Progress (In which I digress into a long rant regarding TB)

Today marks a momentous occasion. Drum roll please... Ashi finally got his first childhood vaccinations, at 20 months of age! I was starting to brace myself for the dirty looks and yet another round of suspicion from my well meaning local health authorities. You know, for being "one of THOSE parents" that doesn't get their kid vaccinated :) It wasn't for lack of trying though. Lord knows we've gone to the doctor enough in the last three months, that's for sure. But today, yes mark it on the calendar, TODAY we went to the pediatrician and Ashi WASN'T SICK! He finally qualified for his first round of immunizations. Poor kid, that's what you get for taking a whole four days between colds instead of your usual 36 hours.

Next week also marks the half-way point (we hope) in our delightful TB treatment. A few weeks ago the sputum culture finally completed (it took 7 weeks), and we were able to drop down to two drugs (in mega doses) twice weekly. The best part (okay, it's probably a toss-up because NOT having the Drug Nazi come daily is definitely a huge perk) is he got to drop the really nasty drug that has the worst possible side effects (vision damage, yuck). But before we could do that he had the pleasure of a full optical exam- did you know that really dark eyes need a whole bunch more of those dilating drops? Yep, we're learning lots of fun random things around here.

We also learned that if the doctor talks to you over the phone and then calls the hospital to tell them you'll be admitted that day, the doctor gets to bill you for "observation care", which is surprisingly expensive. And when you spend the night in the hospital in that fancy quarantine room, it's really really expensive, and the insurance company thinks it shouldn't be covered- even though we were required by law to be admitted. Yes, by law. That would be WAC 246-170-041. That's the one that requires the Drug Nazi to personally observe Ashi physically ingest every last dose of his meds. While children with special needs are being denied therapy because of budget cuts, the state is sending nurses out to dispense antibiotics- it's brilliant really.

And even though they seem happy to cash my ridiculously big premium check every month, the insurance company doesn't really have much of an urge to actually pay most of our bills. Would you believe all of Ashi's medical bills would honestly be cheaper to pay than the premiums have been? Yep. And yet I still have to fight to get anything paid. Oh ya- they even cancelled us for almost three months- whilst cashing my checks. Funny how that works, huh? But you know what else I learned recently? WAC 246-170-021(2) states "In the absence of third party reimbursement, the local health department shall assure the provision of inpatient or outpatient care, including DOT/DOPT and case management." In English, that means that even though they won't admit it when you mention that these "required" medical expenses aren't being covered, the Health Department is actually responsible for paying the bills. Yep. Funny how much more gets done when you start quoting municipal code at people.

I really find it dumb that the state is having to pay any of his medical care. But if they wouldn't insist on making it so unnecessarily expensive... Why on earth are we paying a nurse to personally observe him taking ten cents worth of antibiotics every day? It blows my mind.

But this shall soon pass. Stay tuned for Part II of my rant against all things TB. This is starting to turn into a mini series. I'll have to divert to more fun happenings tomorrow. Like pictures of toothless Joe the Hobo (that would be Christian, who will be subsisting on oatmeal and applesauce before long).