I love the medical community.

Really, I have conflicting feelings. Obviously, they did wonders for Bennett and I...we wouldn't be here without them. Bennett was supposed to get a Synagis shot today. He has been getting one once per month since he left the hospital to protect him from RSV. Preemies are at especially high risk for this dangerous respiratory disease and the shots are common practice. The first one we were supposed to get at home was not set up properly and we ended up having to have it done at the doctor's office at the last minute. The way the insurance company wants it done is as follows: we call and the shot is delivered via UPS to our house. It must be refrigerated immediately. Then the home health nurse is supposed to set up an appointment to give the shot at our house. I'm really not sure how this saves money, but whatever. Anyway, the first month this was screwed up on the home health side, it went fine last month, and we set up the appointment for this month last month. Then the nurse calls Bernie and tells him that she can't come today and reschedules for Wednesday. This isn't a huge deal in most cases, but we are going on vacation next month. The last shot will have to be early and now the window between them is even shorter. I am going to make sure this is OK at Bennett's MD appointment tomorrow.

Did I mention the series of shots costs $1400?

I won't go into great detail about how SHITTY the oxygen company was to deal with. We sat on hold for hours and got horrible service. Not to mention the fact that they are billing our insurance company over $200 per day (should have been a monthly charge) and they are just paying it! Now wonder insurance costs are rising. We need to call the insurance and tip them off because we tried to get the oxygen company to deal with it, but they haven't.

I might as well just finish my little rant here with how much this whole ordeal has cost. I know there is probably some curiosity about it. The grand total is somewhere in the $400,000 range. This includes:

$12,000 for a helicopter ride
$30,000+ for my medical care
$2200 per day for Bennett's MD visits while in the Level 3 NICU
$250,000 for his hospital stay
and thousands more in mich. xrays, meds, labs, etc.

I do not know what someone without insurance would have done. It easily would have wiped us out. But luckily we have really good insurance and our total out-of-pocket has been about $1000. The pile of insurance statements is a bit overwhelming.

SCARY!

Anyway, I will be done with my rant now. It's hard to understand the charges for some of this crap.

We have otherwise been doing well around here. Bennett is becoming more and more social. He smiles frequently and maintains good social eye contact. We need to get him more tummy time so his head lifts are stronger. I am waiting not-so-patiently for a good belly laugh from him.

I am going to be discussing formula supplementation with the MD tomorrow. Up until now, I have been pumping and he has been getting breast milk exclusively. My relationship with the pump has been deteriorating for a while now and I am ready to give it up. I feel good about having gotten this far. I was hoping to be done by the time we go on vacation next month. I might try to lessen the pumping sessions for a bit so he can still get mostly breast milk for awhile. We will see. I feel like I miss a lot of time with him because of the dreaded pump. But I'm sure there will be guilt if I stop. It's a no-win situation.