Any day now

Elizabeth is on the verge of walking all by herself. While B and I were at the surgery center for FIVE hours yesterday, Elizabeth spent lots of time walking around the front yard either holding on to someone's hand or pushing this little trike around.

My mom and Ella both claim that Elizabeth took 8 steps on her own, but I have yet to see a repeat performance.

Life is going to change around here once Elizabeth is really up and walking. Any day now, Elizabeth will be making the switch from baby to toddler. Sob.

Keeping my mouth shut

B had more surgery on his neck today - the same type of procedure he had last winter. We spent two hours in the waiting room before B was taken back to pre-op. CNN was on in the waiting area, and health care reform was the prime topic. During that time, I had the fun of listening to two people whose spouses were back having surgery talk about how Obama is going to ruin this country with his health care proposal and how in five years people won't even be able to go to doctors' offices anymore because they won't exist.

The more they talked, the faster I knitted, just to keep myself from shouting at them.

Later, while B was in surgery, I was in the waiting room with just one other man. At one point, CNN was interviewing a legislator about the House health care bill that was just passed, and the man shouted, "What if Americans don't want reform?" and looked at me to agree with him. Again, I kept my mouth shut and knitted.

The kicker was that all of these people looked to be the right age to be on Medicare, which means they have government-run health care. The hypocrisy makes me want to scream.

One a positive note, I finished a shawl I've been knitting for a while.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. I've been showing the kids clips on Youtube of the original Sesame Street bits, and this one is definitely our favorite. The kids laugh hysterically and then beg to watch it again. And now, whenever Campbell sings the ABCs, someone yells "Cookie Monster" at random intervals, which drives Campbell insane. "Dat's not how da song goes," he yells, while we all laugh.

Surrender Dorothy

Ever since Lily was about three months old, we've said that she could actually be my sister's child. There is a strong resemblance between the two - Lily has the same big blue eyes, fair skin and high forehead that my sister has. She also has the same ulta-fine slippery hair that refuses to stay braided no matter how much my mom yells at me about S's messy braids. They are both fairly similar in personality. My sister, when she was Lily's age, had some (ahem) drama queen tendencies, just like Lily, who can cry on cue.

When S was about 5, she became obsessed with "The Wizard of Oz," specifically Dorothy. S wore a plaid dress and always wanted her hair in braids (see above complaint about her hair). She also carried a basket with a little stuffed dog named Toto.

As S got older, she outgrew the Dorothy obsession, but that didn't mean the rest of the family did. For her 21st birthday, mom gave her a Madame Alexander Dorothy doll, and one year for Christmas I gave her a talking Dorothy Barbie.

But now Lily has taken up the obsession and is carrying on the torch for her aunt. S gave Lily a pair of super fancy sparkly red shoes for Christmas that Lily cherishes, and she has two stuffed dogs named Dorothy and Toto. When we started discussing Halloween costumes, Lily asked to be Dorothy. I sent out an e-mail to several friends asking if any had a Dorothy-esque dress that Lily could borrow, and a friend had a great one. Then I found Lily an official Dorothy wig at Walmart that completed the look.

And here she is, in all her Dorothy glory, except I didn't manage to get the shoes in the picture.



And my sister is officially jealous of Lily's shoes and wig. She's going to get Lily a Dorothy dress for Christmas. Shhhh - don't tell her.

This is why I don't make costumes

For the past three years, Ella has been Hermione Granger from "Harry Potter." She has an authentic Hogwarts cloak, a real Hermione Wand, and a Griffindor House tie. But this year Ella has short hair, which meant she couldn't be Hermione "because Hermione doesn't have short hair."

For weeks Ella has agonized over what to be for Halloween, and all of my suggestions were met with eye rolls that make me fear Ella's teen-aged years. Finally, Ella decided to be Pippi Longstocking, provided we could find some way to make red braids. I offered to find Ella a wig that we could transform, but she didn't want to wear a real wig "because they are itchy."

So I spent hours trolling the interwebs looking for instructions on making a wig out of yarn. Pretty much all of the sites I found were worthless - they recommended using a hat and attaching yarn to the inside of the hat. Everyone knows Pippi doesn't wear a hat.

Eventually I cobbled together a plan based on several different sets of instructions and set to work. First, I had to go buy a pair of pantyhose because I haven't owned any in years. Then I cut the legs off and sewed the hole closed. After that, I trapped Ella on the kitchen floor, put the sewed-up pantyhose on her head, and started gluing strand after strand after strand of red yarn to the pantyhose. Ella did not like this process one bit, especially after the glue started seeping through the pantyhose onto her hair.

