There's bad news, good news, and more good news

The bad news is, I got a stack (and I mean a stack!) of those "Explanation of Benefits" papers in the mail on Saturday. Yeah, medical care is expensive. We're talking $200-$300 per consult and $400-$600 each for the ultrasounds, swallow studies and scopes that we've had done. Gulp. We haven't seen the bills yet, but we now know how much they'll be for.

So the good news is that Max has already met his deductible for the year and then some. So everything having to do with the surgery will either be covered at 80% or 100% depending on how soon we reach our out of pocket maximum. And really, thanks heavens for AFLAC, (yes, the one with the annoying duck) because the policy we took out for Max will cover all of this once the surgery is done.

Another observation from the stack of EOBs? I should have been a radiologist. Seriously. There were 3-4 claims for Doctors that we have never seen. Turns out they were radiologists. Doctors that never have to see patients- they just sit in their offices, read xrays, ultrasounds etc, send a report, and then charge amazing amounts of money to do it. I need that job!

We had three Doctor appointments last week- one with the ENT clinic, one with the pediatric opthomologist and one with our pediatrician. We had another endoscopic test done, and they are so not pleasant (for me, and especially not for Max!), but the official word from the ENT and the speech pathologist is that we are cleared to resume "normal breastfeeding!" (Not that we have been doing anything but normal breastfeeding for a while now- its just good to be able to stop worrying about it!) The medication seems to be helping the swelling in his throat, and although things aren't normal yet, we're getting there. We also have a referral to the (wait for it...) GI clinic to see a gastroenterologist (Woo-hoo! Another specialty to add to our list!) because it turns out that reflux can be caused or exacerbated by constipation. Who knew? (Someday, Max is going to be so thrilled that I have the details of his pooping problmes posted all over my blog!)

Everything at the opthomologist was fine. No evidence of increased intercranial pressure, and everything is symmetrical with his eyes, so we're good to go as far as he's concerned. And at the pediatrician, we found out he's almost 15 pounds, 24 inches long, still has a little bitty head, and is right on track for his milestones. Go Max, go!