Hurry Up and Wait!

Chicago was no fun for anyone. We tried to go out and enjoy this beautiful city, but it was sort of a foggy time for my husband and I, and I think our kid was just hungry. We couldn't find a restaurant with a highchair in the part of the city we had come to. People looked at our child like she was a hairy green monster. We were ready to go home.

Once we got home, we tried to adjust to the idea of putting our kid through surgery in an unfamiliar place when she doesn't understand what is happening. We weighed the pros and cons. We discussed waiting until she was older. We made up and changed our minds, together and separately, 168 times. In the end, we decided do it. Of course we did.

Nothing is that easy, though, is it? What fun would it be if it all went easily and smoothly? Admittedly, I myself made it more stressful than was necessary. But, I'm a mom. Give me a break. As it turns out, you can't just hop on the next available plane to Houston, Texas, and hand them your insurance card. There are hoops. You must jump through the hoops. By jumping, I mostly mean, sit around and worry about it while other people take care of it for you. Because there really isn't much you can do at first.

During the first year of our daughter's life, we had to appeal to her insurance company in order to have Erb's Palsy care at all. They were of the opinion that it was a pre-existing condition. It was the wrong opinion, but we had to prove it. We did. It wasn't really very difficult, and the process was well worth it. For directions on how to appeal, call the customer service number on your insurance card. It was such a relief to know that at least that battle had already been fought and won.

So, the next step was to fax our insurance information to Dr. Nath's office in Houston and to obtain a referral from our pediatrician at home, in case it would come in handy at a later date. Our pediatrician was not willing to do so without seeing us, so off we went. Once we got there, it was clear he was mostly being nosy and just wanted to make sure we were sure we wanted to do this. The referral was easy to get, and, as it turned out, not really necessary in our case.

While we waited to hear from the doctor's office and insurance, we began to make preparations. Most of them were for mandatory fun before the trip and the surgery. We figured that our daughter was going to be in some sort of funky splint and wouldn't have use of her left arm at all. So...we played!

We went to our favorite hang-out in town, Go Bananas! She's not even two, and this strong girl can climb to the top of those inflatable slides and go down by herself! That's Daddy behind her, keeping her safe like daddies do. We knew this was good exercise for her arm, and we wanted her to be in good shape going in to surgery. She didn't complain.

We played with the hose a lot, because you can't get that splint wet. She loves to splash around in cold water, but hates a bath!

We spent lots of time making two-handed masterpieces and body art.

We had ice cream, because Ice Cream makes you forget your troubles!