More on Tests and Insurance

So, here is some more of the story. After giving the rehab doctor the names of who I could go to, we chose another doctor. Again, the insurance company said she wasn't authorized and gave us the name of the first doctor that we were referred to. My doctor's secretary called to make an appointment. Now, the insurance company said the test wasn't authorized. I wrote an email and a letter to the insurance company asking them to authorize the test. My rehab doctor gave up. He said until it is requested by someone, we would hold off.

On another note, I am going to start teaching part time at a younger grade. I'm excited about returning to work, but it will be a lot of work as I try to learn a new curriculum.

Insurance and tests

So it's been forever since I last posted. Where are we? Well, Katrina needs to have a neuropsych test done, but the insurance is giving us the run around. Here's how it played out.

Katrina's rehab doctor refered us to a neuro-psychologist at the university. We called the insurance to clear it and they said that this doctor wasn't covered by our insurance and gave us a list of six doctors who were. We submitted those names to the rehab doctor and he picked one, then called us to let us know. Again, we called the insurance to make sure everything was set. Suddenly none of the doctors they gave us were available on our plan. That's right THEY gave us a list of six doctor who were NOT on our plan. GRRrrrrRRRr. So I went on their site an I looked up the neuro-psychologists that are on our plan and we gave that list to the Rehab doctor. We are waiting to hear back.

This whole process has taken about two months. Yuck!

So what is a neuropsych test? Essentially it's a prolonged (5hr)test similar to an IQ test that is designed to test how she performs mentally over and extended period of time under stress. We need to have this done to decide how to move forward with everything.

Guilty

I've been feeling guilty lately about not posting. I'm not even sure there is very much interest in the blog anymore.

Life has been crazy for us these past few months. Lots of family drama and other trials. We've had lots of close family in and out of the hospital for one reason or another and Three Divorces. Top all that off with the fact that I've gone back to work and school.

College is going great for me. I'm about three weeks ahead of schedule in my courses. I just passed LUT 1 today! Work has been fun too. I'd forgotten how much more fun it was to be a staff member than director.

Katrina is doing pretty good too. I know that her rehab doctor's are pleased with her progress. It's not all peaches and cream but she has come a long way. Especially given that all she could do right after surgery was drool on herself and cry weakly. It wasn't pretty and thankfully it seems like a distant nightmare now. She has her total cerebral spinal MRI this week and then a follow up with the Chemo Doc to discuss it. I hope our blessings hold out and it comes back clean. We've been fortunate that her scans have been coming back clean so far, although her white count has never really recovered from the radiation.

Thank you to those of you who continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Doctors and School

We had a Rehab follow up appointment for Katrina today. He says he sees improvement which is encouraging. I noticed that her legs aren't spread nearly as wide as they used to have to be to keep her balance. He's also prescribing her some medication that is supposed to give a little kick in the pants to her thinking ability. Hopefully this will help her ratchet up to the high functioning, multitasking, Thinker that she used to be. Sometimes it's like she is painfully close to being back to normal, but it's just out of reach. Hopefully this gives her that little extra boost.

I Have begun the process to return to College. I got my Associates degree years ago then life happened and I never completed my course of study. It has been on my mind a lot the last few months. What would i do if I lose Katrina or she's never able to return to work. Unpleasant questions to ask myself to say the least, but I feel they are important ones to ask. I feel like I need to have my degree and right now while we watch and wait is probably about as good a time to do it as we are going to get. I'm nervous about the financial side of that. Things are ultra tight for us and will probably get worse before they get better. So I'm hoping to get some financial aid figured out.

If you know of any scholarships for male teachers let me know. I need everything I can get.

A Week

It's been a stressful week, and I'm beginning to think that the month of July is cursed for my family and me.

My brother had to come home from scout camp because he got super sick. He probably never should have gone because he wasn't feeling well that morning. It turned out that he had a blood clot in the artery in the base of his skull and he spent a few days in the hospital. He's home now but it will be some time before he can return to anything nearing normal activity.

The other thing that happen is our vehicles both need registered this month, and my truck failed safety. To make a long story short; it was a costly repair involving the axle and the rear breaks. It ended up costing a little more than half of what we were quoted, but we still couldn't afford it. Thankfully Katrina's mother was able to help us out there.

It seems like every time we start to get life figured out and things are going okay again life throws us another zinger.

Katrina sent off some paper work to the university to get into the student learning rehab center like her rehab lady wanted her too. If that goes through it will be twice a week. It will also cost us thirteen dollars a session. They gave us a huge break on the cost though. It's normally fifty or sixty bucks a session.

