Tuesday, July 17

Swallow study

Tommy had his 'swallow study' at Children's Hosp today. He successfully can drink from a bottle called a Pidgeon, eat pureed foods and rice cereal! Yippee! He unfortunately aspirated on the Haberman bottle during the study (the same bottle he aspirated at home during a feeding therapy session). At least we know that the Haberman is out and the Pidgeon is in! Mommy can breathe a big sigh of relief knowing Tommy can safely swallow. We are looking into the G tube now as the feeding specialist at Children's feels that Tommy's anatomy will benefit more from the NG tube coming out so he can make a better transition to the bottle.

Our day at Children's was suppose to be a 9am swallow study, 11am echocardiogram and a 1pm cariology follow up. So Mom and Tommy left bellingham at 6am for the first appt (Daddy stayed behind with Liam,Hannah, Nate for a 4H function). Only to find that the appts were all askew and we waited until 11:30 for the echo only to find that they decided at the last minute (while we were waiting in the echo room) that they probably really didn't need to do one. Then the swallow study was snuck in around noon (three hours later than scheduled). And the cardiology appt finally happened at 2pm. Good thing Mommy and Tommy LOVE to spend time together. We had tickle fests! And we found the child's life helpers with the "bazzilion bubble maker".... there were hundreds of bubbles floating thru the air for Tommy to try to catch.

On the way back to Bellingham, Mommy decided to follow up with an insurance appeal because she was baffled by news from the outpatient pharmacy. Basically, Tommy has wicked reflux an receives Prevacid compounded to put in his NG tube. United Healthcare has denied 28 weeks of prevacid (at $39.98/week). We filed an appeal and after weeks of haggling back and forth it has been approved. Only to discover the insurance company has placed it at a level 3 pharmacy charge which means a $40 copay. Do the math and we didn't receive a benefit on an appeal we won. Baffiling. Frustrating.

Tommy Adventures