Whew, Surgery Done!!

We're one week post-op Culley's second cochlear implant surgery! We went on a family camping trip Thurs-Sat. before his Monday surgery. We had a great time but I'll get to that later. We returned to a beeping answering machine with several messages from the hospital notifying us that they weren't able to get approval for the surgery from his insurance company and that we needed to call them right away. Well, of course being Saturday I was unable to contact anyone about the matter so I spent the next couple hours pacing and fretting. Then I decided to let it go and once again adopt the philosophy of, if it's meant to be, it will. It turned out that believing the surgery wasn't going to happen was much more relaxing than anticipating it.

Monday morning, I called the hospital and the person I spoke to assured me that everything was in order with the insurance. I couldn't reach any of the people who had left messages so I was a little skeptical that this person knew what she was talking about but what else could I do? First we had to head to the pediatrician so she could make sure the ear infection was cleared up before making the hour and a half long trek to the hospital (and continuing the fast that began at bedtime the night before). There was some question about the ear drum looking a little red but after many failed attempts to reach the surgeon we all decided that we should just continue on with the plan. We checked in at 1pm for a surgery start time of 2:40pm and the long wait began. The OR was running late so the surgery didn't start until 6pm!! Culley was so good and patient, Tom & Jerry helped immensely with that. Every half an hour or so he would politely request something to eat, "I want pretzel bites please", "I want goldfish please", etc...The cutest was when we were finally headed to surgery and Culley's pre-med was really kicking in he slurred, "I want chicken nugget please!" For once not being a big eater really paid off for him.

Thankfully the surgery went off without a hitch and we were back at our house at 11:30pm. Culley woke up very angry from anesthesia but that's normal for him. The next day, he complained a little about his "boo-boo ear" but after a dose of Tylenol, he was feeling much better. Just like last time, he took a long nap in the afternoon and awoke 100% back to himself! He's schedule for activation in one week.

I'm still battling the insurance company. The day after surgery, we got a message from the same woman at the hospital again telling us that the insurance wasn't confirmed. Oops, because they did the surgery anyway. There is a ridiculous misunderstanding with the insurance company that I have called and cleared up four times now. Every time the representative says, "Oh, ok, I'll go ahead and make a note. All taken care of!" Now we have this big 3 hour evaluation/Autism screening scheduled for tomorrow (the one we've been trying to get done all summer) and they're about to cancel it because the insurance company is denying coverage! UGH!! There is a supervisor working on it as I type. I don't have much faith in her either.

School starts in 10 days and I'm already worrying about the new preschool teacher, will they know how to deal with him so that he can benefit from school, will he be ok in full day and what about his IEP? Oh, the joys!

As usual, I went on and on about the stressful parts of life and didn't put enough emphasis on the wonderfully normal parts of life which definitely make up the majority. Our camping trip was a great and relaxing time! The boys got to fish and play in the water to their hearts content. The rest of our days are spent playing in the yard, riding bikes in the driveway, and just enjoying the rest of summer.