So Frustrated I Could Scream!!!

My husband and I went almost 8 years without health insurance. We tried not to go to the doctor no matter how sick we were. I always thought that people were lucky when they were able to have insurance and could get the care that they needed. Fast forward to the present, we have some of the best insurance there is and my husband is sick. Instead of being taken care of, he has been accused of doctor hopping and being addicted to pain meds. Neither of which is true. What do you do when your tests are normal and nobody believes you are sick?!?

Saturday night August 16th, my husband has to come home from work because he is sick to his stomach. Later that  night, he ends up in the ER because he is doubled over from the stomach pain. I thought he had food poisoning. The ER doctor sends him home with pain medicine which doesn't help. Monday morning, I make him an appointment with our family doctor. He thinks the pain is coming from the gall bladder. 

He gets us an appointment for Thursday to have an ultrasound to check Tom's gall bladder. Thursday afternoon, the GI specialist calls and sets up an appointment for the next day for an endoscopy. After he wakes up from the test, we find out that nothing showed up. Tom woke up in extreme pain and was sent to the ER again to have bloodwork, pain meds, and a CT scan. Everything was normal. 

Sunday night, Tom ends up passed out on the floor and getting a ride to his new favorite place, the ER. Once again, everything is normal and he is sent home with more pain meds. We are told to follow up with our family doctor the next day. At our appointment, they say there is nothing they can do and send the GI  specialist a referral for a colonoscopy. When we didn't hear from them, Tom called and asked only to find out they never got the referral. He had to call our family doctor back and get them to resend it. Of course, the GI specialist has no appointments for over a week because of Labor Day.

In the middle of all this, Tom has to fill out all of this paperwork in order to keep his job. His understanding was that he would not need a doctor's note until he was able to return to work. Then we get a call September 2, saying that if he could not provide a doctor's note for each day he had missed by 5pm he would be terminated. You would think that this would be a fairly simple thing but it wasn't. Nobody wanted to give him a note. Finally, our family doctor did but ended with saying that he was no longer their patient.

Tom's colonoscopy was September 3. There were several biopsies done so we just have to wait for the results. Friday, the 5th, Tom was in extreme pain again. His legs were going numb and he had been about to fall several times. We called the doctor's office again and were told to go to the ER. Guess what we were told...everything is normal and here is another prescription for pain meds. We were told to follow up with the doctor on Monday.

Tom's GI doctor is on vacation this week so they didn't want to refill his prescriptions. We still can't find out the results from the biopsies. Tom has had to go to work because no one believes that he is sick. We can't get an appointment to see the doctor until the 24th. He wants to do another colonoscopy but has no appointments until the end of October.

The only thing we can do is wait and see... 

Meet Our Fur Babies

I have loved animals all of my life. So it's no wonder that we ended up with so many pets.

Peanut--Siamese mix

We found Peanut at our local animal shelter when he was barely six weeks old. His mother had been hit by a car and someone had dropped off the kittens. He has turned out to be quite a handful! He can destroy anything in the blink of an eye...curtains, blinds, couches, whatever gets in his way.

Butter- Domestic Short Hair

We found Butter at the animal shelter also. He is the opposite of Peanut...quiet and shy. He loves to snuggle or just relax looking out the window.

Oreo--Border Collie Mix

Once we were able to move into our own house, we wanted a dog. We found Oreo on Craigslist. She was about 10 weeks old. She has grown so much since we brought her home!!

Laughing Cow Alfredo sauce

Since starting Weight Watchers, I am always looking for healthy meals that my whole family will eat. Everyone here LOVES Alfredo sauce. So when I saw this on their website, I had to try it.

The original recipe called for the light Swiss cheese wedges. Our grocery store didn't have it so I substituted the Light Garlic & Herb flavor. I also added some chicken. It turned out even better than what we normally make and it was so easy! This will definitely be our go to recipe from now on. With the added chicken, it is only 5 points+.

Laughing Cow Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:

6 wedges Light Garlic & Herb wedges
1 cup fat-free milk
1 tbsp reduced fat butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1/2 pound cooked chicken breast (cubed)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a skillet and cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and sauce is thickened. This took around 20 minutes for me. Serve over noodles of your choice.

Fun During Homeschool

Yesterday, we didn't get to do any schoolwork. We had just started my daughter's math, when the electric company shows up at the door. They were doing routine maintenance and our power would be off for a few hours. Since we use the computer a lot in our schooling, that pretty much ended the day for us.

We have been studying birds for the last two weeks so I decided to order owl pellets for them to dissect. I love Home Science Tools for ordering anything for science. Here are the kits that we received.

I put the pellets on a plate and gave the kids their tweezers and pick.

 They got to work. It was slow going because there were so many small bones. The one pellet had four skulls. Michael figured out that they belonged to a mouse or small rodent because of the teeth. He had fun trying to match up the rest of the bones and put the skeleton back together.

The other pellet had five skulls in it. They were from a small rodent also. It did not have as many other bones. Caitlyn spent quite a bit of time working on matching up the bones also.

The result: happy children who were glad to do something besides book work and a happy mom that loves to see her kids excited about learning!

Beginning my weight loss journey...Biggest Loser Pancake recipe

     It has been a while since I have been able to post anything. I went to the doctor for my annual physical to keep our health insurance. I was shocked at how much weight I had gained since being busy with the house. I knew we had been eating out a lot and eating lots of junk but I had no clue that it was that bad. I am ashamed to say that my weight had gone up to 312 pounds. I knew that I had to do something. My knees were hurting and I couldn't do things with my kids.

     I was online and saw that Weight Watchers was having a special deal so I joined online. So far, so good. I started May 16, 2014 and I have lost 21 pounds so far. I have searched the internet to find recipes that taste good and are healthy for me and my family.

     Tonight's dinner was from the Biggest Loser...their pancakes. I could not believe from the ingredients that they would be good. My whole family loved them!! Instead of using sugar free syrup, I topped them with fresh strawberries and fat free cool whip.

Biggest Loser Pancakes--5 points+ per serving

Ingredients:

3/4 c. egg substitute
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender and pulse until smooth. Use 1/4 c. of batter per pancake.Cook until bubbles start to form and then flip. Cook until light brown. I made 9 pancakes with this recipe. Each serving is 3 pancakes. Top as you wish. Sugar free syrup adds 1 point+ to your total.

Living Through a Renovation

My family bought a foreclosure in October of 2013. It didn't have any major problems, just little things that we wanted to change. We knew that most things would have to wait until tax time. Fast forward to this year. We have started changing the kids' bedrooms and we have gutted our bathroom. Our bedroom, living room, and kitchen have the new floors down.

We have been waiting for our plumber to fix our shower for almost 3 weeks now. He has already started so we don't want to find somebody else. BUT, having to bring everything to my mother's house to take showers is getting on everybody's nerves. Not to mention, all the dust bunnies that keep appearing no matter how many times we sweep.

I am trying to keep things as normal as possible for our kids. We get our homeschool work done by 2pm and then try to help my husband as much as we can. He is doing a great job...it is just taking longer than any of us expected. We all are having a hard time keeping a good attitude.

Then I read something on another homeschool blog that made me reconsider...

It’s not that you have to do it.  It’s that you get to do it.

I suddenly remembered that last year we were renting a house. Our landlord was not the nicest person in the world. Our roof leaked every time it rained and he NEVER answered his phone so we could get it fixed. There are so many people that don't have a house at all and would be glad to put up with some inconvenience.

So no matter how long it takes, we get to choose how it looks, and it is ours.  Here are some before photos: