Navigating the medical world

Doctors, clinic bills, referrals, insurance, nurses, surgeons, and long medical words are a little overwhelming for us right now.

We have been very blessed to have very little medical history in our family. Caleb, knock on wood, has been very healthy and has only needed his regular yearly appointments. Jon and I have had our small things here and there, and of course there was a birth that ended in a c-section to deal with, but otherwise we have been able to understand medical jargon up until this point and have had very little frustration to deal with. So now we are entering a new world...

When we adopted Christopher we were very understanding that we would now be spending a little more time with doctors than we have in the past. Due to his cleft palate that still needs repairs, we will be busy with appointments and surgeries for a while to come. But I don't think I knew how complicated this world really is. In just two months we have now dealt with an adoption clinic, blood panels, dentist visit, decaying teeth which led to a surgeon visit, pills that Tope refuses to take for giardia, insurance that moves oh-so-slow, and now trying to figure out insurance before our big Cleft Clinic visit in June. That is a lot to deal with in two months for both us, the parents, and for our little boy. 

I sing praises to the parents who are actively adopting children with higher medical needs than Tope's, because his will be minor compared to the things we could be dealing with, and yet it is all still so daunting to me. There are so many steps involved and phone numbers to keep track of that I feel like I'm floating through a tornado of information overload. And with each step there is also TIME involved, sometimes Precious time waisted. Currently we are trying to get Tope in to remove some teeth that are a mess. He is in pain daily from them and yet we have been waiting since the end of February to get them taken care of because of all the steps involved to get him to surgery. Of course, if he didn't have a cleft palate this could have been taken care of by now, but the mouth is a whole different ballgame for our little boy. It just kills me to see him in pain as we wait for yet another piece of paper to process or someone to get back to us on the phone. I thought I learned more patience with our adoption process, but I have zero patience when it comes to all of this.

On the flip side, I have become even more thankful for some really great medical professionals in our lives. Our main doctor and dentist we would also consider "friends" to our family, both we met through church, and we are very thankful they are in our lives. They have both put in some extra time answering extra questions for us and taking random calls from us when things haven't gone well with Tope. For instance, our dentist talked with us on the phone at 10 pm the other night because Tope had fallen down a little earlier and his front tooth was still swollen around the gums. What a blessing to have main doctors that we cannot only trust, but they know our history and have our best interest in mind at all times. It gives me such comfort knowing they would be there for us in any emergency or need of guidance.

So this medical world is not my friend, but thank you dear Lord for at least giving us some really great doctors!!! Once again, we are truly blessed.

Mara