Surgery does equal happy baby

On Tuesday, May 12th, Emmett had the surgery to put tubes in his ears. So here's a picture of him in his cute hospital gown and slippers. Why does he look so much cuter than I do in a hospital gown?

We handed him to the nurse and were told to wait in a post-op room. They said 15-20 minutes and they'd be back with him. Joe and I kept busy by talking about Joe's favorite subject- motorcycles. But a hint of worry hit when 20 minutes, then 30, then 40 went by. Finally, Dr. Heras came in and said " Those were the worst ears I've seen in a long time." She said that the middle ears were so inflamed and infected that it was hard to get the tube in the right ear in. And she couldn't get the tube in the left ear to pop in - there was just no room because of the swelling and fluid.  So she had to take that tube out and had to cut a little bigger hole in the eardrum. And when she did that tons of puss and blood and fluid came pouring out. They suctioned out all the gunk in the ear then she was able to get the tube in. So that's why it took so long. She said they'd be bringing Emmett to us in just a minute. A moment later I heard him. He was crying or more like screaming at the top of his lungs all the way down the hallway. And he didn't stop until 30 minutes later when he was in the car seat and headed home. He fell asleep soon after and has been a very happy baby since waking up from that nap. The first day he would jump at every noise, since he was not used to hearing things that loud and clear. The instant turn around has been amazing. He's slept through the night ever since. 

So I'm glad we got it done. Even if the medical insurance ends up not covering it. Yeah, that's right, just my luck that this had to happen while we were switching to an individual plan instead of staying with Joe's work group to save $300 a month.  It was IHC to IHC - same plan just paying less. We started that process all the way back in February, and due to my hypothyroidism they needed all sorts of medical records.  So we were finally approved, not without a fight of course, in the middle of April. It was soon after that that another infection sent us to the ENT.  Our old insurance ended at the end of April and May was supposed to be on the new one. So I scheduled the surgery and told them I'd get them the new insurance number. Time went by and new cards never came. So after the ENT called and said they needed the info to schedule the O.R. and they had called Select Med and were told Emmett wasn't insured I called Select Med myself. I was told that because it took longer than 60 days to get the application approved that it was invalid and that I needed to do the application all over again with any updated medical info that had happened since, and she said now Emmett would be declined coverage since he needed tubes. She said that me and the other kids could still be covered for the same price after redoing the application. Just not Emmett. Like that makes me any happier! I was outraged! They were the ones that had been dragging their feet the whole time and they said I was untruthful on the application about Emmett's ear infections. Although, I was completely honest. At the time of the application he'd only had a few infections. And the fact that they'd already approved us and said they were withdrawing the payment on the 10th.  Our insurance rep, who helped us fight to get approved the first time, said he'd try to straighten it out.  And later that day he seemed pretty confident that it was fixed. But when the day before surgery came, we still had no insurance number. We had to make the decision to go ahead with the surgery at the hospital or to wait till Thursday to do it at a surgical clinic for people without insurance. If we do it at the hospital and the insurance does cover it it will be $800. If they don't cover it, it will be $4500. At the surgical clinic it would be $1500. With our insurance guy being confident that he'd fixed it and the fact that we didn't want Emmett to suffer any longer and the fact that I didn't want any more sleepless nights, we did it at the hospital hoping that it would be covered. But if not, $4500 would be worth Emmett's health. (and my Sanity!) And after the doctor saying how bad his ears were, it makes me feel that, however it turns out, that we made the right choice.  So we sit here, waiting on a number to give the hospital, wondering how long the hospital will delay billing, and wondering why it takes so long to assign a number to an insurance policy.