Our previous family photo had been taken in February. Look how much the kids have changed!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Family Photo
We had my brother-in-law take an updated family photo for us. It was taken after dinner, with dessert used as bribery, so the kids were not in the most cooperative moods! This is one of the best photos.
Our previous family photo had been taken in February. Look how much the kids have changed!
Our previous family photo had been taken in February. Look how much the kids have changed!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Flower Fingers
Lucas just came to show me his latest creation - sticking duplo flowers on his fingers! He was pretty proud of his effort and I thought his imagination was pretty good too :)
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Ramblings: Our Health Care System
Earlier last week I was reading a post on facebook from a page about CDH. The page is from the US and the admin asked how much people had spent on the health care of their CDH children. Some were reporting figures in the millions!! This got me thinking about Tahnee and her medical history.
Here in Australia, if you are public patients (which we are), you do not have to pay for most medical services, such as hospital, dental, physio etc, but you have waiting lists. You also have the option of seeing a private practitioner, but you pay the fees and if you have private health insurance, they may cover part of those fees, depending on your level of cover. If you aren't familiar with the health care in Australia, this may be confusing.
In respect to maternity, with Lucas we opted to go through a private OB/GYN as public patients. We paid for all our visits with him, plus we paid for our 19 week ultrasound. Things like blood tests were bulk billed. We also had no hospital fees as we were public patients, but since our closest private hospital is government run, we were able to get a bed in there without paying any fees.
With Tahnee, her birth defect is considered high risk, so we naturally saw a specialist very quickly (plus, maternity tends to have shorter wait lists, for obvious reasons). We gave birth in a public hospital (it was our only option), and again had no fees for that or for the epidurals and other drugs for me. For some reason, we don't know why, we were charged for our first consult with our foetal medicine specialist. It was cheaper than having to pay for an ultrasound, but more expensive than seeing my OB/GYN at his surgery.
After that first visit with the specialist, we did not see another bill. The only other expenses we had were to pay for were fuel and parking (but at PMH we had free parking as we had a baby in NICU). CDH friends who went private had to pay all sorts of fees, plus they paid for each test (eg, MRI). I'm not sure exactly how much their total out of pocket expenses were, but I believe it was in the 10 thousands, and I don't know how much was covered by their private health insurance company. Now, we aren't criticising their decision to go private, just merely pointing out the differences ... and had we had no option but to pay huge costs, we would have done so immediately. You can not put a price on the life of your child.
Over at PMH we also had to pay for meals and drinks bought down in the canteen, but we were able to bring food in from home if we wanted to. Friends of ours in the NICU were private patients and they received food vouchers to help them out - one of the perks of private health insurance.
We never had to pay for costs that Tahnee incurred. Not the ambulance transfer, nor the anaesthetic, or the theatre fees, or the oxygen, or the bed use, or the nappies or the use of the parent accommodation. Nothing! In fact, while we were staying at PMH we received meal vouchers and had access to a coffee/tea/hot chocolate machine, microwave, fridge and tv, all free of charge.
When comparing our medical costs over here with those around the world, we are very lucky. Being public patients meant we still had access to high level medical care, but without the expense. It makes me very thankful to be in Australia, where the healthy care system, NICU in particular, is amongst the best in the world. And at a fraction of the cost that many families in America, and probably elsewhere, are having to pay.
Here in Australia, if you are public patients (which we are), you do not have to pay for most medical services, such as hospital, dental, physio etc, but you have waiting lists. You also have the option of seeing a private practitioner, but you pay the fees and if you have private health insurance, they may cover part of those fees, depending on your level of cover. If you aren't familiar with the health care in Australia, this may be confusing.
In respect to maternity, with Lucas we opted to go through a private OB/GYN as public patients. We paid for all our visits with him, plus we paid for our 19 week ultrasound. Things like blood tests were bulk billed. We also had no hospital fees as we were public patients, but since our closest private hospital is government run, we were able to get a bed in there without paying any fees.
With Tahnee, her birth defect is considered high risk, so we naturally saw a specialist very quickly (plus, maternity tends to have shorter wait lists, for obvious reasons). We gave birth in a public hospital (it was our only option), and again had no fees for that or for the epidurals and other drugs for me. For some reason, we don't know why, we were charged for our first consult with our foetal medicine specialist. It was cheaper than having to pay for an ultrasound, but more expensive than seeing my OB/GYN at his surgery.
After that first visit with the specialist, we did not see another bill. The only other expenses we had were to pay for were fuel and parking (but at PMH we had free parking as we had a baby in NICU). CDH friends who went private had to pay all sorts of fees, plus they paid for each test (eg, MRI). I'm not sure exactly how much their total out of pocket expenses were, but I believe it was in the 10 thousands, and I don't know how much was covered by their private health insurance company. Now, we aren't criticising their decision to go private, just merely pointing out the differences ... and had we had no option but to pay huge costs, we would have done so immediately. You can not put a price on the life of your child.
