GI Take Two

Yesterday we left the house at 8:50am. I dropped Nadia off at Sarah's and then continued nonstop until we got to the Hershey Medical Center at 10:45. I went to the bathroom, changed Ian's diaper, and made him a sippy of EleCare before we checked in for his 11:00 appointment. The nurse weighed him, and the doctor talked with me awhile before doing a brief exam on Ian. We were getting back in our car at 11:20. I could have driven straight back, but then I would have arrived at Sarah's during Nadia's nap. So we had lunch inside Wendy's (usually I'd do drive thru), and I did a little shopping at the outlets in Hershey. I used to enjoy going in stores like Dress Barn, but that wasn't going to happen with Ian. After being cooped up in the car for 2 hours he just wanted to RUN. The Carter's outlet had an area with toys, which helped. I did buy some things there for both children. The orange skirt Nadia is shown wearing in the previous post is one of things I bought. I also went in the Osh Kosh B'Gosh and Gymboree outlets. I bought one item in the latter, and that actually represented my first purchase at a Gymboree store. Even their clearance rack is a bit more than I usually pay, but I thought the pair of shorts was really cute. I got a size 4. Hopefully Nadia will like shorts next year. This summer she only wants to wear skirts and dresses. There was a Children's Place outlet, but Ian had enough so I'll save that one for the next trip. Once we were closer to home I stopped at Aldi's for a few things and also went to the health food store and bought 8 almond yogurts for Ian. 19 soy yogurts cost the same as 8 almond yogurts. I got 2 raspberry and 6 cherry ones (all they had). I also ordered 1 case (12) of vanilla coconut milk yogurt and 1 case of blueberry coconut milk yogurt. A case is 15% cheaper than buying them individually. Those 24 yogurts will cost over $40. Sadly, he hasn't been too keen on these yogurts. I think he didn't like the seeds in the raspberry one. Hopefully he'll like the vanilla and blueberry ones.

Nadia can put these sandals on by herself now!

The appointment yesterday was just an exercise in jumping through a hoop so that we can schedule Ian's next endoscopy. He said that they usually do the next one 6-8 weeks after the first one, and it's been 9 weeks already. I was hoping Patty (the nurse who schedules the endoscopies) would call me yesterday or today, but she didn't. I'm hoping it will be scheduled sometime in the next 2 weeks. He said the procedure takes 5 minutes. I know. You wouldn't think a 5 minute procedure would require 7 hours of driving (two round trips to Hershey). It's better than doing two round trips to CHOP (11 hours). If PSU worked with our local hospital, our commute would only be 60 minutes (round trip).

The VERY good news is that we found out today that we actually do have Rx drug coverage. Go figure. I trusted CVS and Walmart when they said we didn't, especially as the prescription card the insurance gave us said "this is a discount program not insurance." When AstraZeneca was giving us grief, that prompted me to beg Paul to inquire about it at PSU. I guess we should have done that MONTHS ago. Now our decision is very easy regarding which insurance to go with in the fall. PSU's is $500 cheaper a month for us. It turns out if we get prescriptions filled at PSU - they cover almost all of it. Well unless it's an emergency and we MUST have it filled asap, I will be giving all prescriptions to Paul to fill on campus! We only have to pay $31 for a month's supply of Pulmicort (which was costing us $350 a month). If we get something filled elsewhere, we submit the receipts and they reimburse us 50%. Supposedly there is a check in the mail to the tune of over $400 for our reimbursement for what we've spent on medications the past few months. I am very happy about the refund, but I wish we had figured it out sooner as then we could have saved another $400 by having them filled on campus. Live and learn. I am very relieved not to have to deal with AstraZeneca any more. Now I have to see if they'll reimburse us 80% of our cost of EleCare (as they would have if we had gotten through Diplmoat Pharmacy) even though I've been buying it on eBay.