Medical Debt and Pureed Pears
I have no idea when I posted last. Time just keeps slipping away and the days sometimes blur into one another.
I’ve been back to work for over three weeks now, and it’s going a lot better than I had expected. It’s tiring, and can get stressful, but I’ve pulled in almost as many hours as I was doing pre-twins, so that is a relief.
The bills are really rolling in now from all of mine and the boys’ hospital care, and I have been filling out assistance applications for all of them. I got a response from the first one, and they denied us for having “too much income”. Trust me, people, if I had the means, I’d pay it now!
I wrote an appeal to them, and now they want more info — such as our 2007 tax return. We haven’t even done our 2007 tax return and they want it by March 6th. I swear, if I keep jumping through all of these hoops and then they tell me “too bad”, I’m going to be so mad! I’ve already sent months of bank statements, pay stubs, profit and loss statements, our 2006 tax return, copies of other bills, our budget, etc, etc, etc.
Meanwhile, as I am appealing, they’ve sent it to collections. They claim there’s still 30 days to deal with it before it hits my credit report and they better not be lying! Ugh.
Overall, we have over $5,000 in medical debt (all due immediately, of course) which isn’t bad, considering over $200,000 was billed to our insurance. But there are still bills to come, and we’re still paying off debt from the IVFs and pregnancy care, so it’s not like we have $5,000 sitting around at the moment. I’m just hoping that my applications and appeals will be accepted and we can work out a reasonable payment plan so as not to totally go under trying to pay our debts.
Anyhow, enough of that nonsense.
The boys are doing well. Cute as can be and each working on their own skills.
Nate currently weighs 11 pounds 8 ounces and “talks” a lot — he especially enjoys squealing. He also likes when you play with his hands and will smile and laugh, and he likes to try to reach for things. He loves looking at lights and is a very laid back boy… until he decides he needs something and then LOOK OUT — he’s got quite the cry!
Ace is about 10 pounds now and is a big smiler and giggler. He loves to kick his feet or have you play with his feet and legs. He likes to be named, and he rolls over from front to back. He also likes to talk. He’s still fussy, but not nearly as bad as he was. And for as fussy as he can be, when he’s happy, he sure is happy!
Unfortunately, Calista had a cold and now Nate has it. The poor little guy has a big cough. I took him to the pediatrician today just to be proactive, and he said he sounds good right now. I am to be on the lookout for trouble breathing or a fever over 100.4 F, and he gave me eye drops for Nate’s goopy eyes. I think Ace sounds a little congested, too, so I am assuming he’s going to be coughing tomorrow as well.
While we were at the pediatrician;s, I asked about solids for the boys. The reason I asked is because Ace takes his reflux meds off of a spoon, and he just gobbles it up and really seems to enjoy it. The doctor said we could let them try out some started foods if they seem ready, but not to take away any breast feedings, which we wouldn’t do anyhow.
So, Calista and I made up some pears for the boys (I made all of Calista’s baby food and plan to make it for the boys, too). Calista loved the pears, so she ate a bowl for herself. :)
We waited until dinner time, so Daddy could be there, and then let the boys try out their pears. Ace ate them well, but he was pretty over-tired, so he cried a lot. Poor little guy! Nate really enjoyed his and was even opening his mouth for more, it was so cute! Since they enjoyed it, we’ll let them have a few tastes of pears at dinner time from now on, until we are ready to try another food later on. I plan to just do pears for a while to make sure neither of them has any sort of reaction to them.
I don’t seem to have any pictures on my memory card at the moment, but here’s a short video of the boys from a few days ago. Nate is on the left, Ace is on the right. Enjoy!
