God is Good

Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, there is much to be thankful for.  Since I last wrote we have been through a frenzy  things.  For starters, what I last wrote about, Lucy’s swelling and fever has subsided and not returned.  We still are not sure if it was an infection or rejection, but either way we are glad it has not returned.  Thanks be to God for all of your prayers.

I have also been working diligently on trying to qualify us for a discount on our hospital bill.  Well, it has taken me two months of non-stop phone calls with a final call saying if I didn’t hear back I would have to drive up there to get this handled.  In the car on the way to pick Miles up from his homeschool co-op which is more than half way to the hospital I decided to call one last time.  Of course, there was no answer on the direct number of the lady I have been in contact with.  At least her mailbox was no longer full as it had been for the past 10 days.  After trying her, I decided to try the main number.  I have called this a dozen times only to sit on hold listening to the recording of Children’s Medical Center.  It’s mostly gone from my memory now but at the time I could tell you exactly what to do to prepare for the start of school, how to handle Halloween and the upcoming glutton induced holidays, from the perspective of a children’s hospital.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the advice for Halloween and the holidays.  This eating healthy thing may actually be catching on with some people.  Anyways, I actually got a real life person to answer the main financial line!!!  She looked up our account and put me on hold.  She came back and told me she spoke with the woman who was handling our account and she would call me back in 10 minutes.  Yeah right, I thought as she told me this.  I hung up thinking I would still be venturing out to the, severely under construction, hospital with two kids in tow.  Miraculously, she called me back before the ten minutes.  To my delighted surprise she also had an answer for us.   She had spoken with her manager and the decision was finally made on our account.  Figuring in our original bill of around $65,000 and what we have already paid them, they decided to discount our bill by 85%!!!  This was quite a shock and the financial counselor knew I would be so pleased with the decision that I couldn’t be mad at her for not returning my calls.  (She actually said this.)  So, needless to say, my tentative musings of trying to hold some gigantic fundraiser where you all pay to see my children play the piano, recite poetry and dance is not longer needed.  Now to work on calling all of the other places that billed us for the surgery…these are significantly less and one place has already given us the same discount!!

Another thing we are thankful for are the results of Lucy’s first dental hygiene appointment since her surgery.  Obviously, the hygienist was thrilled with how wide Lucy could open her mouth.  We have been seeing this same woman since Lucy’s first appointment after her initial surgery at 16 months.  She has seen Lucy go from absolutely terrified to be anywhere near anything to do with a doctor, to now jumping up in the chair and toughing it out through having bite wings too big for her mouth stuffed in for x-rays to be taken.  Watching her open wide for the exam was an emotional moment.  I am happy that the damage to Lucy’s interior teeth seems to be contained to one area between two of her molars.  Unfortunately, this damage is pretty bad.  We aren’t exactly sure what she will need yet.  BUT…it could be worse!!!  The surgeon asked our permission to pull any teeth that were beyond repair after he got her mouth open durning surgery.  She could be sitting molar-less right now, but she isn’t.  He didn’t have to pull anything during the surgery.  I think this is great considering we could not care for her teeth on the inside for so long.  It is a true testament to the importance of diet, health and the right supplements.  I’m confident that her healthy diet combined with the constant use of therapeutic grade essential oils (toothpaste, mouthwash, internally taking the oils) were a major contributing factor to not only the overall health of her teeth, but the sustained health of her body as well.  Your constant prayers provided me with the grace I needed to care for her in this way!!  Lucy had been doing fine with her tooth up until last week  She was woken up with extreme pain.  Thank God, the pain seems to be coming and going and not constant.  She has an appointment next Tuesday December 6th, St. Nicholas pray for us.  This appointment is just to set up her treatment plan.  Then we need to try and coordinate schedules with the dentist and the anesthesiologist.  Please keep this whole process in your prayers.  We are praying that we can get an appointment to treat her before Christmas and the pain stays subsided until then.  The other day I remarked that we may be having our second annual birthday tooth pulling for Lucy.  Last year she had her front tooth pulled the day before her birthday, which is December 10th and she will be 5.  I just can’t believe it!!!

Some other news to be grateful for is that we finally received the pictures from Lucy’s surgery. Lucy  had been very upset that she didn’t get to keep her extra bone and I told her we would have pictures of it.  So when she saw the doctor give me the pictures she kept insisting that I let her see them.  I thought about this for some time and decided to talk to her about it.  I explained to her that they were bloody and could freak her out.  She quickly replied every time…”I won’t get freaked out”.  As it became clear that she would be able to handle the photos, I realized that I would have to also tell her that she had an artificial joint, since there are pictures of it.  She took this all very well and when I explained that this joint would be taken out when she was around 14, of course, she was very excited that she WOULD be able to keep this.  I will share some of the photos much farther below for those of you that can handle it.  You can click on them for a closer view and descriptions, be patient, they may take awhile to load.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your continued, faithful prayers for our family.  I pray that God will bless each and every one of you with an overwhelming, joyful anticipation of His birth as we celebrate this advent season.

In Christ’s Peace,

Katie

WARNING!!!!!  DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE BLOODY SURGERY PICTURES!! 

WARNING!!!

STOP!!

I’M WARNING YOU!!!

DO YOU WANT TO SEE BLOOD!!!

STOP SCROLLING!!!!

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!!

OK HERE YOU GO…