Unfortunate setback......

Hello everyone,

In case you have not heard, we were not able to go home yesterday. The insurance has not approved us for private duty nursing in the home yet. We have had issues with finding a nursing group in the first place, and were finally able to locate one late last week at Thanksgiving. The insurance was closed for the holiday, so the paperwork for the auth was not able to be sent in until Tuesday of this week. We called Wednesday, paperwork had still not received into their system. Yesterday morning I called the authorization company (different division) and spoke with them about the status. She said it was not received in the system until 9am that morning, the nurse has the information and it has to be reviewed before approval. Time frame of receiving an answer is 15 days or less. So, we are waiting on the auth because if we leave the hospital without it, it would cost us $60/HOUR for care and we cannot afford that. Plus they said it is easier to receive an auth when in the hospital than out. So, we are just waiting and the insurance will continue to pay outrageous amounts for us to be in here. To each his own! Justin and I are disappointed, but we chose Thursday to leave, not knowing if we were going to be approved or not. We should not have even thought if would be that quick for approval, but we had hope. I work with insurances and I know how long it can take for approval on something, I should have known better. I will only become frustrated if they decide to deny it because there is not enough evidence for the need. But we are still waiting for even a response, hopefully soon. We are now looking to leave Monday. Another weekend in Cincy in the hospital. Hopefully we will have an approval by then, once we get it, we are out the door. Jenna's papers are ready for discharge and the supply company is ready for us. Just a matter of time. Justin and I feel that we would rather wait on this knowing that we are getting to go home, as opposed to being stuck here because she is horribly sick still. At least we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

So, Jenna has been fine the last couple of days. She has vomited a couple of times, but they are unsure if it is due to the amount of feeds at once or just from having so much secretions in her. We are hoping that we will get things settled, at least the vomiting is not as much as before. She is still attempting to get stronger, a little more each day. Yesterday she decided to go crazy with the talking, she is getting used to her speaking valve more and more each day. It is so great to hear her talk, she said Dada for the first time :) Right now we finally were able to get her to nap, shewwww what a task. So, we will have some quiet time now.

We will keep everyone posted on the status of leaving. Cross your fingers! Jenna has no idea we are going home, but she wants to put on her hat and cat to sit in her bed! Go figure, playing dress up! Thanks to everyone for the love and support! Miss you all and talk soon!

Love, Jenny Justin and Jenna