I get asked a lot “How’s it going today?” The standard answer now is “like a rollercoaster”. I told someone the other day that I think God loves rollercoasters because there are so many ups and downs, and I don’t like them. But as long as He is riding with me, I’ll go ride with him. And boy was Wednesday a rollercoaster ride!
Tracy had three episodes before noon the longest 40 minutes the shortest 10 minutes. But shortly after 12PM the ride was Heaven on earth! I don’t know why but I said to her something like I wish Drew was here to tell you a Brian Regan joke, cause all I’ve got right now is a “Cup of Dirt” and that started the conversation as Tracy laughed. I spent the next 2 ½ hours talking to Tracy. She didn’t say much but she smiled, laughed, and watched me intently as I spoke to her. The medication that they have her on affects her speech. So I carried the conversation, which you know I can. But time flew, and then I realized that Drew was out of school. I called him and told him to hurry up and get here because mom was awake and talking with me. He said he would get there as fast as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough. About 2:45 we started in to episode number 4. The doctor’s iPhone rang and that set her off. Tears ran down my cheeks, as I had just spent such precious time with Tracy. They soon were tears of sadness as I looked through the window in the door and there was Drew, he had just missed speaking to his mother and having her respond to him. Episode 5 was around 5:00, and while I was consoling her Bekah Hines and Renee Simon stopped by and sat with Tracy and I.
For those of you don’t know Renee and her husband Adam have been through these same types of episodes that have been a source of strength for Tracy and I these past six weeks. I had just received a copy of Renee’s testimony the night before and had just played it during the time that Tracy that afternoon. Boy is God Good or what?
What I have neglected to tell you, is that Wednesday was also the day we started the process to get to the University of Michigan. As the process started there was great excitement, but by the end of the day it had turned to frustration as we were told that U of M was out of network for our health insurance and would require special approval to get there and it was not a sure thing.
I prayed with Tracy as I left the hospital and told her that God was in control and I had no idea what tomorrow had for us but that it would be a New Day.
I got home around 8PM had a pasta dinner with Drew and then waited for my brother to arrive from Indiana. Ron got here about 9:30PM and it felt so good to have him here with me. I went to bed in anticipation of spending Thursday fighting with our health insurance company.
Today Ron and I got to the hospital around 7:30AM and found out that Tracy had kind of a rough night. I just prayed for God to allow her to take her rest. Then the doctors started coming in. Dr. Folbe was the first, and he told me that they were going to take Tracy off the TPN (her source of nourishment) and replace it with (I don’t know what it is called) tube to her stomach fed through her nose.
The Discharge Nurse Shelly, who informed me that she was still waiting to hear from our insurer, later visited us. I wanted to call them myself to try to convince them to make an exception for us.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are days that I needed to go into the office and take care of some things. On Tuesday we had friends from church, Karen Wesley and Cassie Immick help me out by sitting with Tracy while I visited with Doctor’s securing releases and discussing tests and treatments. Thursday we had neighborhood friends Sarah Harfield, Lisa Harrison, and Martha Pale sit with Tracy as Ron and I went to our office and out to lunch with Steve Maniaci, one of my bestest friends.
While we were away Shelly worked on the transfer while the new feeding tube was put in. When we got to the room we found a care package full of sandwiches and cookies (staples for a Bowden especially Ron) that had been left by Patti Crowe and Ann Marie Collins. After sampling a cookie I headed off to find Shelly, only to meet her halfway. She said she had good news and bad news. The good news was that our insurance was allowing us to go U of M! The bad news was they were only going to cover 40% of their allowable billing after we paid a substantial amount, in addition to paying the difference between the insurers allowable fees and U of M actual fees. Meaning there would be no cap on the amount we would need to cover. Did I mention something about rollercoasters?
I had previously asked if the Cleveland Clinic was in network for Priority Health and Shelly said she would check for us. After hearing the bad news I suggested that maybe if the Cleveland Clinic was in network maybe we should go there instead, thus making U of M look better to Priority Health as we felt the Cleveland Clinic was also a good choice. Shelly again agreed and said she would continue to work on it. She suggested that I call the U of M to go over the costs. I called and found out that Shelly had been misinformed, and that Priority Health would pay 60% of all costs after meeting our out of network deductible, thus capping our costs. Now you know why I titled today’s blog “Rollercoasters”.
We closed the night with Jerry Hines and his daughter Madison, another of my bestest friends. Another blessing today was that our favorite night nurse Beth was back and would be caring for Tracy.
Rollercoasters? I never cared for them, but I’ll ride this one out.
God Bless,
Rob
No comments:
Post a Comment