The front of the wig went well enough, although it did occur to me that Ella was going to have one heck of a comb-over.

Things got harder in the back. I couldn't get the yarn on fast enough, and the glue dried up a bit, which meant the yarn didn't stick well. Plus, Ella got extra wiggly, which just made things worse. It was at this point that Ella asked if we could just buy a wig, paint it red and add braids. I almost strangled her with the red yarn. Instead, I reminded her that she had said she didn't want a real wig because they are itchy. She said that if she had known making a wig from scratch would involve sitting on the floor for an hour with glue seeping into her hair, she would have asked for the real wig from the beginning.

We finished the wig finally, and on Halloween, B added the braids and wire to hold the braids up. It all looked pretty pitiful. So Ella and I made a last-minute run to Walmart to see if we could find another Dorothy wig like Lily's to alter. We couldn't find one, but we did have an entertaining trip, which is a post for another day.

Here's the finished product. Ella wasn't thrilled with her costume at this point, but she soon forgot her woes thanks to the fun of our pre-trick-or-treating party and the actual trick-or-treating. I pulled the wires out half-way through the night because I was afraid she was going to poke someone in the eye with them, and Ella didn't seem to care at all.


Even though her braids were wonky, Ella was still a pretty cute Pippi. And next year - I'm buying the girl a wig.

My book blog

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be continuing with my Halloween posts, but I've been out of commission all day with a migraine that has knocked me flat. But, I don't want to fail on day 5 of Nablopomo, so I'm going to cheat and just have a post pointing you to my book blog, which I'm in the process of updating.

In and around raising four kids and running (not that I'm doing much of that lately) and knitting and working, I manage to read a lot. Right now I'm wading through Dickens' Bleak House, which I'm actually enjoying a lot.

So take a look, and let me know if you have any good recommendations.

Ladybug

And now back to our regularly scheduled Halloween costume posts . . . if I have to write or think any more about the BlueCross BlueShield insurance fight, I'll start crying again. Thank you to everyone for your comments and e-mails of support. They have helped.

Here's a cute baby to make everyone feel better. Elizabeth dressed as a little ladybug for Halloween. Lily wore this same costume when she was Elizabeth's size. There's a hat that goes with it, but Elizabeth refused to keep it on.





Before we went trick-or-treating, we had our annual pot-luck with several other families. The big kids left a whole row of empty juice and milk boxes on one of the benches. Elizabeth cruised along the bench, testing each box to see if she could slurp up any of the remnants. She was so proud of herself that she kept giving us huge grins and showing off her one tooth.

Elizabeth hung out in her stroller while we trick-or-treated, content to watch the kids run back and forth. Next year, though, she'll be toddling right along behind them.

At war with BCBS

I know I said that I'd have a post about the cutest lady bug ever today, but I'm going to have to delay that until tomorrow.

A few weeks ago I wrote about my ongoing fight with BlueCross BlueShield of Texas to get Elizabeth's delivery covered. Yesterday I went another round with the insurance company.

I received a letter in the mail telling me that my appeal had been denied because my situation didn't match any of the items on their list that would allow them to pay for the delivery. So I girded my loins and called BCBS. As soon as I got a human on the phone, I asked for a supervisor. I had the bad luck of being connected to Kelly C.

Here's where having a photographic memory for conversations comes in handy.

****

Me: I'm calling about my claim, which was denied.
KC: That's right. Your condition doesn't meet any of our requirements for being covered.
Me: Can you explain that please?
KC: We will pay for treating complications of pregnancy, but we won't pay for delivery.
Me: Did you get the letter from my doctor?
KC: Yes, we have it. But doctor's letters don't matter. Only medical records matter, and yours don't show that we should cover the delivery.
Me: When my son was born three years ago, you paid for his delivery because he was breech.
KC: We've gone back and reviewed claims, and it turns out the company paid for a lot of claims it shouldn't have. You son's delivery probably shouldn't have been paid, but we're not going to try and recover the payments.
Me: With this delivery, you paid for the claim from the anesthesiologist.
KC: That was a mistake, and if you ask for a review of this claim, we could end up reversing that decision.
Me: So I'd have to pay back the payment to the anesthesiologist?
KC: That's correct.
Yes, she did essentially threaten that if I pursued this they might make me pay more money.
Me: As my next step I'm going to be contacting the Department of Insurance, an attorney and my legislators.
KC: You can do that, but it won't do any good. No one in medical review is going to approve this claim.
Me: How can you work there and still sleep at night?
KC: If you're going to attack me personally, I'm going to terminate this call.
Me: Please put your supervisor on the line.
KC: There's no one higher than me.
Me: Bullshit. I want to talk to your supervisor.
KC: No one here is going to approve this claim.
Me: I don't care. Put someone else on the phone now. I'm finished talking to you.

