Good Ole Charlie Brown

I feel like Charlie Brown when he runs up to kick the football, Lucy pulls it away at the last second, and then he tumbles head over heels, landing flat on his back looking up into the heavens. I do not know what he is thinking when he is laying on the ground like that, but I am praying to God to give me an extra does of patience, stamina and the will power to move forward.

Today in the mail box I found the notice from the insurance people that told us that the twelve week physical therapy program, which they had given authorization for is no longer approved. Lauren has already completed five weeks of this and since they gave the approval before she began why stop in the middle of what we are doing?

Lauren has Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy due to a severe traumatic brain injury which she received as an infant while in the care of her birth family.The spastic part of it is what we are dealing with here, Her muscles become tight, rigid, and fixed when they can not move properly so basically she would become very deformed if she does not receive consistent care and therapy with this. She has also acquired scoliosis as a part of the CP and this is getting worse over time. The physicians working on her team have come up with a complex set of therapies and treatments to keep this in check. It she does not continue on course here we are looking at a major back surgery or two, twelve to fifteen weeks in a body cast, and then a ton of therapy to follow.

The surgery route may or may not need to be taken with the therapy but as Lauren`s mom I would much rather deal with therapy and a short visit to the operating room for routine Botox and Phenol injections every few months then sit in the hospital for two to three weeks and deal with a whiny kid in a body cast. I have already done that once and if I never have to experience that again it would be just fine with me.

Lauren thinks this is really great because she does not have to go to therapy now, but she has no idea what she could be in for . The insurance people think they have saved themselves some money, but the cost of Lauren`s care will be much greater doing this the way they want to do it.

Since when do insurance people know more about complex medical conditions then the highly trained group of specialists who have been working with this kid for more then nine years? What are these physicians going to think when they find out what is going on? Do any of those insurance people plan on sitting with this kid while we do this the hard way? I hardly think so and as a matter of fact I really do not want to do that either, but since I am her mom I will do it if I have too.

Just like Charlie Brown I am flat on my back trying to regroup, but I will be ready to go toe-to-toe with those insurance people once again tomorrow. This will be round far to many to count with no end in sight for me.