Waiting game extended...

Well, insurance company - you are not my favorite people in the world right now. So you decide to deny all the genetics testing, that's fine I guess I have to deal with it. But you wait until the final day (a full 30 days) to tell us you deny it? What frustrates me the most about this (besides the obvious that now insurance won't cover it, and now we have to pay out of pocket for a test that a DOCTOR recommends)is that now we are in the same situation we would have been in 15-30 days ago if you had denied then, but a month later in getting results. Now don't get me wrong - one month isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. We have been waiting almost 2 1/2 years. But we could have had results of one of the tests by now...or close to it. Now we are going to have to wait another 4 weeks for one test (microarray) and 6-8 weeks for another test (gene testing). They have to send out to a different laboratory, that offers genetic testing at a significant cheaper price ($100 per test, one of the tests costs $4000 if they didn't provide this financial assistance). Still a LOT more than we were hoping to pay. But the genetic doctors very strongly that we should send this lab. Than we might have some answers, and be able to provide Brooklynn with the appropriate services. So we will be sending them out tomorrow. And than we will wait some more. Brooklynn had her first 1st steps therapy session yesterday and I would classify it has not TOO successful. She was in full force stubborn mode! She didn't want to do anything, she didn't want to copy, and she just wanted to grab for everything she wasn't supposed to. We do have some tasks to work on now, which feels good. We need to try to get her to use the sign or say "More" when she wants stuff, instead of just getting it for her. This will help with both her speach, and also her ability to relax and wait for something which should hopefully help her attention span. This might be hard - as we give in to her pretty often. Who wouldn't, she is just so darn cute!! Isabella was super excited about the therapy session, because now she can be a "teacher" and help her sister with words. This ought to be great fun. Isabella has started getting an "allowance" which is kind of fun now too. She has a chore chart, which she has to do 6 chores throughout the week (this is simple stuff such as put her dirty dishes in the sink, put her clothes in the laundry basket, eat all her dinner, brush her teeth, pick up her toys when she is done, and keep her room picked up). She is SOOO excited about this. The amount of stars she gets determine the amount of money she gets for her allowance at the end of the week. Right now, we are going to go broke as she is SOO excited to do her chores (last week I owed her $5). I think this will go away as the weeks go on. But she will have a save bank and a spend bank. She got to put that money in her spend bank, and next week she has to put it in her save bank. She already knows she wants to buy legos with her money - she has a ways to go. But I think I am as excited for this as she is! I can't wait until Brooklynn can join in. The toys are getting picked up a lot easier than they used to :).

Brooklynn's ENT Appointment

I forgot to post about Brooklynn's ENT appointment yesterday. I like to write this stuff down, mostly for myself, as I usually forget what was mentioned, so this is more for me to remember :). She still has her left tube in, and her right ear still looks great (this tube had been removed as it was falling out). She will keep it until it either falls out or April of 2013. If it is not out, we will either remove it in the office, or have to take her back to surgery to have it taken out and the hole sewn up. Her tonsils are still enlarged (they always have been). On a scale of 0-4, she is a 3. He said 4 is touching, and three is where you can see the uvula and there is a little space. She has not been snoring, and has not had any cases of strep, so he doesn't feel like we need to take them out yet. He said if she starts snoring, having trouble with sleeping, and we notice a behavior change than he will take it out (I guess they only remove about 60%? of the tonsil or something). If she has 5 strep throat cases in 1 year or 8 in 2 years they will remove 40%(?) of the tonsil. Other than that he said things look good. I am SOO happy we made the decision to have her tubes placed because ever since she had them, she has not had hardly any ear infections (in the first 11 months of her life she had 8 infections, and after her tubes were placed on February of last year, she has only had 2). Such a good feeling to know we made the right decision.

First Steps Referral

We have all the assessments and things needed for our First Steps program. We qualified to receive weekly therapy sessions in our home for Brooklynn. So we will have a speech therapist come to our house (or my mom's house depending on my schedule) and work with her to help improve her speech. She is definitely getting better every day, but she is still having some troubles with communicating. My biggest concern is her ability to communicate, and when she can't she gets frustrated and sometimes resorts to hittiing or biting. I would love to stop this from happening, so feel like therapy would be a great step. She is starting to say A LOT more words (50+), using 2 word sentences, and having "conversations", but it still hard to understand what she is saying some times, and people who don't know her have a hard time understanding what she says. She is communicating pretty well with actions. They feel like they would be able to provide her with great services to improve her speech, and also help us with her behavioral things (she has a really short attention span a lot of the time.) I am really excited that we will have these services, and hope that we won't need them very long at all. I hope by the time she is 3 we won't even need to go to the school district because she will be caught up. She really is not that far behind in anything, but I want to give her as many tools as she can have to make sure she is able to stay up there with everybody her age. I am excited to see the improvements every week. She really likes the therapist and interacts really well with her. The therapist said she is excited to work with her as she thinks she will be fun (I am sure she says this to everyone but still feels good to hear it). We are still waiting to find out if insurance improves her genetics labs. I really want those to be started so that we can get an answer soon. If it shows something that I want to make sure we have her in the right programs, and if it doesn't show anything than be able to move on. Izzy and Brooklynn are both in Vacation Bible school. Izzy is LOVING it as she gets to see some of her friends from school. She has been so excited that she will be starting Pre-K this year. Brooklynn did well for her first day, so I am hoping this is a good sign for her starting school this year.