A Long Story Long

There's just no way to shorten the story, friends. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in.

So if you're keeping up, I've been fighting (really...arguing doesn't do it justice) with our insurance company over our son's medical needs. Last thing on Thursday, I told the "case manager" that if he didn't approve Cale's infusion, that I guaranteed him Cale would be hospitalized with infection inside of two weeks and then they'd be paying for ER, IVs, a room, a doctor, imaging and more.

Man, I hate being right.

Friday night, we had our weekly pizza and movie night. We went to bed early and were awakened by Cale vomiting. Again and again and again. At 1:30am, we headed to the ER. Most people scoff at a puking kid in the middle of the night with no fever or other symptoms, but not us. We just know. So on the way, we got pulled over by a sheriff's deputy for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. He took one look at Cale vomiting in the back seat and went from writing a ticket to calling the ER to alert them and escorting us. Five nurses, seven IV starts and fails and two blown veins later (and 19 vomiting spells), we were admitted.

But wait! There's not enough room in the inn!! So the doc tried to transfer us to Hutchinson so we could be in the care of our ENT. That didn't feel good to us, to be so far from our daughter. So they sent us to Salina, and into the care of our immunologist. Two strep tests, one CT, one chest x-ray and more vomiting spells later (I lost count), it was determined that we had ONE VERY SICK CHILD. (Really?!).

Strep, pneumonia/viral lung infection, horrible sinus infection, dehydration and lots of bruises meant one very unhappy little boy. In the middle of the night, the immunologist ordered the infusion. I told him we couldn't pay for it and insurance wouldn't - and you know what he said? "Don't worry about it. I got this. He has to have it and no one can tell me no."

WOW. So every 15 minutes for the next 6 hours they checked his vitals as he was infused with platelets and gammaglobulins. He tolerated it well and in the morning, we started IV antibiotics as well. This made him vomit again, but our nearly-three day adventure was finally leading us home.

We slept last night for the first time since Thursday night. My body aches in so many ways I can't count. Cale is very sad, bruised, weak, and sore as well. His tummy, chest and head hurt. His arms are pin cushions. He had a total meltdown and bawled his heart out this morning in the arms of his immunologist.

Our insurance company has quite a fight on their hands. And we do too. We'll fight them, the pharmacy, and anyone who stands in the way of our son getting the medical attention that he needs. But we're so blessed to have a team of doctors who will go to bat with us. Our hospital treated us well, our providers are amazing, a friend brought us food, people are praying and calling and texting - and despite lots of tears, sore muscles and fatigue, we see how incredibly blessed we are. And that makes pretty much every day a happy ending.