Daniel's Medical Expenses 2008

OK, so call me a sadist, but I love to add up Daniel's medical expenses each year. I was looking forward to this year's especially! Transplants are not cheap! So I have 2 lists below. First, his entire years worth of medical expenses and then just his tranplants. I am still getting things everyday from our insurance, so I am sure I am still missing some numbers. But as to date, here are the numbers:

2008 TOTAL:

Amt billed insurance: $570,972.54
Amt ins wrote off (won't pay): $293,994.69
Amt paid by ins: $273,704.05


TRANSPLANT EXPENSES:

Amt billed insurance: $535,172.04
Amt ins wrote off: $276,614.72
Amt paid by ins: $259,902.94

Then our total out for just copays, deductibles and out of pockets was about $6000. SO say what you want about insurance, but I am VERY grateful we have it! And I apologize to all the members of the school district who will probably have their rates go up because of Daniel! To us, it will be worth it! So see why I like to number crunch? Incredible, huh? I hope my boys grow up to be doctors!

Daniel's 5 Month Anniversary! (and other news)

Today Daniel is 5 month post transplant! YEAH! We had labs drawn yesterday and his creatinine was great right at 0.6 and BUN was at 25. We should get prograf back sometime tomorrow, hopefully. He hasn't been feeling well today. Not eating or drinking well, acting a little lethargic, he even threw up....and the tube came up, too. So needless to say, he doesn' have his tube in and it will go back in later tonight before bed. Unfortunately he didn't get a whole day free of the tube (it came out at 5 pm) but he'll get a little reprieve. Kevin and a neighbor in our ward gave Daniel a priesthood blessing about 6 pm and 45 minutes later he is eating popcorn, drinking and acting his normal self! YEAH! I know the pristhood blessing made him better!
A few other updates: (I can't remember if I have typed this before.) Daniel is perfect on the potty training! Sammy actually went poop on the toilet today! We'll see if we can get Sammy on board with this pooping thing!
Sammy & Comptyn will be having their tonsils and adnoids out on Feb 18th. FUN! FUN! FUN! Sammy is at 7:30 am and Comptyn is at 8:15 am. We'll see how that goes. We leave 5 days later for Daniel's 6 month biopsy in California. So I am hoping they have quick recoveries and no complications. Grandpa and Grandma don't need anything else on their plates while here with the other kids!
Nathan's birthday was on Friday. He is now 5 years old! He is pretty excited to go to kindergarten this fall. I can't believe he is already 5! Below is a picture of him.

Ryan, Comptyn & Bryce all got new bikes. We have been telling them for 3 years that when they learn to ride a 2 wheel bike, we'll go buy them a new one. (All the bikes we have are garage sales! Plus the older ones are too big for the bikes! It looks silly!) Anyhow, at their school, the gym teacher has a class on bike riding and bike safety. So that is where they all learned! Kevin took the training wheels one a few Saturday's ago and they all 3 jumped on and rode away! So here are some pictures of them on their bikes: Bryce
Comptyn
Ryan
This picture is the night of Nathan's birthday. Nathan, Daniel & Sammy were posing for pictures.

We have been teaching our kids (for Family Home Evening nights) from the "For the Strength of Youth" booklet that our church publishes. It teaches about standards that we all should live by (not just our youth) such as, accountability, modesty, language, honesty, etc. Anyhow, each of our kids have a copy and this is Daniel and Sammy singing songs from theirs. Notice Daniel's is upside down!

Prograf level

Well, it came in at 9.6! Suppose to be closer to 5. We lower the meds and it increases in his blood. I guess that is common in the little guys, but it's still frustrating because then we have to repeat labs again in 3 days! Rest of the labs are in the following entry.
Bananas are helping a little bit on the diarrhea. Now it's just runny oatmeal consistency!

Daniel's last labs

Just an update on Daniel's labs. They were drawn Monday morning and I ran out of time yesterday. I started our taxes! FUN! Anyhow, his creatine was at 0.6 which is right where it should be. His magnesium (which is what they decreased to hopefully help the diarrhea) was at 2.1 Range should be 1.9-2.4 Blood draw before decreasing mag was 1.9. So we are very happy that it didn't decrease and actually rose. I have gotten some almonds and cashews for him to supplement. And we'll start putting spinach in things. Like our meatloaf tonight! We'll see if anyone notices. Doubt it! We won't get his prograf level back until probably Friday. They have to mail that one off. But his last draw it was high at 7.4 and they want it closer to 5. So we decreased his Prograf again. We have learned that is just a yo-yo game. We'll have to pray it stabilizes, because when it does, Daniel can go longer between blood draws!
Potty training is going OK. Daniel's diarrhea hasn't stopped. The morning was is still really bad, but by the evening it's a little better. So today I got some baby food bananas and diluted it with milk. Then I bolus fed him (sucked it up with a syringe and put it down his feeding tube) It took about 20 minutes, but I am hoping that it will help. I think I will do it at night and it will counter the mag in his feeds at night. Other than that, Sammy tells us when he pees. We can tell when he goes off to poop becuase he goes and hides. Daniel is telling us more that he has to go. He usually has 1 maybe 2 accidents a day. The diarrhea means he stays in a diaper until about noon.

California Trip.....Successful!

We had a great trip to California Wednesday. Daniel had his breathing treatment (which we are done with next month) and his infusion for one of his anti-rejection meds (which I believe we are done with next month, too!) Anyhow, then Daniel had his ultrasound. THE URINE IS GONE IN THE KIDNEY! YEAH! We were SO happy! Again, our prayers were answered! Thursday morning we had clinicals and everything went well there. They have Daniel's 6 month biopsy scheduled for the week of Feb 10th sometime. We are hoping Amy (his nurse) can change it to the 13th. We can't believe we are already talking 6 months! We are actually 4 1/2 months right now. Anyhow, we were able to find out that there are no signs of the kidney forming anti-bodies against the prograf. We were able to decrease his magnesium, so we are hoping that Daniel's diarrhea and gas will decrease. NOT fun when we are potty training! I have gone thru a LOT of rubber gloves! Thank goodness for disposible. Anyhow, the doctor's only concern was Daniel's weight. He is growing taller, yet weight is staying the same. So we are increasing a can of pediasure to 2 per night in his feeding tube. Give him some extra calories. So, that was our trip! Beautiful and clear over Donner Summit! Blue sky, snow (in some spots!) and good roads.

Potty Training report

OK....Hate is a strong word in our house, but boy do I HATE potty training! We started 2 weeks ago today and we are seeing improvement. In fact, yesterday was wonderful! We had 2 poopy underwear (1 from each kid) and then when eating dinner they each peed. This morning about 6:15 am Sammy woke me up to tell me had to go potty! He was DRY! YIPEE! He was actually dry on other night, too! Poor little Daniel gets so pumped with liquids thru the night, it might be a while before he wakes up dry! It is already 9:30 and we have had Sammy and Daniel tell me twice they had to pee and Daniel had a poopy underwear. In his defense, he does have diarrhea from the magnessium he get in his feeds at night. Anyhow, we are seeing a small little light at the end of this stinky tunnel! YEAH!