The Update before the Update

I am sitting here at Virginia Mason Medical Center waiting for Ethan, who is in surgery.  He has been in there for 2 1/2 hours now and they just started the second side.  I thought that maybe I should update my blog a little bit before I give the update on him.  (I'll openly admit that I am trying to keep my mind off of what I voluntarily sent my son to have done to him.)

2/18/10
Brenden and I flew to Anchorage for an appointment.  He had a good time waiting in the Kenai airport and playing with the legos.

More noteworthy though was that his head actually hit the ceiling in the middle part of the plane because it was just that little!

2/23/10
Waiting for Brenden at the bus stop.

3/1/10
My kids briefly had an obsession with sitting in the dryer.  I'm glad that's pretty much over.

Ethan has a new love of play dough.  He even crushed his graham cracker into it.

3/6/10
We left on a midnight flight to Idaho.  We flew and changed planes and flew again and waited on the plane while more people got on and then we flew some more.  The kids were very tired and ready to be off a plane when we finally arrived in the Idaho Falls airport.

We had family pictures that afternoon with the entire extended family.  In preparation for that, the Thursday before we left, we took the boys for their first real salon haircut.  Doug and I were simply stating that we thought the lady could have cut their hair a little shorter, so Brenden quickly addressed his own hair.  I was livid.  Doug laughed and said, "Well, I guess you're going to look kind of funny for a little while."  Brenden told him, "Mom doesn't laugh about stuff like this..."

Someday my little men will have all of the girls swooning.

The attempt at the picture of all the great-grandkids:

3/8/10
The boys LOVE grandpa's air hockey table... and Nolan LOVES his new Transformers hat and gloves.

3/9/10
We went to visit Doug's grandpa and Tyson in Geneva.

Grandpa made us a delicious lunch,

Ethan was very impatient while waiting to play outside and since he couldn't get his own shoes on, he borrowed someone else's.

Doug's grandpa has a dairy farm.  The boys insisted the hay was too far for the cows to eat it, so they had to help.

And then it was time to go.

On our drive home, Brenden discovered his first loose tooth!  He couldn't have been more thrilled.  He has been waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

3/10/10
Doug had to go home.  His sister Marinda was scheduled to have a baby out and ready to be seen before he went, but things didn't go as planned, so he still hasn't seen his new nephew.  The boys and I dropped Doug off in Idaho Falls and made a trip to Utah.  We stopped in Pocatello to see our old home, friends, and family along the way.  We went to Senor Iguana's, one of our favorite places in Pocatello.  We also got to see Donna, Brenden's (sincerely missed) teacher for the deaf.

3/12/10
We think cousins are the best!

My mom took us all to Chuch E. Cheese.

3/14/10
My mom threw Brenden a little family birthday party while we were there.

And Brenden wonders why I won't let him sleep in my bed with me:

3/15/10
We headed back to Idaho and stopped in Pocatello to see our good friends the Rudds.  The kids stood like this and watched Disney shorts for a very long time.

3/17/10
We were sitting at breakfast and I asked Brenden if his tooth, which had been barely hanging for days, was still there.  He reached up into his mouth to wiggle it and it came right out as soon as he touched it.  He carried it around in a ziplock bag all day.

Is there any question about how he feels about it?

We went to visit our new cousin and nephew Aiden.

It was nice to finally get to play outside.  It was a beautiful day.

3/18/10 

We colored Easter eggs.  

Doug's mom was pouring the vinegar into the mugs and evidently Ethan was not well warned.  He drank it.  He was less than impressed with his beverage.

He finally figured it out.

And that's all the pictures I have uploaded onto my computer so far.  I have many more between my camera and Doug's so be ready for another big update later.

Well, we finally made it to surgery.  There is a BIG LONG horror story to go along with that, but no one wants to read it (I promise) and I don't really want to re-live it.  We had a hard time getting here (and an even harder time getting plans to go home), but we're here.  Some story highlights: they forgot to get authorization from our secondary insurance, the surgeon resigned 5 days prior to surgery, and our insurance would not guarantee our eligibility for April.  All is right in the world, but it was hard to deal with from Idaho when I didn't have any of our information or the phone numbers for the people I needed to contact.  We had a big issue getting to our hotel from the airport here in Seattle, but we made it and that's all that matters.  We've been enjoying out time here, but more about that later...

Approved!

Ethan was officially approved for his cochlear implant this morning!  We are tentatively scheduled for March 25 for the consultation and the 26th for surgery.  Yay!

Success!

No, we don't have a prior authorization, but the insurance company has finally received the paperwork to approve or deny Ethan's cochlear implant!  I am so thrilled.  How sad that I think this is such good news when really it should have just happened easily months ago.  I can call on Monday for a decision.  Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for us!

Still no authorization...

