More celebrating

This week we celebrated JJ's birthday--8 years old. Hard to believe all that he's come through in just eight years. We'll find out in July what else his journey has in store for us all.

For now, we're not thinking about that, just celebrating 8 wonderful years with our little guy. Happy Day!

All kinds of celebrations

Today was Celebrate the Arts day at JJ's school. It's a great day with the kids singing and dancing then a tour through the school hallways to view various art projects. Impressive stuff.

And I can't help but think about how far he's come in 7 years. Aside from just the four heart surgeries, he's overcome gross and fine motor difficiencies and here he was dancing with the best of them! Guess it's not enough to celebrate his abilities, but his existence. Some kids don't make it this far. In the past, none did. He's still got his struggles, but today he dances.

Now on to big brother JoJo. Impressive preview of his 4th-quarter grades. His grades also include habits of learning grades, which also were steller. Really not a lot to worry about there, as long as he can stay focused.

And, even better, he was actually interested in what little bro was doing at the program--interested in sharing what songs he did and hear about the dancing JJ was doing. Nice time watching the two of them share similar yet difference experiences. And they didn't even end up in many arguments--something else to celebrate!

Avoidance does wonders

I'm avoiding making a couple of phone calls these days. One could provide relief, but the also could add stress. The other will only add stress.

I need to check with our health insurer to see what it will cover for an upcoming procedure for my son JJ. He was born 7 years ago with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious heart defect that means he is missing important parts of his heart. He's had four heart surgeries so far.

The docs want to do a cardiac catheterization to see how his heart is doing and measure the pressure in it. Plus they'll get a better look at two of the leaky valves.

The doc told us there could be three scenarios based on how things look:

• We could end up leaving him alone for a while (this is what I'm hoping for)
• He may need surgery to repair or replace those valves (yuck)
• He may need to be listed for a heart transplant if it looks like the valves can't be repaired/replaced (double yuck!)

I started a new job last year and haven't really had to test out our new health insurer. Plus we'd always kept JJ doubled up on both my and my hubby's insurance. But since hubby's job got eliminated last year, we're back to single coverage. Worried about what will be covered and how much out of pocket will be required.

Plus, we want to take him to an out of network facility for the procedure and possible surgery. There is a hospital in network that can do the cath and surgery, but we've never used it. And they've only recently started doing pediatric caths and complex heart surgeries. Not really thrilled about being among the first here. And even if the surgeon is great, we can't bank on the rest of the staff we'll encounter being equally as great and equally as experienced in these very complex procedures.

So here I sit, avoiding making both calls. Ignorance is bliss for now. But it doesn't necessarily make the stress go away.