Wednesday and Thursday

I am enjoying some quiet time this Friday morning as it is pouring rain and the house is quiet as the kids are still sleeping. Our DishTV is out due to the rain so I am going to update everyone on the last two days...one great one and one horrible day.

Wednesday ended up being a pretty great day with the kids, probably the best so far. A fun and happy John woke up, got dressed and ate breakfast. Of course, he gave me a bunch of challenges along the way but a night and day difference over the couple of days before. I took him to school and picked up a silent kid but by the time we were home he was talking and fine. I got home to a voicemail from John's teacher to call Mom about Elizabeth's upcoming doctor appointment. She knows she needs to work this through the case manager and I am the one who sets doctor appointments. Their case manager/social worker came for her weekly visit after we got home. She told me to ignore the teacher's message. By this time Elizabeth was down for her nap and I was praying for Oliver to fall asleep while reading. John was silent to Ann Marie as I expected but the end of the visit was at least acknowledging her. She was here for about an hour. She thinks I am being too soft with John and need to stop counting before pushing him as he is testing me. I told John that I am not going to continue counting and he has to start doing what I ask him to do. This is tough because I count with my own kids, maybe it is one of my parenting downfalls.....

Wednesday night I was obligated to go to church as I am "chairing" the Easter Egg Hunt at our church and we needed to start our long task of sorting and stuffing thousands of eggs. We have soup and sandwich at 6:00 and I had agreed to meet the lady is in charge of the eggs at 5:00. Well both Don and Brynn were working so that meant taking all 3 little ones with me. I put Elizabeth in the stroller and let the boys color in one of the Sunday school rooms off of the room we were all working in. When it was time for dinner, John invited our music director Bill to join us and we soon had many of the older members of our church at our table. It was a challenging meal trying to get kids to eat and have decent table manners.....shoes were placed on the table at one point. Fortunately, Don arrived and took the boys and my dear friend Amy also showed up and took Miss Elizabeth for me and I was able to enjoy a few minutes. Don then took all three kids home to put to bed while I worked at church. I actually enjoyed our Lenten service and then stayed till 9:00 working on eggs. Don said the kids were a breeze to put to bed. John was running a temperature when I felt him when I got home but I couldn't get him to wake up to take anything. It was a really great day!!!

Thursday started off with me being very optimistic and getting up to a quiet house. I felt John and he still had a temp so I decided not to wake anyone as he wasn't going to school. The first to arise was Oliver and he and I got to spend a little time snuggled in my chair before we heard Miss Elizabeth. John wasn't too far behind and got up with a high temp 102.5 and a very disgusting nose. He has had such an ugly cough and nose since we got him but this was much worse. I gave him some apple juice, Tylenol and cough syrup and put him on the couch to watch Chuggington. By this time I smelled two poopie diapers. So, I got Miss Elizabeth dressed and then moved on to Mr. Oliver. Picture diaper open and all of a sudden you hear vomiting in your family room and it running down the hallway to the bathroom. I quickly finished Oliver's diaper and walked in the bathroom to find John (bless his heart) over the toilet with the two longest snot trails coming out of each nostril. It was awful, I have never seen anything like it. So while Miss Elizabeth is screaming I was scrubbing vomit from the couch, floors, etc. I gave John some ginger ale and 2 animal crackers and put him on the other couch.

At this point I picked Elizabeth up and called the kids' pediatrician. This kid has been in there office twice in the last week so I am hopeful that they will just call in some antibiotics for him as it appears to have moved in to a respiratory infection. Nope, the nurse practitioner called me to say that it is just viral and to give him more clear liquids, etc. same thing as Tuesday. When I raised a stink she said "well I guess you could bring him in".....I just hung up. They really seemed to have missed so much with these kids over the last years, it is sad. Then John's teacher calls to tell me that Mom called her and I need to call her back as Elizabeth has a doctor's appointment. I explained what Ann Marie told me the day before and for her to have Mom call Ann Marie. Mom knew I had already taken E to the doctor the week before.

Well I then try calling Ann Marie to figure out what to do about the doctor. John is still in a miserable state, Elizabeth is miserable too with something including a nasty nose, cough and teething. I put Elizabeth in her high chair and Oliver in his chair for breakfast while I try and make some calls. I still have to spoon feed Elizabeth baby foods, etc. So I have my notepad, etc. inf front of me too......Ann Marie doesn't answer her office phone or cell phone so I call back to speak with her supervisor. This doctor is awful and I really want the kids on our insurance to get out of the Medicaid system of doctors. I make about 4 phone calls with no cooperation from anyone on how to get them to see someone else except to take them to the "free clinic".....After melting down and calling Don to come home, I give up on breakfast and wait for Don to come home. I got some more Tylenol in John and he kept it down.

After about 10 phone calls, I finally get permission to put them on our Blue Cross/Blue Shile!! I got with Don's HR person and the insurance with be retroactive to the 1st the day we got the kids but unverifiable till Friday as it takes overnight for it get in to BC/BS's system. So, I then call Oliver's pediatrician (whom I love) and they won't take the foster kids....not continuity of care. I then called another pediatrician's office that I have heard good things about and they tell me that what I want them to do is fraud by not billing till tomorrow. Fortunately, my neighbor/friend supervises all the offices of this practice but she is on vacation but someone that works directly under her finally works a miracle after many calls. At 1:30 just as John had nodded off without lunch on the family room floor and Elizabeth is napping (since 11:00) I am called an told to hurry as the kids have a 2:00 appointment about 30 minutes away.....Don and I quickly load up John and Elizabeth and I take them while Don stays home with Oliver. The new doctor is older and a bit testy but super kind to the kids. He first looks at E and cannot see in her ears as they are packed with wax. We hold her down and he tries to remove some of the wax and is successful enough in the one ear to see she has a raging ear infection. (I swear the old doctor looked in her ears last Thursday and didn't say a thing) When I asked about the shape of her head he says "she has laid somewhere for a very long time". Makes me tear up.

Then it is John's turn. He is not happy but tries and cooperates pretty well. The doctor says yes this is all viral but the fever and knock in his chest have him suspicious of pneumonia. So he sends us off to the radiology place down the road after a much needed dose of Tylenol. So, after a couple hours and much bribery John's x-ray is done and we are told to return to the pediatrician's office. I know this means pneumonia and am just praying they don't have to admit him to the hospital. That is the last thing this kid needs. They said it isn't too bad of a case and give him an antibiotic injection (poor kid) but I know it will quickly put him on the mend. We leave their office at 5:45 after about 4 hours of being in doctor's offices. I told Don my new phone paid for itself with Disney Channel on it!!! John and Elizabeth were so good, bless their little hearts. How the heck does a kid have pneumonia and was just to the doctor two days before? How did they miss this? I made all my phone calls to Ann Marie and the Guardian ad Litem on my way home and drove through Sonic for a lovely dinner. I threw my food down quick and fed Lizzie and then ran to have Rx's filled while Don put kids to bed.

John and Oliver are up now. First thing Oliver says is "where's Lizzie?" I am keeping John home again today and they both go back to the doctor on Monday for follow ups. I wonder where we would be if I had listened to their old pediatrician? In the hospital in a few days? Good news is that we got the kids in better care and are out of the Medicaid doctor nightmare! Don keeps telling me we have to just focus on our purpose, the kids. He is right but man is it challenging. The social worker said to me "if the kids are too much for you" and I said "it isn't the kids, it is dealing with the system that is too much"....