Rehab, done?

Katrina finished up her most recent amount of allotted rehab appointments. It's frustrating that the insurance has so much say in how many they will cover. She needs the rehab and progresses so much better when she is going. What gives the insurance the right to say she doesn't need them.

Our specialist recommended that we look into the student clinic at the University to get some more rehab since the work on a sliding pay scale because we are helping teach students at the same time we receive rehab. We'll have to look into it before we commit. It would be two days a week and that can add up real quick when it's out of pocket.

Friday Update 7-1-11 One year and Counting

July Second will probably always be surgery day for us. It was probably one of the longest most devastating days of my life and for her the day that only lasted a couple of hours.

Still we've come a long way since then and it fells good to be marking anniversaries.

Things are going good. The rehab specialist we are seeing says that she is seeing progress, which is encouraging. We stopped by her school today and her interactions seemed to be more . . . normalized(?) than before. I hope that given this coming year off to heal she'll be able to return to what she loves doing.

Friday Update 6-3-11

We haven't gotten official notice on Katrina's Disability Insurance yet, but they told her when she called the other day that they were just calculating her pay which we are hoping means that she was approved.

Katrina told the Rehab specialist today that she feels like she is thinking better. Our Rehab lady has really tried to push Katrina to think about how she thinks so she can improve.

We also followed up with the rehab doctor at the hospital this week and he still feels like given time she can make an almost full recovery and even return to teaching.

I guess that these things are a change from the pure bad news we seem to have been wading through the last few months. But it gets hard sometimes, when you can see any light ahead and you have no choice but to continue to trudge head long into the darkness. Never knowing what pit you might stumble into at any moment.

I pray for guidance about what I should do job wise. I pray to know what to do about a great many things as far as our future is concerend and invariably I get the same answer. "Patience, watch and wait."

That's hard for me. I see a problem and I want to rush in and fix it, but I can't. There is nothing I can do, and to won't do any good to go off complaining about the journey the Lord is taking us on. I've got to trust in him, but it gets hard sometimes.

Friday Update 5-13-11

We found out after the testing with the rehab lady that Katrina preforms well mentally until there is an outside distraction like a time constraint or other things going on. Then things don't work so well for her. Our insurance authorized eight sessions so we'll have lots of homework in between.

We also met with the chemo doctor again this week and her MRI still looks clean. I was really worried going in though because our luck has been touchy lately.

We've also had some very generous gifts given too us. Although we don't know who you are we want you to know we are truly grateful. Thank you.

Friday . . . Er . . . Saturday Update 4-23-11

I meant to post yesterday but the day just got away from me.

The last couple of weeks have really been a roller coaster ride of emotion.

Last week Katrina's Principal Provided us with a letter that described the areas of concern that she was seeing with Katrina at work. It was very well worded and showed a lot of love and concern while being necessarily blunt. It described how Katrina functioned before the cancer as opposed to now to make it clear that this isn't a choice Katrina made to just stop providing the best quality work she can.

Monday we took that letter to our rehabilitation doctor at the hospital. He glanced over it an recommended that Katrina go back to part time as well as begin some cognitive therapy again. He referred us to a lady in Sugar House who he she in his opinion was the best in the state for these sorts of issues. Being the best in the state we are on a waiting list to see her.

Tuesday the district approved the hiring of another certified teacher "Sub" for Katrina to team teach with for the rest of the year.

Thursday the doctors office called us. After the doctor had looked more closely at the letter He decided that it would be best if Katrina went off work entirely. We are currently working to get her disability insurance going again.

In a way it is kind of a relief to me. It has been so hard for me to watch as she struggled and fought so hard to do the best she could and kept coming up sort at work. The fact of the matter is that she just wasn't ready cognitively to return to work. Unfortunately there was no way we could have known that without alot of pain and stress all around. She may have to work a few days into may but after that she'll be back disability for . . . we don't know how long. Maybe a year, maybe until she's 65.

I'm okay with her being home, and I'm okay with looking for work myself. The only problem is that I don't feel like I can find a job just yet if I've got to be taking her to Sugar House and back all the time. In the Mean time I mentioned that do have another project that I have been working on, so I'm going to polish up some of that and see what happens. I really hope it works, It's something I've always wanted to do and being home these last few months has given time to do it.

The future is still very unsure, but I'm more at peace than I have been in weeks.

Friday Update 12-17-10

We went to a doctors appointment yesterday with the rehab doctor (Doctor Edgley). Her says that she appears to be doing good. She still has some balance issues but her youth has allowed her to compensate so that she isn't falling. He anticipates that, that will slowly correct itself because of her age. 

