Insurance companies

I thought that I would give an update on Jackson since I have not written about him lately. No news is good news and so he has been doing great! A few weeks ago Jackson had an MRI to see how everything is looking since his surgery in January. The results came back good. The neurologist said that Jackson's head still does not look "perfect", but we were not expecting it to. The MRI did show that the surgery was successful and there is no longer any herniation of the brain into the spinal column. We are also thankful that it looks like his brain growth is starting to slow down and so hopefully we will not need to have this surgery done again. When we were ready to leave office the surgeon said that he did not need to see Jackson again for a year! I was so surprised and still am not sure how I feel about this. He had been seeing the surgeon about every three months and for me it was always a reassurance to know that Jackson was still doing okay. Since kids with M-CM seem to have overgrowth until about the age of two it is reccommended that MRI' s should be done every 6 months until the age of two. Jackson is already 18 months and the surgeon really did not think that another MRI is necessary, but I still might call him and request one in 6 months (not that we enjoy doing them). I guess I am still a little leary that everything is going to reamain okay.

Physically, Jackson continues to make improvements. He is sitting great now and for the first time yesterday he managed to get into a sitting position by himself. He is now starting to tuck his knees under him and push up so hopefully are moving in the direction of crawling soon. Jackson is getting aroung quite well doing his army crawl. He moves slowly, but sometimes when I am working in the kitchen I will turn around and almost trip over him because he crawls over to check out what I am doing. Jackson also does a really cute wave with both hand to say "goodbye" and when I ask him questions he loves to shake his head "no." He has not figured out how to shake his head "yes" or maybe he is like most kids at his age and his favorite word is "no".

Finally, I just want to get on my soapbox and complain about insurance companies. Our insurance will no longer pay for Jackson to have any outpatient therapy (physical, occupational, and speech therapy) because they say that Jackson just has "developemental delays." Therefore, they say that we just need to go through the school system and just have Early On, but that we do not need to have outpatient therapy. This is a problem that most families have when they have a child that is BORN with a disability. If Jackson was not born with his physical impairment, but got it by having an accident the insurance would cover it completely. This seems just wrong to me that there are so many kids that need therapy that cannot get it because that was just how they were born. Thankfully, for us we have Children's Special Health Care for Jackson and we are now in the process of getting them to pay for the therapy. So for right now outpatient therapy is on hold for Jackson, but hopefully it will resume again in about three weeks.

All in all we are doing great and we always so thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Happy Father's Day, Eric!

We love you so much. Thank you for all that you do for us.

From reading bedtime stories to us and using different voices to make us laugh,

to playing games and rolling in the grass,

Having fun with us and warming us when we are cold,

and getting us ready to be a "big hitter" like you,

to just making faces and letting us know how much you love us.

Thanks so much for being the best daddy!

Love, Annika & Jackson