After a few more back and forths where she claimed there was no one else to talk to and I told her I didn't care and that she needed to find someone immediately, she put me on hold. I sat there crying while listening to perky, cheerful hold music.

After about 10 minutes, Tanika got on the phone.

Me: Kelly told me that BCBS would pay to treat complications of pregnancy but not delivery. My complication was five weeks' pre-term labor with fetal distress. Now I'm not a medical person, but it seems to me that the treatment for that complication is to deliver the baby.
T: I'm not a medical person, so I can't explain why the medical section made this decision. But that seems reasonable.
Me: BCBS also paid for my anesthesiology bill without any protest. It was just paid automatically.
T: That's odd, because medical review says no claims from this date of service should have been paid.
Me: What do I do next?
T: You can file a second appeal - you're allowed two appeals. (Something KC never told me.) When you file your second appeal you need to include any other information that you feel is relevant, and have your doctor do the same. Anything you can give us that would help your case. After that, you can also contact TDI for help appealing this.
Me: Thank you so much for at least listening to me. Kelly C wouldn't even do that.

I felt like Tanika was sort of telling me, without actually telling me, how to get the claim paid. Kind of like the scene in "The Incredibles" when Bob Parr tells the little old lady exactly what forms she needs to file. And while Tanika didn't approve my claim, she did at least listen to me without being rude or telling me that the claim would never be paid.

*****
After I spent about 15 minutes sobbing on the kitchen floor with Campbell asking, "Why you sad mommom?" I pulled myself together enough to call my doctor's office. The woman who deals with the insurance companies wasn't in, so I left a message for her to call me today. Maybe she has some further thoughts.

After I got off the phone with the doctor's office I cried some more. This has just worn me out. I feel helpless and out of control dealing with this immense company. I know the medical review section is nothing more than pencil pushers going through checklists without putting any thought into whether their decision actually make any sense. There is no reasoning with people who can only see checklists.

But yesterday also made me mad, not angry, MAD. I'm going to fight this as far as I can. BCBS has stolen my time, energy and joy at having a new baby from me, and that's what really upsets me.

I also truly believe that anyone who thinks our health care system is fine the way it is has never had to pay for his or her own health insurance and has also never had a claim denied. Anyone who has had to fight with an insurance company should know that the system is broken.

Tomorrow, a cute ladybug. I hope.

Halloween, Part I

Since I think I am going to make a run at completing Nablopomo, I'm going stretch out my Halloween posts into a few days, just in case I run out of things to write about or something.

Last year, Campbell was not at all interested in Halloween. After stopping at a few houses, he came home with me and handed out candy, provided the trick-or-treaters weren't wearing masks. If they were, he retreated behind my legs and closed his eyes until I gave him the all-clear.

This year was a different story, however. Campbell LOVED Halloween. I took this picture as Campbell walked away from his third house, and it was the moment that he made the connection between saying "trick-or-treat" and getting candy. He looked at me and said, "Mommom, the peoples gave me candy!" From that point on, there was no holding him back.

At another house, the couple handing out the candy complimented Campbell on his costume. When he got back to the sidewalk, where I was waiting, he said, "Mommom, the people really like me!" The other parents with us dubbed him Sally Field for that one.

He and I, with Elizabeth in tow, did two blocks before heading for home. After that, Campbell handed out candy without any fear of kids in masks. But he did correct their manners. As one little boy walked away, Campbell shouted, "You asposed to say 'Good-bye!'"

A lion says "Rawr!"

And is it only Campbell, or do all three-year-old boys have a permanent smear of schmutz across their face? His seems to be made up of snot, milk and peanut butter, and it sticks there no matter how often I wipe his face.

Campbell loved Halloween so much that he woke up Sunday morning and asked when we were going trick-or-treating again. He didn't like it when we told him the holiday was over. He also really wanted to wear his costume to school today. Since it was on loan from a friend, I vetoed that request.

Tomorrow - the cutest little lady bug ever.

To Nablopomo or not to Nablopomo

That is the question. Today is the start of National Blog Posting Month, Nablopomo for short. I've participated the past two years, but I'm torn about this year.

It sounds simple enough - write a post a day for 30 days - but I've been slacking off on my blogging lately. I have so much going on, do I really want to add yet another thing to my plate?

At the very least, now that I've posted this, I can continue if I want to. It would have been a shame to have failed the challenge on the first day.

Halloween pictures tomorrow. And later this week, an account of Ella's very first, and possibly last, trip to Walmart.