Day 44: Dear Milk, I Miss You Already!

The first thing that Susanne had to do when she got to the hospital today was meet with one of her case managers to discuss questions she had about the health claims, health statements, and bills she was already receiving in the mail. This meeting went much better than the previous one she had with a different person about a week ago. She was informed about the process of filing claims, appealing claim denials, knowing which bills to pay now, which bills to pay later, and who to contact to postpone having to pay anything at this time. Susanne was also told to get a case manager assigned to her from her insurance company. This would ensure that she would only have one person to deal with instead of someone new every time she made a call to them. This person would be well educated on Paxton's history and medical issues, which would prevent having to go through everything each time. Hopefully, this person would be an advocate for Paxton and Susanne as well. All of this information was extremely helpful and made Susanne feel more at ease with the whole situation. Susanne made sure to let this case manager know how much she was appreciated.

When Susanne got to her room, a nurse was rocking Paxton in the rocking chair. Usually, it is a volunteer that will rock the babies when a parent is unavailable and not an actual nurse. In this situation, the nurse had made a special request to hold Paxton because she thought he was too cute and did not want to pass up this opportunity. Her supervisor stopped by later to let me know how in love everyone was with Paxton and that she had approved the snuggle time. Susanne was very touched. To top that off, another nurse came to Paxton's room later in the afternoon to meet him because she had heard how handsome he was. She informed Susanne that he had been voted the cutest baby on the entire fifth floor. What an honor! Paxton is already a ladies man and he's not even out of the crib yet. Way to go buddy.

Susanne was updated on Paxton's status by the doctor. He informed her that the gastroenterologist thought Paxton looked good overall. The decision was made to start him back on Nutramigen through the NG tube instead of starting him back on the TPN intravenously. This was wonderful news. This should help cut down the time it takes for him to catch up to where he was. Hopefully, he will respond favorably this time. Susanne was also instructed by the doctor to not only eliminate dairy from her diet, but also anything with soy in it. Susanne is going to have to get creative.

Paxton's hearing test results were still pending. Susanne hopes that Paxton can hear because he is read a book almost everyday. Today, Susanne read Paxton "Green Eggs and Ham", which was given to him by Uncle Nick and Aunt Kerry. He seemed to love looking at the pictures.

All in all, it was a great day. Now Susanne is off to Whole Foods to see what she can eat besides lettuce. Any suggestions?