In or Out?

Stanton has the opportunity to work with Dr. Bellipanni, an amazing pediatric behavior psychologist in Hattiesburg, MS. Now that we’ve found her, we’ve spent the last two weeks trying to get our insurance to approve her as a provider. Last week our insurance said she could be an “out of network” provider, but when Dr. Bellipanni tried to submit a claim, our insurance company said the claim had to be filed electronically through their system and the only way to have access to the system was to be an in-network provider. Yeah…..hmmmmm……doesn’t make a bit of sense does it! Well, John, being the Personnel Director of our county, asked his insurance risk manager to help out. Stanton had a scheduled appointment with Dr. Bellipanni today at 11:30. She let us know last night that she still didn’t have anything worked out. John went into his office today and, I’ll just say, made it happen! Within a matter of 30 minutes, he got Dr. Bellipanni approved as an in-network provider, with permission to fax in claims. The insurance company also agreed to waive any costs to us associated with rates being considered over and beyond their usual and customary rate. What a huge relief for our family! We are in the thick of finally creating a knowledgeable team around Stanton and I’m not about to let red-tape, politics, finances or insurance get in the way! John says I’m just in “Mama Bear” mode. I’m just glad to have our insurance “IN” the game and Dr. Bellipanni approved as an “IN” network provider!

Stanton ate a variety of things today. We first had speech therapy where we are working on finding white things for him to eat. Cincinnati Children’s wants us to have a swallow study before going back in February. The barium Stanton needs to ingest for this test is white – so our speech therapist, Amy, is working on preparing him to lick and eat white things that we hope to hide the barium in. Today Stanton seemed to enjoy eating the cream out of two Oreo cookies! We then had our behavior psychology appointment in Hattiesburg. Dr. Bellipanni asked me to bring five foods, each in their own container and his portable DVD player with some favorite movies he hasn’t watched all week. I took Stanton’s favorite snack – sweet potato puffs. I also took some toast and almond butter as he ate an entire piece of this for me on Monday at our first ever breakfast experience!
I packed a Chick-fil-a nugget and something he’s never even touched or licked for me = applesauce. And I had some extra Oreo cookies left over from speech.

Initially Stanton did great. He started with a small triangle of toast with almond butter. He only needed one reminder to eat while watching tv. He also did great with the puffs. He refused the Oreos, but when given a choice, took a big bite of the chicken nugget. It took him quite a while to chew and swallow it...but he did! The meltdown came when Dr. Bellipanni opened the applesauce. He turned into a noodle and slid out of his chair. She gave him a break, letting him play with cars. After a while he sat at a different table with blocks. Once he was playing, she put the open container of applesauce on the table. Stanton began to cry and said “move it, move it” over and over. Dr. Bellipanni calmly reassured him he didn’t have to eat it and explained she would move the applesauce after counting to ten. Amazingly, Stanton agreed and helped count. He was rewarded with a movie. This process continued throughout the remainder of our session, each time, moving the applesauce closer, eventually touching the container to Stanton’s check as they counted to 10.

For today, here’s what went IN: ¼ piece of toast with almond butter, 2 creams from Oreos, one bite of a chicken nugget and 6 puffs.


It all came OUT around 5:45.


Disappointment


     Stanton all upset


          Showers for everyone


               Paper towels in a huge mound


                    Laundry


Thankful it’s trash night