Week 164

April 18-24

So this week we made a trip to see the pediatrician.  FINALLY!  Yeah, my kids haven't been to the doctor in awhile.  Jack hasn't been since he turned 2 years old.  Which technically is normal since there are no well-baby appointments in between 2 and 3 years so that is fine.  Abel hasn't been since his 2 week check up.  Not so normal since there is a 2 month, 4 month, and 6 month check up.  No bueno.  Abel is 7 months.  He has had some of his shots due to our trip to the health department.

The first part of this post I want to talk about our checkup.  The second part of this post I feel like I have to give a little excerpt on healthcare today according to me.  Yeah wine is fueling this post so it should be a good one. Haha.

So to start with the appointment.  Abel had his "6 month checkup" at 7 months of age.  He is 23 lbs (97.5% for 7.4 months) and 29 in (95.6% for 7.4 months).  Big boy.  I was super concerned about his weight.  I know based on knowledge, my nursing background, and personal reading that breast fed babies are large.  I know that he has a decreased risk of being obese when he is older.  But when everyone you know tells you he is huge, and he is, you doubt yourself.  I asked the doctor many times if his weight was okay.  He reassured me multiple times that Abel is a healthy, normal, breast fed baby boy.  He meets and even exceeds all of his expected milestones.  The doctor was very impressed with him.

Jack is 37.5 lbs (90% for 3 years old) and 39 in (80% for 3 years old).  Apparently the new thing is to check a blood pressure and a cholesterol starting at age 2.  My mom was appalled.  I explained to her that childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country.  There are SO MANY obese children.  Kids are eating more fast food, microwaveable food, and junk food than ever before!!!!  Jack was perfectly normal.  His cholesterol was way below the normal.  His blood pressure was fine.  He peed in a cup.  Yeah, my little baby peed in a cup on command.  I was so proud of him!

Both kids surpassed all of their milestones as far as expected development.  I am so very blessed to have two healthy, happy kids.

The reason my kids have not been to a pediatrician in 6+ months (yeah I know you are all curious, especially since I am a nurse and I know how important these visits are) is that we have not had health care for a little gap in time.  Let me backtrack.  From the time we were married up until October 15, 2011 we had full blown healthcare.  Ed was in the Navy full time so we were not only covered...but we didn't pay for anything.  Literally.  This is the experience I was familiar with prior to getting married because my dad was also in the military.  You basically don't pay for anything.  If I chose to fill a prescription outside of a military base I might have to pay a small fee.  When I say small I'm talking <$10.00.  I am not used to worrying about healthcare.

Fast forward to when we moved here.  Luckily I had Abel in the middle of September.  We knew our insurance would end October 15th.  Yeah we planned that one closely.  We barely made it through his initial checkup with the pediatrician.  We had to pay for his follow up x-ray to make sure his right clavicle (collar bone) was healing from breaking it at birth.  The x-ray was done on October 17th and even though we were told the follow up x-ray had already been paid for, we sure were charged for it.













So after our insurance ran out we were kind of stuck.  We were at a loss.  Neither one of us had ever really had to pay for health insurance.  At the moment it ran out neither one of us was employed.  WTH?  We had two kids and no health insurance.  We started researching a little and found that we did not qualify for medicaid.  Well it's a sticky situation.  We technically qualified because to get it a family of four had to make less than $932/month and we did not have any income.  Sounds great, like we should have just signed up and taken our kids to the doctor, right?  Yeah, okay.  Well I looked up how to "prove" that we qualified and it basically said you would have to bring in your tax return.  Well that was based off of both of our full incomes which is well over the minimum.  They would have laughed in our faces.

We were stuck.  We couldn't qualify.  Thank goodness we had saved up a bunch of money to cover us if we needed it.  In the meantime, what were we to do about our kids?  We decided to get our family health insurance through a private provider.  We did.  It definitely cost us.  Basically though this was only for super duper emergencies.  If any of us would have been admitted to the hospital we would have paid a $5,000.00 deductible and our bills would be covered in full.  For three months of coverage this was well over $3,000 before the $5,000 deductible.  I got some slack for not taking Abel to his well baby check ups.  I can totally appreciate the concern, but when you are a family trying to stay above water, unsure of when you will get a job, paying this amount of money for emergencies...you aren't about to pay full price cash value for a well baby checkup.



 This involves the following: a head to toe assessment, questions concerning growth and development, measurements, immunizations.  Head to toe assessment is pretty well covered by a board certified pediatric nurse with 5 years under her belt.  I "head to toe assess' many, many, many babies every single day.  I think if something was glaringly wrong I would bring my child in to be seen.  Trust me, I would bring my child in to be seen if I even slightly questioned anything.  Growth and development is another thing I feel I am qualified to assess.  This is part of our assessment as a nurse.  I am familiar with what a baby should be doing.  If I have a question I look it up.  Luckily I have been blessed with smart children who have met their milestones easily.  Measurements are easy.  Again, a nurses job in the office/hospital setting.  I can measure a head circumference, length, and weight.  I can also look it up on the most current charts and see where the kids are.  No problem.  Last, but not least immunizations.  What a pain.


When it was time for Abel's 2 month shots I called the health department.  I got an appointment.  He got shots.  No problem.

When it was time for his 4 month shots I got the runaround.  What a pain in the ass.  He is now 7 months and just got his 4 month shots.  Sad for sure.  I called that stupid health department all the time.  They only apparently book 1 month at a time for appointments.  When they are full they stop taking appointments and you have to "call back" for the next time they start filling up.  I must have been very lucky the first time to get an appointment right away because I probably called 8+ times after that and never could get one.

I can't tell you how embarrassing it is to be me and go to a pediatrician with a child delinquent on shots.  Seriously, not having health insurance blows.  It blows.  You feel like such a bad parent.  What do you do though?

Luckily now that I have been employed full time for 90 days our health insurance has kicked in .