Over at PMH we also had to pay for meals and drinks bought down in the canteen, but we were able to bring food in from home if we wanted to. Friends of ours in the NICU were private patients and they received food vouchers to help them out - one of the perks of private health insurance.
We never had to pay for costs that Tahnee incurred. Not the ambulance transfer, nor the anaesthetic, or the theatre fees, or the oxygen, or the bed use, or the nappies or the use of the parent accommodation. Nothing! In fact, while we were staying at PMH we received meal vouchers and had access to a coffee/tea/hot chocolate machine, microwave, fridge and tv, all free of charge.
When comparing our medical costs over here with those around the world, we are very lucky. Being public patients meant we still had access to high level medical care, but without the expense. It makes me very thankful to be in Australia, where the healthy care system, NICU in particular, is amongst the best in the world. And at a fraction of the cost that many families in America, and probably elsewhere, are having to pay.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Celebrating 1 Year of Cuddles
Last year, on the day before Father's Day, we were super excited to receive a phone call from NICU at PMH telling us that Tahnee would be taken off the conventional ventilator and put onto CPAP that day, and that it meant we could get our first cuddle!!
The following day, the nurses told us that our parents (the only visitors allowed into the NICU beside us, the parents) were also able to have a cuddle. It all made for an extra special Father's Day weekend ♥
The following day, the nurses told us that our parents (the only visitors allowed into the NICU beside us, the parents) were also able to have a cuddle. It all made for an extra special Father's Day weekend ♥
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Dad's Day
The first Sunday in September in Aussie land is traditionally recognised as Father's Day. In our household, we celebrated the day with fond memories of the year before when we were revelling in the joy of our first cuddles with Tahnee :)
After grabbing a quick shower, Chris sat down with the kids to open his presents. Present buying can be such a hard chore, but this year it was made a little easier as Chris had been wanting a cover for our new Weber barbecue, and he was also complaining that his aftershave was nearly empty ... so those became our presents!
Between Church services we attempted to take some photos that a friend had been asking for. Its a mission to get 2 kids to smile, look at the camera, sit sill and hold that pose! But we managed to get quite a few nice shots.
In the evening we headed over to Chris's parents for dinner of pizza pies, fellowship with relatives and games. Its always so hectic when the whole family gets together, that we tend to forget about taking photos. Instead, just imagine 8 kids playing, 8 adults talking and supervising children playing, and the chaos of making and timing dinner for all 16 of us! But we love it :)
And this is our favourite photo of the day
♥
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tahnee: 12 months
It was a busy day for Tahnee today - a 12 month developmental assessment at Princess Margaret Hospital and immunisations!
Part of each developmental appointment is us filling in a questionnaire about achievements and milestones. Like I blogged about last month, we received the questionnaire well before Tahnee's first birthday, and after having a quick skim read, I was a little apprehensive as Tahnee was achieving nothing. Its not that surprising since we got it so early, but in the past she had been achieving everything very quickly, so this was a shock. However, over the next month we watched her and began to slowly tick things off, until the night before, the only big thing she wasn't doing yet was walking ... she achieved so much in just a month ... and all things we otherwise wouldn't have paid attention to!
This morning started out feeling much like déjà vu ... we were up early, getting Lucas ready to drop off at Kristy's and then head up to PMH. A little while before we were supposed to leave, Kristy said she could swing past and pick Lucas up instead. Lucas was VERY excited about spending the day with her ... and once she had arrived and the car seat was installed, he was happy to be strapped in ... and nearly forgot to kiss us good-bye!
We had a 10am appointment at PMH. Its always hard to know what time to leave, as we need to factor in traffic and parking, especially as the hospital is about an hour away (from leaving our house to walking in the main entrance). Plus parking can be an issue, especially with such as early appointment, as you cant count on many cars finishing their appointments and leaving. Today was a little harder to find parking, we tried 2 car parks before ending up at our "usual" area, where we found someone leaving straight away :)
We then headed to the Out-Patients for the appointment. Today was a little different as we had been told it was an interactive appointment that would take about an hour. We would also see a different specialist as opposed to our usual paediatrician that we saw for her previous developmental assessments.
After arriving, we settling in to wait for our name to be called. We grabbed a free coffee from the volunteers and also had a chat (Tahnee had a cuddle) with one of them. We were then called in to get Tahnee weighed and measured, standard procedure with her appointments. Since we didn't have the "typical" birth weight photo after she was born, we took the chance to take a photo now. Thankfully Tahnee was nice and still on the lay back scales and didn't need to be weighed in the chair scales!
