the cold weather and bad air. The one problem that we've been battling lately is night coughing, and we have been battling that since our last hospital visit almost four months ago. Every night, without fail, Miles starts coughing uncontrollably a couple of hours after he goes to sleep, and it continues through the night. This is pretty typical for asthma and allergy sufferers, but the allergy and asthma medications haven't been controlling it. Until now, Miles has been on Flovent as a maintenance inhaler, singulair as a maintenance allergy medication, and xopanex as a rescue inhaler. Because it's persisted so long, we visited the pulmonologist last week. Miles' regular pulmonologist moved to Texas, so we had a new doctor. It ended up being great because it happened to be the same doctor that treated Miles at his last hospital visit. He knew what was going on, what we'd tried and already knew what to try next. For now, we're adding an additional inhaler at bedtime as well as two oral steroids and an additional rescue inhaler. We'll watch this for a while, and if it doesn't produce the results we're looking for, the next step would be a sleep study and maybe removing his adenoids. I was a little concerned because night coughing can be an indication of heart failure, but luckily, the pulmonologist does not think it's heart related. Still, I made our next cardiology appointment. It's not until March though.

Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment for myself. I've decided that it's a new year. I've got good insurance. I'm going to take care of all of those things that I've thought in the back of my mind, "I should look into that". Tomorrow's appointment is partially just a general checkup, so I can get refills on all of my asthma medication. Doctor's have gotten really lame and think that i should come in every time I need a new inhaler. Really? I don't see how coming in every month is going to change anything. I'm also going in to have my hormone levels checked. A quick explanation. I have a small, no big deal, non-cancerous, pituitary tumor that can mess up my hormone levels a little bit. That's why I've had to be on medication to get pregnant. I'm supposed to get annual MRI s, but I haven't had one since before I was pregnant with Miles. It's probably time that I checked on it all. Plus, I have been losing hair at an alarming rate, and after some research, I'm pretty confident that it's the result of my issues. I need to get that corrected because at the rate it's going, I'm going to be bald soon. Plus, I am done cleaning hair off of everything. I'm sure that that was too much information for everyone.

On a serious note, my heart is breaking right now for my friend, Heidi. For obvious reasons, I developed a special soft spot in my heart for "heart babies". My friend's little boy has undergone a couple of surgeries in the past week or so, and they haven't been as successful as hoped for. He'll require additional surgeries and most likely a heart transplant. Please, everyone say a prayer for baby Logan.

Festival of Trees

Another Festival of Trees has come and gone, and I think that, especially considering my complete lack of organization, it was a total success! I think that I'd mentioned before that this was the first year that I kind of started from scratch. This was also first year that I didn't start or get registered until October. I barely made it. After getting registered, I got a lot of my shopping done and created my tree in my mind pretty immediately. I didn't have much of a choice. I really only had less than two months to do everything. Unfortunately, my mind creation required much literal creation, and I didn't have any mind instructions for execution.

Thanks to my mom for all of her ideas and efforts. We've spent so much time at my parents house these past couple of months that I'm sure that my children think that we have two homes. Since we don't live super close and had so much to do, we'd usually go in and spend the night, so I'd have full days of my mother's assistance. We went into Sandy for a Christmas party on Sunday, and I "moved out" once and for all. I didn't realize how much crap I'd accumulated there over the past couple of months. It all barely fit in my trunk.

Decorating day was Monday, November 29th. We were really scrambling the weekend before to get things done. The biggest challenge was Cookie Monster himself. I had wanted to make (or have Adele make) a life-sized Cookie Monster from the beginning. I didn't have any idea how we'd do it but always just assumed that something would come together. As of the night before, we still didn't know what we were going to do. I had the fabric, that hadn't taken the dye, and was now a silver color. I'd settled on some paper mache balls for eyes because giant round googly eyes just don't exist anymore. I'd bought a couple of concrete forms, thinking that we could use them for a frame, but I didn't know how. That night, my mom sewed a big empty Cookie Monster. We'd figure the rest out in the morning.

Monday morning brought a lot of stress. We loaded everything up, ran a few errands, and it was off to the Expo Center to put something together. Honestly, I didn't think that the set up would take terribly long. There wasn't a ton to the tree. We'd even gotten all of our tree support supplies beforehand, a major hold up last year. Cookie Monster was the only thing that I really thought would take much time. We used the entire day though. We barely made it out by closing at 7:00. Cookie Monster did take some serious experimentation, but I think that he turned out pretty great. I just hope that he kept some shape after delivery (he definitely wasn't the most stable).

Despite having two strikes against us, non-Christmas color and non-Christmas theme, "C is for Christmas" sold. I wasn't able to make it to opening night, so I can't say for certain that it sold at auction, but I do know that it was never seen with a price on it, so I can only assume that it did. I understand why they don't disclose sale prices, but I would love to know how much it sold for. In my 13 year history, I've only found out once (because someone on the executive board was naughty and sneaked a peak). All in all, I am so happy with the way that the tree turned out. It was definitely an eye-catcher. I haven't talked to anyone who went to Festival this year that didn't remember my tree. My sisters both told me that there were big crowds around my tree when they went to see it. I would have thought they were just being nice, but when I went, there really was a crowd. Marinda, my sister in Michigan posted a picture of my tree on her blog. There were all sorts of comments from people who had gone to Festival and seen it. There was even one from someone who wasn't able to make it but had heard about my tree without knowing it was mine. It's all made me feel really great.

I only hope that the response to the tree reflects the price that it sold for. I love and appreciate Primary Children's Medical Center so much and love to do what I can to help them (and patients that aren't lucky enough to have our awesome insurance) out. I feel so thankful for everything that PCMC has done for my family and for the family's of so many people that I care for. I'm glad that I am able to do something small, that I enjoy so much, to give back. If ever anyone wants to get involved with Festival of Trees, I'd be happy to point you in the right direction, or you can visit http://www.festivaloftreesutah.com/ (or it might be .org).

I'm starting on next year early to avoid unnecessary stress. I know what I'm doing, and I'm super excited about it. If all turns out, it will even be cuter than this year. It's a surprise though, so stay tuned!

Go to Sleep, Conan!

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!

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......

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.