We also discussed her work with him and her wrote her a note that said she is ". . . cleared and encouraged to return to work full time."

Next week we have an MRI and a follow up with the nuerosurgeon to go over the scan.

Nerves

As the first of November draws nearer I find myself looking  forward with trepidation. I'm worried about how she'll handle returning to work. I'm worried about how I'll handle returning to work. I'm worried about the doctors deciding to do chemo and setting us back. Our insurance allotted rehab appointments run out next week and I'm worried about how things will go. She has made leaps and bounds of progress thanks to rehab and soon we'll be on our own.

We have some Doctors appointments next week so unless something negative happens look for another post later next week.

Outpatient Rehab?

Now that we're home the next and most vital step is of course the radiation to kill off the cancer. But, there is also the question of outpatient rehab. The doctor wrote us some "Prescriptions" so that we could seek some outpatient therapy.  They also had the therapists print out there notes and gave us a copy of her medical records to take with us to wherever we would find rehab. The other thing they did was give me lists of things that I can work with her at home on. I guess that it is really a question of what she feels like she needs to get to where she can accomplish her two goals; return to work and take care of her babies.

My concern is trying to tackle both radiation and therapy at the same time.  Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems to me she'll be pretty tired and sick form the radiation especially since they have to do her whole head and spine. I'd hate to push her or let her push herself too hard on top of all that.

7-22-10 update.

Less than 20 hours left!

Katrina was about in tears after the dry run over at huntsman today. We will have to be sure that she takes her sedative before she goes back for the real thing. We got her schedule for all her treatments going forward I'll try to post them all ASAP.

7-21-10 Update

Doctor Schmidt (our neurosurgeon) stopped by today. He seems to think that chemo won't be necessary, so hopefully he is right and we'll just need radiation. She is doing pretty good. They took her outside in
PT and she climbed a bunch of stairs and walked up and down hills so she is pretty tired this afternoon, but she did great. Her double vision was almost back together when she first got up and her speech was back to normal for a while.

Release Date Update

THE MORNING OF JULY 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7-20-10 Update

Katrina continues to progress. She got in trouble yesterday because while ran home she decided to walk around the gym by herself. The Rehab people didn't think that this was the best idea.

She has a little bit of, for lack of a better term, ADD. Her mind will go off on tangents. For example she was supposed to name things that fit in a category. One of the items she named was a computer key. She then sat there quietly for a minute before she started telling us a story about how somebody lost a the letter "G."

Today is the day they meet to discuss release dates. Cross your fingers.  

7-18-10 Morning Update

July 25th, that's the date that Doctor Edgley said he'd be willing to discharge us early. Kind of a bummer because we were hoping for the 23rd so we could spend the holiday weekend with family and kind of make up for the missed independence day stuff. Oh Well, Seven to go. One at a time.

7-17-10 Morning Update

The 17th! Wow! Have we really been here half a month. It seems to drag by so slowly as it happens and yet here we are only a week or so away from discharge. We also ran into Katrina's Second Cousin, Sean, in the hall today. We had no idea that he worked here.

 I feel like a lot of the time I just post things like "We're good," or Lame updates like that. They keep us pretty busy during the daytime on weekdays and by the time we get done I don't really feel like writing much. So how are things with us exactly? 

I really feel like things are going pretty good. I've seen a lot of progress I really feel like she would be safe to go home any day now. Most of the problems that I think she is still having stem from the double vision which will take time to heal as her brain does. As that slowly gets better I really expect her coordination and such to return to normal given the progress that we have seen already.

She really is doing great considering what she has been through. Part of that is the great people here who work with her. I think that a bigger part is the love support and prayers of all the people who love her coupled with the divine intervention of the Lord.

I truly do feel like we have been blessed despite the trials that we are facing. As I reflect on the original MRI I don't think she would have survived the remainder of the year if we hadn't discovered the tumor. By the time things got bad enough here ventricle might have been closed off leading to death within a couple of hours or the cancer may have spread. Then from there things have just kind of worked out every step of the way. There is just no way that all the little things that have fallen into place beginning even months before we knew could be anything but divine help.
  

7-16-10 morning update.

Things are going pretty good this morning. Katrina did really well in physical therapy this morning. I'm impressed by how much better she seems to do everyday. She come so far from the lady who could only lay in bed and cry unable to speak that she was right after surgery.

I talked to Doctors Edgley and Barnes this morning about discharging her on the 23rd instead of the 27th. Doctor Edgley seemed to think that might be okay, but said he'd have to discuss it with the rest of the rehab team.