We were then told to sit in the waiting room and wait for the specialist to call us, again standard procedure. While we were waiting, a lady walked towards us with her baby boy in a pram. The boy was adorable, waving to everyone. As they came closer, the lady stopped and spoke to us and we then realised that she was a fellow mum from NICU (for those who may know her, it was Lily and Kai). It was good to touch base again and see how well our children were doing. Her little boy still has an NG tube, and Tahnee was fascinated, trying to pull it out! So glad we don't deal with that on a daily basis (although I guess, if she had one she would be used to it and wouldn't always pull at it).
Soon after we were called into the offices. There, the specialist led Tahnee through a series of activities. One activity involved Tahnee being given small, 2cm square blocks, with 2 in a box (vertical). She was asked to put the blocks into the box, and then take them out again. She was great at putting them in, not so good at taking them out. Other activities included seeing her reaction to a small mirror (she gave herself a kiss), seeing what she did with a teaspoon and cup (she drank from it and made the sipping noise), playing with a car, throwing/pushing a ball, identifying toys, scribbling on a piece of paper and getting her to crawl. Overall she did well and the specialist said she had no concerns about her development. She also said she would send us a detailed, written report in the post.
We also discussed further appointments. The 12month assessment was Tahnee's last for development. But the specialist was concerned that we hadn't seen the surgeons since November last year, so she is going to re-refer us, just in case we were missed off the system. She is also going to refer us onto respiratory, for 2 reasons: one that Tahnee has had numerous colds and cant seem to shake them well and secondly, because she doesn't want to discharge us, only to find that down the track we should have been monitored and that something may be prevented or something like that. We are happy with this outcome, as we don't feel 100% confident in being discharged completely.
Once the testing was done (it took an hour), we headed up to the ward to hand back the milk bottles we had taken home with us! It was embarrassing to realise that all the nurses who knew us, remembered how much milk we left with!! Many of them were excited to see Tahnee and were amazed how much she had grown and that it was already a year since she was born.
To sum up, at 12 months Tahnee:
- figured out how to go from crawling to sitting 2 weeks before her birthday
- was fully weaned to cows milk 2 weeks before her birthday
- is still wearing size 00 tops, but can fit size 0 tops
- still wears size 000 bottoms but they are getting too short - I said tough, wear them out til it gets warmer
- is up to date with her immunisations
- is becoming very independent and wants to feed herself, with a fork, at dinner times, but then gets frustrated as she is slow but hungry
- can say the following words: mum, dad, pa (for Opa), cus (for Lucas), ta (for thank you), ips (for chips), bye-bye, cya and hi.
* She now weighs 8614g, and has gained just over 5kg since birth
* Her head circumference grew by over 10cm
* Her height is now 72.8cm and she grew nearly 17cm - we think that her original length was incorrect as it placed her above the 97th percentile, and she is now on the 50th. Its unusual to drop so much and so quickly. Also, the way she was measured was a little dodgy, but the best they could do around the cords, tubes and wires - they measured top of head to shoulder, then shoulder to hip, then hip to ankle etc.
We are very proud of our little girl and all that she achieved this past year! Thanks to everyone who has supported us one way or another over the last 17 months and we value your continued support over the next year :)
Part of each developmental appointment is us filling in a questionnaire about achievements and milestones. Like I blogged about last month, we received the questionnaire well before Tahnee's first birthday, and after having a quick skim read, I was a little apprehensive as Tahnee was achieving nothing. Its not that surprising since we got it so early, but in the past she had been achieving everything very quickly, so this was a shock. However, over the next month we watched her and began to slowly tick things off, until the night before, the only big thing she wasn't doing yet was walking ... she achieved so much in just a month ... and all things we otherwise wouldn't have paid attention to!
This morning started out feeling much like déjà vu ... we were up early, getting Lucas ready to drop off at Kristy's and then head up to PMH. A little while before we were supposed to leave, Kristy said she could swing past and pick Lucas up instead. Lucas was VERY excited about spending the day with her ... and once she had arrived and the car seat was installed, he was happy to be strapped in ... and nearly forgot to kiss us good-bye!
We had a 10am appointment at PMH. Its always hard to know what time to leave, as we need to factor in traffic and parking, especially as the hospital is about an hour away (from leaving our house to walking in the main entrance). Plus parking can be an issue, especially with such as early appointment, as you cant count on many cars finishing their appointments and leaving. Today was a little harder to find parking, we tried 2 car parks before ending up at our "usual" area, where we found someone leaving straight away :)
We then headed to the Out-Patients for the appointment. Today was a little different as we had been told it was an interactive appointment that would take about an hour. We would also see a different specialist as opposed to our usual paediatrician that we saw for her previous developmental assessments.
