Crazy Summer Update

Crazy Summer Update

Wow it has been way too long since I have posted.  Not that I don’t think of everyone it’s just the matter of time and substance.  Well when it rains it pours.  The other day John said “Paige I think God is talking to us, no Paige, he’s yelling at us!”

So what Is God yelling at us, I honestly don’t have a clue.  This has been the craziest last 3 months ever.  If it could happen well there is a good chance it has happened to us or someone we know – so maybe me not updating has saved you some not so good stuff!!  I think I left off where we were trying to get growth hormone shots approved for Kimbell.  Well they were approved and then the doctor gets a call from insurance after 6 weeks saying oops someone made a typo!!!  She should have never been approved.  Seriously are you kidding me?  Thankfully they put the approval on one case number and the denial on another so we were able to get refills while it was denied.  Odd…  Then the pen injector didn’t work.  I kept calling Pfizer and throwing a fit, then I kept getting all these calls from insurance and Pfizer how is your child? how are the shots? We realize this is a big deal.  Really??? it’s one shot a day to grow, we didn’t get this much attention from insurance or a drug company in K’s whole life.  After wasting thousands of dollars in drug due to a faulty pen device Pfizer finally sent a new pen…  Good news, the 3rd party appeal company agreed with her doctor and she is officially approved for growth hormone so we switched drugs so we could use a different pen.  We had seriously had it with that pen!!

hmmmmm what else.  K has been sick.  John and I were even fighting about it this morning as we were getting ready to go to the airport.  Perspective is everything and man is that an important lesson to learn.  K walked in and I said what do you think?  She responded, I have a sinus infection ever freaking month almost on the same dates, I’m on antibiotics all the time and I’m sick of it.  The sinus washout, which she requested, didn’t work and I want to get to the bottom of this.  It took everything I had to not bust out laughing!!  With that said K had her nose and whatever cauterized in the OR at the beginning of June and as I said per her request they washed her sinuses out.  The nose cautery kind of worked, she will probably be back in there again but hey there are worse things out there.  I must say I was so proud of K.  She is incredibly scared of “the mask”.  K is the strongest kid I’ve ever known, partly because she is my kid but also because she has been through hell and back again and just rolls with the punches.  Well our local hospital decided that they were no longer going to allow me in the bunny suit in the OR for her to be sedated.  I threw a fit, they threw a fit and then they called the surgeon.  Lets say this surgeon knows of really well, she’s operated on K and J!!  When she switched soley to peds she still let J stay as a patient!  So she calls, Paige there is all this fuss going on.  Virtually I handed the phone to K, after all this is certainly not my life or my body so who am I to consent?  The morning of K gave anesthesia strict instructions, per her request extra versed and then the surgeon hopped on the hospital bed and off they went!  John and I were totally shocked.  When K woke up she said “I didn’t really think she would get in bed with me!”

So what else has been going on?  Well we packed virtually our entire house to put it on the market b/c everything was selling the day it went on the market, 4 houses on my street so we were ready.  We got one lowball offer immediately and then nothing and I mean nothing.

We went to Orlando just in time for that singer to be killed and then night club shooting…  Spent a while at Disney World which is literally our home away from home.  My sister was working but my parents came down and my niece which was awesome.  My mom has been really sick with pancreatitis again so she didn’t get to do too much.  One night we went to get in and our passes didn’t work.  Cast member – I’ve never seen this before go to guest services.  Wait in guest services line for forever, sorry but your annual passes (we bought that week) have been canceled due to misuse.   What?  Excuse me?  Well it says to contact this one person but he only works certain hours.  Get this, it’s only my pass and Kimbell’s pass….  ok.  So we go back to hotel try talking to them – nada.  Next morning go talk to customer service – nada so and so isn’t there and we can only talk to him.  But oh here’s an email try that and they will get to you in 24 hours.  In the meantime you can buy a full priced ticket.  Are you kidding me?

