RSV stuff, this is long with no pictures

We got a call from Punkinhead's pulmonary specialist today that has us fairly concerned. As most of our friends and family know, Punkinhead was born about 9 weeks early and because of that has to get a monthly shot for RSV. We and all other families that have our same health"care" company and go to the same pulmonary specialist have been denied coverage for this shot for the month of March. The doctor's office tells us this happens from time to time and not to be worried because they negotiate the coverage back, but they've canceled her Thursday appointment and let me know that she has to have her next shot rescheduled no later than March 13 or we have to quarantine ourselves. The other option is to pay out of pocket and then negotiate for reimbursement from our stupid health"care" company. Yeah, right, we'd never see that money again.

A lot of you have asked questions about this RSV thing, so I thought I'd put something up to explain it for those interested. Don't feel obligated to read it, it's kinda boring medical stuff, but please everyone, just say a prayer that the awesome folks at her doctor's office can negotiate quickly and easily and we can get her next shot ASAP!

I’ve borrowed a lot of the information in this blog with gratitude from another blog mommy facing some of the same challenges.

For those of you unfamiliar with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) let me do my best to explain. Like the flu or common cold, RSV is a seasonal virus. It starts in October and continues through April. It's common and easily spread infecting nearly all children by the age of 2.

Most kids (born at full-term) develop moderate - severe cold like symptoms, but due to preemies fragile, less developed lungs and lower immune system they are at increased risk for developing severe RSV infection leading to severe lung infection (ie: pneumonia), life-threatening breathing problems, hospitalization, etc.
The common complicating risk factors include: Premature birth (35 wks or less),
Low Birth weight (less than 5.5 lbs), Heart disease, Lung Issues, Being Around Other Children, Family History of Asthma, Exposure to tobacco smoke, Multiple Births

Punkinhead had the first two risk factors, but luckily none of the others apply and we can control her exposure to other kids. A lot of people have a hard to getting their insurance to cover the treatment (a shot of Synagis once a month), but because Punkinhead was born before 32 gestational weeks weighing 2 lbs 14 oz, up till now we didn't have issues being approved for it.

Synagis is the only approved medicine to protect from the severity of RSV, which is the #1 cause of hospitalization in babies under one year. However, if we paid for the shots on our own it would cost us about $1000 dollars per month for a grand total of over $8,000! It so expensive because it is actually NOT a vaccine, it’s the an antibody injection. A vaccine is a small amount of a dead virus that your body reacts to by developing antibodies to it and then it is prepped to fight the live virus when you encounter it. There is not a working vaccine for RSV so Punkinhead is given a ready-to-fight antibody that requires a “booster” dose every month. The first dose was only one shot, but once she was over 15 lbs, it’s a LONG needle in each leg every time to give her the right dosage.

Our health"care" company's purpose in cancelling ALL our pulmonary specialist's patients for the month appears to be an attempt to rid themselves of a few patients. They cancel us all, make us beg for it back, make us worry about our kids, and then make some money by cancelling coverage for a couple of kids whose risk factor is on the borderline at the end of RSV season. It's sick and makes me want to move to Canada.

I promise I don't wear pearls and sweater sets

This is who we have talking about stay-at-home-mommyhood to the world? No wonder people think I' m crazy. Plus, I'm not sure she understands the irony of Stephen Colbert fully.....

There Will Be Poop

I know there are those of you that can't stand the topic of poop, but in our household it's a big topic de jeur. It fascinates me to the extent that up till now I only believed people with weird fetishes were capable of. We discuss the color and size and shape and smell. What solid foods cause the different color, size, etc. Our blow-out to regular movement ratio has increased exponentially and luckily, mostly on Buzzkill's watch. I feel like one of those doctors in The Last Emperor or in The Madness of King George inspecting the royal movement - I guess Punkinhead is our little princess.

On the developmental front, Punkinhead revealed to us last night during the Oscars......her first tooth! It's just barely pushed through the gum on her bottom front right, but it is most definitely a tooth and sharp too! As soon as it's all the way out I'll take a picture.

She's also clapping now. It's really sweet to watch. Basically she slaps one palm down onto her other, but HotMommy is going to claim this as one in the developmental win column.

Yum, puffed vegetable things and pureed turkey. Is this like Thanksgiving?

We got the go-ahead at Punkinhead's 9-month check-up to give her more solid foods. She'd been given rice cereal and pureed vegies & fruits, but her doc said she was good to go on pureed meats, Cheerios, those dissolving puffed vegies & fruits and we can also do oatmeal and barley cereals.

Me being me, I set up color-coded notecards (oh, I love me some notecards) that have a meal time and meal "receipe" for each of her feedings.

Mornings: She still gets a formula-only feeding but I upped her to 10 oz. from 8 oz. She definately is more settled after her morning nap now. She'll play happily instead of screaming immediately for me to feed her right that second.

Mid-morning: She does a rice cereal, fruit serving with a follow-up bottle. I'm going to start trying the oatmeal cereal at this feeding as well.

Mid-afternon: I do the meat and a vegie serving along with rice cereal here. She gets a follow-up bottle too. Once I know for sure that she's not allergic to oatmeal, I'll change the rice cereal here to barley cereal.

Evening: Punkinhead gets rice cereal and a fruit & vegie serving along with, you guessed it, a follow-up bottle.

She gets some puffs or Cheerios to play around with on her tray at the 3 solids feedings. It helps her practice her pincer moves, but she really doesn't get any nutrition from it.

We all really love the whole process now - can't ya tell?

Nine months down, only 17 and 1/2 years until she leaves for college.

Times a flyin' by. HotMommy and Buzzkill are proud to report that at Punkinhead's 9-month check-up she weighed 18 lbs 10.5 oz (50th percentile), is 28 inches long (70th percentile), has a head 17.5 inches in circumfrence (60th percentile), and didn't have to get ANY shots!

With all the shots she gets between her vaccines, Synagis RSV, and flu shots, when I lay her down on the paper in the exam rooms, she screams because she anticipates a poking. So, it was nice to get a break.

Buzzkill is abso-blanking-lutely going to her 1-year appointment so I don't have to go through what I'm told is the hardest check-up until her 4-year check-up. He hasn't had to go to any doctory things since her appointment the week after she came home from the hospital. And I get bonus points for having to take her to all the eye doctor appointments where they used that horrible little tool to hold her eye open.

We are going to have to bring in a physical therapist since she isn't sitting up on her own yet, but all in all, we had a really good report from her ped!

We now pause for a brief tantrum....

All this just because HotMommy stopped holding her for a bathroom break. Or maybe it was because she hasn't gotten any new text messages on her play cellphone?

Also, please don't zoom into the picture and judge me by my dirty carpet. Some days I don't get to vacuum it. Deal with that! But don't zoom and judge...

I jinxed it

Just by talking about how wonderful it was to have Jesse L. Martin and Jeremy Sisto teamed up on Law & Order, I've destroyed the casting perfection.

Jesse L. Martin is leaving the show. He'll film one more episode to explain his character's departure and then, alas, gone.

And they're not going to even give me a Lenny Briscoe (aka Baby's Daddy aka Jerry Orbach) - type partner. Word is it's going to be Anthony Anderson from that rejected Fox cop show set in New Orleans.

First the strike, now this....what did I do to anger the tv gods?

Also the pedi seemed okay with learning that we let Punkinhead watch tv once I told her it was Meet The Press with her dad on Sundays.