LEGS & FEET!!!

Good news!!! Israel is getting LEGS & FEET! We are beyond excited! They started the prosthesis process at the beginning of January. Since then we have had another appointment for a fitting. And by the beginning of February we will have them! YEAH! We are VERY excited about this new phase in Izzy's life! With these new legs and feet he will be able to learn how to stand...and eventually how to walk. I can't wait to see him learning new things as he gets comfortable with them.

Getting casts made to make prosthesis to fit him perfectly! On his first leg he thought it was pretty neat...but by the second leg...he was done!


Appointment #2...the fitting...he was less than excited about this!


He thought his foot was pretty cool! He kept sticking it in his mouth and chewing on it!

Surgery

Israel was supposed to have surgery on December 9th, but they had to reschedule due to a conflict with the surgeon schedule. So we were on for December 30th. We had been planning for this day for months now. We had schedules rearranged, the older kids were going to my sisters house for the week, Jon's work schedule was changed to meet the needs of this surgery and many, many other preparations had been made for this day. Especially the preparation of our hearts and minds. The day before his surgery we got a phone call from the hospital asking questions about insurance. This story might get long...so bear with me. Since we own our own business we have private insurance. Along with that, Israel also has Medicaid/Disability insurance which is provided by the state. In November it was brought to our attention that we could switch health care plans and take Israel off our private insurance and save ourselves a lot of money each month. Medicaid would step up into primary insurance for him and still provide him full coverage at no cost to us. Obviously we took it! Well, the hospital didn't get this memo, because they didn't check until the day before Israel's surgery, which was 29 days after our other insurance became inactive. Plenty of time for them to get details ironed out! They had to get pre-authorization for Izzy's surgery, but due to lack of knowledge/communications somewhere between the hospital and the insurance company they were trying to rush and make it happen so he could still have his surgery the following day. We got the case looked at...and they denied him. Stating that the surgery wasn't medically necessary! WHAT?! How could it not be? If Israel doesn't get this surgery done he won't be able to eat solid foods or talk! The surgeon was outraged and insists that Israel has the surgery. The hospital has submitted an appeal to the insurance company (Meaning the doctor wrote a personal letter explaining why Israel needs this, they also sent pictures, chart notes etc.) We are now playing the waiting game while the insurance takes another look and decides if they will change their mind. We probably won't know anything until at least the end of the month...if not longer. This has obviously been a very frustrating and trying time for Jon and I. We have tried desperately to understand the heart of God why we not only have to go through everything on a daily basis with Israel...but then have to deal with more junk like this too. But alas, we have just had to rest in the fact that even though we may have NO idea what God is doing and why, that he is always in control, he does not make mistakes and he knows exactly what he is doing with Israel and with us. Please be in prayer for all of the insurance stuff to work out, and in a timely manner as well. We will keep you posted as more details surface.

To read more about the details of this surgery, Click Here

Updates

As usual, the holidays were a busy time and the days flew past...not leaving much time for blogging. I'm sorry for my lack of communications with you all this past month or so. I do have lots of new news and updates, so rest assured, the posts will be coming in this week :-)

Christmas was wonderful! We are blessed to have most of our family nearby. We celebrated Christmas on three different dates this year with different sides of the family. Israel truly enjoyed his first Christmas...mostly the wrapping paper and bows. He received some very thoughtful gifts, such as altered shirts and leg socks from my Mom, and some very "adaptable/manipulative" toys that he can play with well from my sister. As well as many other wonderful things.

As many of you know, Israel was due to have surgery on December 30th. Unfortunately, due to frustrating insurance stuff, we had to postpone it. More details to come on this in my next post. However, Jon and I made the most out of it and decided to spend the day with each other and with Izzy just being together and enjoying the fact that we weren't sitting in a hospital room holding our baby who was doped up on morphine and in pain. Instead we went shopping, out to lunch, and were just together.

Israel seems to be growing quickly. It seems as though he outgrows his clothes in no time and I am constantly getting new ones in bigger sizes. He is loving life and thriving. He is seriously the most happy baby I have ever met. I am truly blessed to be his mom!