We Have Been Tubed

Hopefully there won't be any more ear infections for 6-12 months, because the kids both had tubes put in their ears. Their surgeries were on different days, but their schedules were the same:

Get to the surgery center at 6:30 in the morning, get oogled over by a team of nurses, say bye to mom as her eyes tear up, get put under for 10 minutes during surgery, wake up a little unhappy, and then go home and be spoiled for the day.

Pre surgery Griff Man

Pre surgery Kali with her gas mask

Post surgery. She had a hard time waking up.

I'd like to give a big shout out to modern medicine and awesome doctors and nurses!

Hometown Hero

My little brother manages a parking garage at an outdoor mall in Anaheim and does a fabulous job at it. Whenever there is parking drama Dirk steps in and handles the situation with ease and class. In fact, he even steps in to help when he is off the clock.

The other day Dirk and I went to the hospital to visit our Granny who was recovering from surgery. As we walked out to the parking lot, we noticed a long line of cars waiting to exit the lot. We saw that the car at the gate was having trouble but I didn't think twice about it, and continued on to our car. My little brother, on the other hand, saw there was trouble and said, "I'm gonna go handle the situation."

As I pulled into the line of cars I watched Dirk assist each and every car with the ticket machine, sending everyone on their way. Without Dirk's skills in the parking business, we might still be sitting in that line of cars.

Thank you Dirk!

Triple Play

Definition of a triple play- You change the diaper of Child A. You set Child A down and change the diaper of Child B. You set down Child B and immediately find that Child A messed its diaper again, and therefore you change it. I score a lot of triple plays.

Ouch

You may or not know that I started a small business back in December. It is the business of managing my children's ear infections and all that goes along with it. Since December 1st it has been NON STOP with those two! As of today they have each been diagnosed with ears infected 4 different times in the last 3 months. That means that 8 different times a doctor has said to me, "yep, your child is in a lot of pain."
Every time they have an infection, they are sent home with a ten day supply of anti biotics that I have to give to them twice a day. Needless to say, I have played nurse almost every day of the last 90. We are so exhausted from the whole thing and are hoping that ear tubes will solve the crisis. Griffin's surgery will be next week, and Kali will most likely get tubes soon after.
In the midst of all this, we have switched insurance companies twice, not by choice, which created a lot of insurance drama. Not only did we switch companies, but went from an HMO to a PPO to an HMO again. That changes how we are billed and how we get around to seeing the ear specialist. It's been a delicate little nightmare lately that I felt like venting about.

Words and thoughts that now make me cringe:
waiting room
provider plan
pharmacist
insurance representative
follow up visit
network coverage