Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Eve

This afternoon I was thinking how boring it was going to be to simply say, "We had an uneventful trip to Anchorage" on my blog - and then we ended up in Urgent Care.

We went to the "mall" for an "Easter Egg Hunt."  (I am not "quote" happy - it is more of a mall than we have here on the Kenai peninsula, but still not a mall like the rest of you know.  Also, the hunt was, well, let me tell you...)  There were a bunch of people in line with little kids, so we lined up too.  After standing in line for a while we discovered that each child was allowed to choose 5 eggs from a basket and open them and claim the prize inside.  Where's the hunt in that?  Mostly it was candy, but there were a few that said, "Go to ____ store and claim your prize" (which was also just candy) or the occasional "10% off at _____ store."  I guess that's what you get for going to a mall for an Easter egg hunt - advertising.

Ethan was walking through a store holding Doug's hand.  Nolan was in the stroller (you know, broken leg and all...), so Ethan had the rare occasion to saunter his way through the store.  Attempting to flee from Doug, he yanked his arm, which Doug was holding around the wrist, and started to cry.  Then he sniffled his way through the store staying, "Ouk" (translated as "ouch").  We noticed that his left arm was being held limply at his side.  He cried when we touched it and wouldn't use it for anything.

Now, how does one find an in-network provider while in a different city?  Insurance customer service was closed, so we went back to the hotel we had checked out from hours earlier and borrowed a computer.  Long story short, I called around until I found a place that said yes they took walk-ins and yes they took our insurance.

Short side note: Here's another little problem - on Friday I received a letter from our insurance stating that they had enrolled us in the incorrect plan and that they were enrolling us in the right plan and would reprocess all of the claims from January 1.  These are the claims I have spent HOURS 2-3 times a week correcting over the phone.  Now I don't know how they are supposed to be processed - OR what providers are actually in network.

Luckily, Ethan's elbow was only dislocated.  It is called "nursemaid elbow" or "toddler elbow."  I guess it happens to a lot of little kids, but we all know it had to happen to mine.  I had to laugh at the name "toddler elbow" because I also have a toddler with a broken tibia, which is referred to as a "toddler fracture."  Go ahead, ask it... what's with all the toddler abuse?

Other than that, it was an uneventful trip to Anchorage.  See?  I got the phrase in there anyway.

Brenden's new implant was mapped.  He was pretty naughty for most of his appointment, but ended up working hard after a motivational speech from the audiologist.  He was very cute when he saw the audiologist at the beginning of his appointment.  She has been out on maternity leave and asked if he remembered her.  
He said, "Yes, how is your baby doing?"  
She seemed shocked and pleased that he knew or cared about anything in her life.  I was so proud to be his mom right then.  
She said, "Thank you for asking.  She is doing well and getting so big."
He said, "How old is she now?"
"Three months."
"Imaginingly."  (We took that to mean "That's hard to imagine.")
The audiologist told me it must be so hard to raise such an intelligent little boy.  Some days he is a challenge, but I'll take him just the way he is.  

Ethan's hearing was tested and his hearing aids are now both functional.  The one he broke last visit was returned from being repaired and the one he disassembled while Nolan was getting his cast was put back together while we were in the office.

We all enjoyed the drive.  The roads are thrashed from the winter, so they are more like a roller coaster in some places than a highway.  Ethan enjoys yelling, "Whee!" over the bumps.  The boys always love staying in hotels, but they are getting so used to it, they treat it like a second home now.  Nolan calls all hotels "hotellos," which I can only assume comes from staying in a hotel in Pocatello last year.

I haven't had time to do anything for Easter this year.  It is 11:00 p.m. and I just finished decorating - at Brenden's request.  It was brief.  We will make time to decorate eggs tomorrow, but for the most part, I failed my children in the Easter department this year.  Priorities... (rolling my eyes)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

But the kids are still so young that whatever they get they will be pleased with. Jacob has friends at school telling him already that holidays are not real and he is questioning which is said to see at 8. Jamie

Amber said...

I don't know how you ever leave the house!
Thought you might laugh at this, though. Logan's hearing aid stopped working (the humid weather around here keeps shorting them out). I took it in to be fixed (YOU know how inexpensive THAT is, and 10 days later we went in to the Audiologist's office to retrieve it. Logan put it in and said "TOO LOUD". I turns out that the people that fixed it had to put in completely new machinery. So I gave it to the audiologist, and asked her to reprogram it with Logan's settings. She hooked it in to her computer, and her computer kept crashing. This 15 minute appointment was turning into a 2 hour ordeal. She called the manufacturer. She had recently updated their software, and she told me Logan's hearing aid was too old to be programmed by the latest software. I bought it 3 years ago. I was going to have to wait another 2 weeks for her to get the software patch to do this.
Argh! Logan is a bear without both hearing aids. She said we could try turning it down manually. I said that wasn't possible because Mary had disabled that feature. But it worked. Apparently when they fixed it, they turned the volume control back on. So Logan walked away with both hearing aids. But we still have to go back when she gets her software updated. :)

Kristen said...

Erin just reading your adventures wear me out. Now that I think about it, I remember having the same problem with Katie's elbow when she was 2 I think. She and Lindsay were playing and Katie came in the house whimpering, Lindsay didn't know what was wrong and Katie didn't want to use her arm. The doctor popped it back in and we were charged for the deductible because it was considered a "surgical procedure"!