Catching Up

The last month or so of our life has been out of control. There are so many things going on (things not even directly related to Brian's illness) that cause stress and  make life difficult. I will not share all on this blog but the long and short of it is pray for the Schreiber family!

We have called for reinforcements and Fred's mom has been here a week and will be here for three more weeks. It has been so nice to not have to exasperate all our friends to help us or to have to pay for child care. It has been such a wonderful blessing to be able to just go and do something without having to plan childcare. Fred and I have enjoyed being able to do something by ourselves too. Even if it is just go grab Starbucks really quickly. (THANK YOU, Aarin, for the generous gift card!!) I have been able to catch up on doctors appointments for myself that have been put off due to having so many children so close together. In the last week I have been able to get my teeth cleaned, get four of six cavities filled and go to the girl doctor for my yearly. (Apparently you can brush your teeth too hard and brush the enamel right off. I have done that. It's really not cool.) I am feeling some sadness for what Brian is about to go through in the next couple of weeks because as I sit here and type I have a numb tongue and cheek all the way up to my nose. Of course Brian's oral stuff is more involved, but I remember last year when he woke up from having his two year old molars removed he didn't understand why his entire mouth was numb. He kept rubbing his face like he was trying to get something off of it. Well, here we go again. He has to have his one year old molars removed in the next couple of weeks. The bone loss in his mouth makes the gums recede because there is no bone for them to adhere to, thus exposing the entire tooth. When Brian has all four molars removed the doctor will do a biopsy of the tissue in the gums to check for the presence of LCH. Something to praise God for in all of the this is that last year when he had the two year old molars removed we were told that Brian might not get the permanent molars that would grow in after the two year old ones because they bud off of baby teeth. Well, when we had Brian's X rays last week we saw three of the four permanent molars growing under the gums. The fourth one could be there but we didn't see it because it was a bad picture. After Brian gets his one year old  molars removed next week he will have NO molars to chew with until the six year molars come in. It's kinda sad to think about looking into his mouth and eight of his teeth be missing but in the big picture this is so minor. 

  Just to give you a peek into some of the stress involved with things like this let me tell you about one of the most stressful aspects. Dealing with insurance. I spent two hours and a couple of days on the phone getting our oral surgeon authorized as an in network doctor since our insurance doesn't have one in the area. Then we had to get our medical insurance to authorize payment to the oral surgeon's office since this surgery is a result of a medical condition. After getting all that worked out, the oral surgeons office let me know they don't work with Blue Cross Blue Shield and we will be paying for the entire surgery out of our pocket in advance and then file a claim with Blue Cross ourselves. Now, it's just the oral surgeon's office, not the hospital and anesthesia so it will only be a little over $1000. Not too major, but given that we currently deal with Sacred Heart, Nemours, Anesthesia, the hematologist/oncologist, the pediatric dentist, the pediatrician, labs and the offices of whatever specialist we are currently dealing with, we are not in favor of having our money out there to be held and then returned to us four to six weeks later. 

 This is all just for Brian. In the past six weeks Fred has had two procedures for his back. So that has costs $$ too. PLUS, I have had my doctors appointments and mouth fixed up. I also need to have surgery in the next few weeks to repair some damage from when Ansley was born. All this info is just to give you a peek into how stressful the Schreiber house is right now. So, if we haven't called you back or responded to an e-mail hopefully you see it is not about you. :) 

I'll leave you with a picture of William and Brian. This is Brian's permanent spot when he is awake. He and William like to watch the show Dino Dan on Nick Jr. They are probably watching it in this picture. (Don't worry the boys have been told that the world is not millions of years old and dinosaurs are not millions of years old.)

Aunt Carol, notice that both boys have their blankets you made them as newborns. They are still very special blankies that we can't live without.