I found out on the 16th that it's NOT the audiologist who sends the authorization, it's the surgeon.  So I called down to Seattle and of course the lady I needed to talk to was out sick.  She called me back the next day to tell me that she would look into it and call me back.  Today, 6 days later, I finally called her back.  She said, "Oh, the system says the authorization is pending, so they must have sent it to your insurance."

So, for the 5th time, I called my insurance company and was, again, told there was no authorization in the system.  Then I called back and demanded to talk to whoever it was that was supposedly sending this authorization.  Of course he wouldn't be in until later - 11:30 to be exact.  I asked "Angela" to just re-fax it, so we could get the process moving, but she is convinced it is more important to see where the system is failing so they can correct the mistake.  Okay, but in the meantime, it would be nice if they would fax it and THEN figure out where the problem is.  So, I left a message with the person I spoke with and called the authorization man's direct line and left a message.

I gave him until 12:30 and called him again.  He never got either message.  He seemed baffled that insurance didn't have the information and wondered who told me that they didn't have it.  I gave him all 6 names and 5 dates I have called.  He said he'd look into it, but we all know that's an empty promise.  I'll call him at exactly 11:30 tomorrow.  Like I said, someday before he's headed out the door for college...

Oh dear...

I am so far behind that, again, I don't want to blog.  Here it goes anyway.

On February 1, my friend Amy and her husband Jens came to visit us.  They are considering moving to Alaska and came up for a quick weekend trip to have a look around.  I hadn't seen Amy, probably since high school graduation.  It was nice to meet her husband and great to catch up with her in person - not just through blogging or facebook.

February 3 was Nolan's birthday.  My poor mother flew all day and slept all night in an airport to make it here at 5:00 a.m. on Nolan's birthday.

The first gift of the day

Nolan took his gymnastics friends cupcakes.

He had a hard time figuring out hopscotch.

He LOVES the rings.

We found this ice slide at the Soldotna Sports Complex.

It was cold and hurt my tush.

We took my mom for a tourist photograph at the visitor's center.

The eskimo is quickly fading in the sun.

Nolan is in love with Transformers.

My mom gave him a new movie.  He loves it.  

It is the complete first season of the t.v. series from the '80s.

Blowing out the candles.

Pretty much all Nolan got for his birthday was Transformers.  He is totally, utterly, and completely obsessed.  He plays with them from the second he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed with one at night.  My mom said she had transformer nightmares when she returned home.

On the 5th we went sledding.  After my mom was too cold to stay out any longer, Nolan, Brenden, and I went for a walk through the woods.  Someone had made a trail down to the lake, so we hiked it.

2/6 - This is how Doug looks on a daily basis.  Hey, at least he has boots on and not flip-flops.  The coat is not generally included either.

2/9 we celebrated my birthday before my mom headed home.

2/11 (My actual birthday) My friends took me to Anchorage to the temple and out to lunch.

While I was off having a great time, Doug took Ethan and Nolan ice fishing.

Nolan caught a fish!

(See that tiny black thing? - it's a fish.)

I got an additional calling today at church.  I am now also the Young Women's Camp Director - besides being the Primary Secretary.  It is a calling I have always wanted and I hope I do it justice - and have the time to plan it as well as I would like.  Brenden was reading the Friend today in sacrament meeting and was thrilled to find an article about a boy about his age with a cochlear implant.

We have two extra boys staying with us until Saturday.  They are my friend Tiffany's boys.

Gavin and Nolan have taken sharing to a whole new level.

Connor all ready for church

5 handsome little men

Connor has discovered a love of dinosaurs.

Supermen

The night Gavin arrived, he found Nolan's Superman pajamas folded downstairs waiting to be put away.  He brought them to me, crying - "Nolan says these are HIS pajamas, but they are MINE!"  We had to get both sets out to convince him.

And just because the other boys took a p.j. picture:

This is how Ethan fell asleep last night.  The iPod was all of the way up and he was pushing the headphones into his ears straining to hear.  He seemed to enjoy it though.

I'll leave you with an Ethan update.  I called about Ethan's authorization about 2 weeks ago and was told there was no authorization in the system and then they transferred me to the authorization department.  I waited... and waited... and finally was told that the offices had just closed and I would have to try back another day.  It's hard to remember to do that before noon our time - I usually make any necessary phone calls after I put Ethan down for a nap.  So Tuesday I finally got around to calling again and they really haven't seen an authorization for Ethan - or so they claim.  I called the audiologist's office and asked them to fax it again.  When I called back on Friday I was told that it would take some time to get the authorization in the system, but there was nothing there yet.  Our audiologist is out of town for a family emergency until March, but had called me before she left to tell me she expected the authorization to arrive within a few days and she would make all of the arrangements to have surgery a.s.a.p.  Grrrr...  It will happen someday... hopefully before he is headed out the door for college.