After arriving, we settling in to wait for our name to be called. We grabbed a free coffee from the volunteers and also had a chat (Tahnee had a cuddle) with one of them. We were then called in to get Tahnee weighed and measured, standard procedure with her appointments. Since we didn't have the "typical" birth weight photo after she was born, we took the chance to take a photo now. Thankfully Tahnee was nice and still on the lay back scales and didn't need to be weighed in the chair scales!
 |
| weight |
 |
| length |
We were then told to sit in the waiting room and wait for the specialist to call us, again standard procedure. While we were waiting, a lady walked towards us with her baby boy in a pram. The boy was adorable, waving to everyone. As they came closer, the lady stopped and spoke to us and we then realised that she was a fellow mum from NICU (for those who may know her, it was Lily and Kai). It was good to touch base again and see how well our children were doing. Her little boy still has an NG tube, and Tahnee was fascinated, trying to pull it out! So glad we don't deal with that on a daily basis (although I guess, if she had one she would be used to it and wouldn't always pull at it).
 |
| waiting to be weighed and measured |
 |
| kisses for Daddy |
Soon after we were called into the offices. There, the specialist led Tahnee through a series of activities. One activity involved Tahnee being given small, 2cm square blocks, with 2 in a box (vertical). She was asked to put the blocks into the box, and then take them out again. She was great at putting them in, not so good at taking them out. Other activities included seeing her reaction to a small mirror (she gave herself a kiss), seeing what she did with a teaspoon and cup (she drank from it and made the sipping noise), playing with a car, throwing/pushing a ball, identifying toys, scribbling on a piece of paper and getting her to crawl. Overall she did well and the specialist said she had no concerns about her development. She also said she would send us a detailed, written report in the post.
We also discussed further appointments. The 12month assessment was Tahnee's last for development. But the specialist was concerned that we hadn't seen the surgeons since November last year, so she is going to re-refer us, just in case we were missed off the system. She is also going to refer us onto respiratory, for 2 reasons: one that Tahnee has had numerous colds and cant seem to shake them well and secondly, because she doesn't want to discharge us, only to find that down the track we should have been monitored and that something may be prevented or something like that. We are happy with this outcome, as we don't feel 100% confident in being discharged completely.
Once the testing was done (it took an hour), we headed up to the ward to hand back the milk bottles we had taken home with us! It was embarrassing to realise that all the nurses who knew us, remembered how much milk we left with!! Many of them were excited to see Tahnee and were amazed how much she had grown and that it was already a year since she was born.
To sum up, at 12 months Tahnee:
- figured out how to go from crawling to sitting 2 weeks before her birthday
- was fully weaned to cows milk 2 weeks before her birthday
- is still wearing size 00 tops, but can fit size 0 tops
- still wears size 000 bottoms but they are getting too short - I said tough, wear them out til it gets warmer
- is up to date with her immunisations
- is becoming very independent and wants to feed herself, with a fork, at dinner times, but then gets frustrated as she is slow but hungry
- can say the following words: mum, dad, pa (for Opa), cus (for Lucas), ta (for thank you), ips (for chips), bye-bye, cya and hi.
* She now weighs 8614g, and has gained just over 5kg since birth
* Her head circumference grew by over 10cm
* Her height is now 72.8cm and she grew nearly 17cm - we think that her original length was incorrect as it placed her above the 97th percentile, and she is now on the 50th. Its unusual to drop so much and so quickly. Also, the way she was measured was a little dodgy, but the best they could do around the cords, tubes and wires - they measured top of head to shoulder, then shoulder to hip, then hip to ankle etc.
We are very proud of our little girl and all that she achieved this past year! Thanks to everyone who has supported us one way or another over the last 17 months and we value your continued support over the next year :)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
By-gone Memories
On this day in 2011, we were coming to terms with the fact that our beautiful baby girl had come back from her first surgery with her bowels outside of her body ...
On this day in 2010, we were turning Lucas's car seat around to forward facing
On this day in 2009, I was 16 weeks pregnant with Lucas!
As you can tell, I am a bit nostalgic today ... memories of Tahnee in hospital continue to invade my head, inconveniently distracting me from what I should be doing. After looking up "old" photos from a year ago, I remember reading many posts like this on this blog ... and I started wondering what we were doing on the same date, on previous years. Amazingly, I had photos from the last 3 years ... gotta love digital photography :)
On this day in 2010, we were turning Lucas's car seat around to forward facing
On this day in 2009, I was 16 weeks pregnant with Lucas!
As you can tell, I am a bit nostalgic today ... memories of Tahnee in hospital continue to invade my head, inconveniently distracting me from what I should be doing. After looking up "old" photos from a year ago, I remember reading many posts like this on this blog ... and I started wondering what we were doing on the same date, on previous years. Amazingly, I had photos from the last 3 years ... gotta love digital photography :)
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