Pediatrician Update - 3 Months Old

Boys went to the pediatrician on 12/10 and are SO healthy! Their weights were great! Ryan weighed, Gary weighed 11lbs. 7oz., Ben weighed 11lbs. 12 oz., and Ryan weighed 12lbs. 14 oz. WOW. We couldn’t believe it ourselves. They also had their first “round” of vaccinations. It is never easy for us, but they did really well. Ryan is being referred to a heart specialist for a slight murmur, but Dr. Conti doesn’t seem to be worried about it. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll probably do that the first of the year.

We’ve also been given the green light for the Synagis injections to keep RSV risk to a minimum. It’s taken 2 months to get it approved by insurance. The injections are $1500.00 per injection (per child) per month. Our portion is apparently less than $20.00, but the insurance can’t decide who is going to administer it. It’s gone from a company coming to our house, to the pediatrician doing it to training us to do it ourselves at home (SO NOT GOING TO HAPPEN). Finally we’ve found a lung specialist that the insurance company that will authorize.

On 12/11 we finally took the boys to Children’s Lung and Heart specialist for the Synagis RSV injections and boy was that a scary experience. The nurse didn’t seem to take any interest in the boys, which was bothersome. I asked if she could bypass weighing them since they were just at the pediatrician the day before. Nope, we had to do it again....hmmm...very annoying. We went into the exam room and the doctor came in and checked them over, commented on them having lots of ear wax (WHATEVER) and then told us the same nurse would return to do the injections. I asked him if he was sure she was the right person for the job and his response was “Let’s not get into that”. OH MY GOD, I was just flipping out internally. I then asked him if it was important to him to let him know if we thought his staff wasn’t up to par, and then he proceeded to talk about her 20 years of experience and her handicapped son. I so didn’t want to hear her personal stuff, but did feel better when he said she was very experienced. So the doctor left and she returned and began with the injections. As soon as the first little guy was getting the injection, I could hear in the cry that it was very painful. Then it was Gary’s turn, same pained cry and finally Ryan, who was lucky enough to need two injections because of his weight. I was just infuriated by the whole situation. After she was done with the injections, she was leaving the room and said “schedule next month’s appointment on your way out”. I nodded and she left. Chip, Christina and I were still soothing babies and dressing them. I calmly but sternly told both of them that we wouldn’t be scheduling today. So we went home and then me and my team from Orbitz had scheduled to deliver holiday gifts to partners. While I was gone the lung specialist office called and demanded to know why we hadn’t scheduled the appointment for next month. Needless to say, I was furious when I returned home and heard about the call. I said to Chip “ummm, no, we won’t be going back there and we won’t be doing the injections again”. End of story. The only reason the doctors told us we needed them are because the babies were preemie and could have lungs that were more susceptible to infection, not considering the fact that none of our boys needed oxygen or were on ventilators when they were born. Christina, Chip and I all had a cold for a few days and they didn’t get sick. I feel it’s overmedication and I’m willing to take my chances. I guess that’s enough said about that.

I am posting pictures of the boys, however it is not as recent as we’d like. We’ve lost a bunch of pictures we took due to a faulty memory card. It’s very sad and we’ve learned that pictures must come off of the camera immediately.