Good News -&- Bad News

"Gabba!" she says as the show comes to its conclusion. "All Done!" she repeats a few times to make sure I know it's done.  'ba gabba!' and some rumblings... I hit a few buttons to put on another episode.  Andi enjoys this show, Yo Gabba Gabba.  It uses music, bright colors and some interesting characters to teach kids a variety of things like sharing or basic manners. It's pretty cool, although, I find myself singing the songs often - which is rather annoying.  As we come to a close on another long week, we have good news and bad news to report.  First, the good news.

Andi saw the audiologist team for more hearing tests.  This time, we tested her unaided and she again, blew their hair back with her improved results.  They reprogrammed her hearing aid and essentially, 'turned it down' some more.  Yippie! This is especially impressive considering she's getting over that nasty cold, that has a bit of fluid in her ears.  The other piece of good news is that a second call to Kaiser has confirmed that the plan we're on DOES cover hearing aids for children, up to $4000. or 20%.  I still don't know what that means, but, it has to be better than the $660. we were expecting to have to whip out of pocket because the first Kaiser representative I spoke with said we weren't covered. So, this is great news, because I was fighting the urge to really go off about how messed up it is that her hearing aid wasn't covered.  We recently added secondary coverage through Daddy Bean's work, in the hope that it will help us with the many co-pays that add up quickly.  So, it is our hope that between the two, we won't be standing out on the highway on-ramp with a cardboard sign begging for spare change.  Can you imagine that sign?  'MEDICAL BILLS SUCK.  Donate!'

Well, now for the bad news.  The ENT, who looked about 20 years old, agreed with the original diagnosis -- Andi's tonsils should come out, and possibly her adenoids or a part of them.  He said those two things, coupled with her small nose/air passageway, would most likely be the cause of her work-at-sleep, and sleep apnea.  I asked for the surgeon at the hospital to do it, as was recommended originally.  He luckily hasn't grown an ego, and was rather cool about it.  He put in the referral, but wasn't sure if it would go through, as Kaiser don't want to do referrals, if someone in-house can do the same job.  Understand it, but, in six surgeries, the one and only that was done by the KP surgeon, didn't work out too great. So, sadly, I have a negative image in my head of having the KP people do it.  That's rather lame of me to lump them all into this negative category, but, sorry... I'm the one that had to deal with the leaky g-tube for 1 year and 4 months.  I'm the one that had to deal with the multiple appointments about the same problem.  Had to deal with all the times we dealt with the broken down, raw skin around the leaky site, where the stomach acid burning the skin.  I mean, can you honestly blame me for being reluctant about anything?  Just honor me, honor the Bean and get out of our way!

I can only hope that this surgery, surgery #7, will resolve the work she does at night & sleep apnea, which I believe is the reason she struggles to put on more weight.  It's like she's doing a zumba class at night, all night long.  Can we stop at lucky #7, please?!? 

We're waiting to hear who is going to do the surgery, and then we'll be able to work with their scheduler to find out when we can get in.  I'm hoping it's soon, as Daddy Bean has to travel for work this next month, and Andi Bean's 2nd birthday is only one month away. 

Well, one more piece of good news before I wrap this up, Andi Bean is blowing away the peeps she works with with her command of 80 signs, and quite a few words.  She's really absorbing them all like a sponge.  I asked her today if she knew the sign for "wait!"  She's seen it before.  She sat and thought about it for awhile, and then she put her fingers out to sign 'wait.'  I couldn't help but laugh and praise her.  She's so amazing!