Meanwhile my sister has crap going on, John has crap going on at work, my mom is sick, and it’s hotter then heck in Orlando.  So John says lets drive home, OK that will work I mean what can happen?  Let me tell you something can always happen.  We go to return the rental car and get a different one.  Well that didn’t go like it was supposed to 2.5 hours later and me running all over MCO we are still there.  Finally get a car, I get in with my wallet, and here comes John.  As we are driving down the executive isle J sees a Buick which is nicer then what we are driving, Paige go get the Buick.  I fly out of the car and run to the Buick, I mean after all it is a 2 day drive…  So we are transferring all of the luggage and let me tell you this family does not know how to travel light.  I look at John – John where is my wallet?  I don’t know, how would I know where your wallet is???   John, it was in the other car you were driving when you told me to get the Buick.   blah blah blah later we don’t have it.  Run over to the car it was in and it’s gone.  Gone, rented, gone, taken for who knows how long.  National was awesome, I mean I carry a hot pink wallet how hard can it be to find???  well obviously hard because the renter didn’t see it so they start calling the people who had rented a certain type of car from the executive isle.  Does anyone answer of course not.  Did I mention my driver’s license is actually where it is supposed to be, in my wallet?  so now National can’t rent me the car I’m sitting in with all my luggage!!  Thankfully they honored my rate and changed it to John’s name.  OK, does J want to wait around to see if my wallet gets returned, of course not.  So two hours out of town and many tears we get a call.  The guy has my wallet but won’t return it until tomorrow.  OK.  Praise God because that guy did return my wallet, cash, credit cards and all!!  One problem I’m almost to TX by the time it gets to MCO…

I forgot to tell you we went on a cruise before this, it’s like a safe haven b/c J can’t work.  Well actually now you can thanks to satellite internet.  You can also get really really sick on a cruise, I thought we were going to have to fly back because John was so sick.  K was harassed by a male teenager, two of our dogs died, a family friend died, the refrigerator broke which is a no no for our meds so we took them to customer service who failed to put them in the refrigerator… the a/c in the room didn’t work, and to be honest a whole bunch of other stuff happened that was bad but I don’t even remember at this point.

OK so we make it back to TX and John and I and K have had it we need a vacation – see the irony in this….   So we go to Alaska, even bought one way tickets.  We needed to get off the grid and fast.  On the second flight to get to Alaska Stitch – K’s service dog –  is panting and breathing rapidly.  It is a 5 hour flight so I get up and tell the flight attendant you have to make it cooler in here our service dog isn’t ok.  Maybe half an hour passes, this time John complains, you have to make it cooler he is so hot he can’t lay down.  OK.  Another half an hour passes and we complain again.  Mind you John and I are all nasty b/c it is seriously hot.  Then Stitch gets sick, Stitch is a big dog, there isn’t any such thing as a little sick nope he is really sick so much that it now stinks and people are throwing up b/c it is so stinky.  Meanwhile we don’t care about everyone else we are worried he is going to have a heat stroke.  Thankfully a witty flight attendant made ice packs for Stitch.  Not sure we would have made it without those.

So we are off the grid and it is supposed to be a boring trip…  We are in Alaska and I wake up to a text message “I’m in the ER with dad.”  Everyone that knows my dad knows he is never sick.  He is the rock of our family and takes care of everyone.  My dad decided he needed to go to the hospital because his indigestion was really bad and the tums weren’t working…  By the time the ER saw him his heart enzymes were normal.  Thank God they called the heart center in Asheville and they said send him down here.  So off he goes in an ambulance.  Mom and Chole go home get stuff together and get to the hospital over 2 hours away.  When they get there my dad is fine, flirting with the pretty nurses, chatting etc.  Of course they say he is fine you don’t need to come.  The next night in the middle of the night I get a text from my dad.  I’m going into emergency surgery and then to the ICU.  Lovely way to wake up when you are on the other side of the country.  Turns out his indigestion was bothering him so he called the nurse and asked for tums.  Thank you God, the nurse decided to run an EKG.  Turns out the indigestion isn’t indigestion, he’s having a heart attack!!  So anyone that doesn’t believe in God or miracles, clearly has not met our family.  I mean seriously he ALWAYS comes through for us.  My dad gets into the cath lab and he has a 100% blockage which his body had already rerouted blood flow and a 90% blockage!!  They cleared the 90% and put a stint in it.  The surgeon was shocked because he has very little damage to his heart.  He couldn’t believe it.  My response to him, if you only knew what God has done for this family you would believe it!  So now my dad is on a zillion meds, yes the man who is never sick is now on a ton of meds, in PT and a zillion restrictions.

More current update next.  Never published this one!!

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John & Paige