Terrible, Horrible, Rediculous!

As if my husband being in a war zone, and my son teething wasn't enough?
 Well...Where to begin?

I'll start with yesterday. My son has three Hemangiomas. One on his arm, one on his neck, and one on his scalp. The one on his neck, and the one on his scalp are rather un-noticeable. However, the one on his arm, is ever present. They are not harmful, nor do they affect his health. Thank goodness! So yesterday my son and I were off to the second dermatologist we were referred to, to find out about possible treatments. All was well, except they just referred us to another dermatologist, after telling me about ten different things that could be wrong, or come from these marks. Supposedly this next doctor is the only one in the state specializing in these marks. Who, of course, does not accept my insurance. However, I was told to pay out of pocket, because it was "well worth it", for him to be seen by this doctor. Okay.. so we leave there, go home, feed J, off to the post office, mail daddy a box. Now on to my doctors appointment. My appointment was at 3 pm . After arriving at 2:30, I am called into the office at 3:30. At 3:45, (still not seen by the doctor) a nurse comes in and asks if my car has TN plates. I say yes, she says, well in that case, an elderly man just smashed your car in the parking lot, leave your baby here, I'll watch him, go check it out. So I go down the 3 flights of steps to find a man atleast 75 years old. He says, "Oh little lady, my foot just slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal." I look at my car, and just sob. My eyes fill with  tears, and all I can think about is how much my husband loves his car. So they say, finish your appointment and we will follow you to the police station to file a report. They come upstairs with me, give me all their information and respectively wait in the waiting room. I finish my appointment, and then follow these folks to the police station. The drive alone took forty five minutes due to traffic.. WONDERFUL.

I get a message on my phone from my husband. I let him know what happens, he's not upset. Thank goodness. I was so worried, he was going to be pissed off!
So then we get home, and my poor baby is just screaming. I mean hysterically screaming....Kicking his legs and all.  This continues on and off all night. My son has been teething for about a week now. He's been chewing on his hand and drooling like crazy! So I chalk it up to just teething discomfort.
This morning I call this "SPECIAL DOCTOR". I get his scheduling office. They take all of my information and say oh, you're in luck, his next available appointment isn't until the end of October, but someone JUST canceled, can you be there in an hour?  Okay, where it located? DETROIT! That will take me 45 minutes. So I rush, get the baby together, load up the car, set the GPS, and I'm off. We make it just in time.. Or so I think. Park the car in the parking garage. I was told the doctor is located on the 8th floor of Henry Ford Hospital. So Get Jax into his stroller and up the elevator to the 8th floor... Just to see a sign that says, "Dr. Shwayder's office has been moved to the 8th floor of the New City Center across the street." Ohhhh GREAT! So down the elevator, out the door, and across the busiest street in Detroit with a baby stroller, a screaming baby, a diaper bag, a folder with doctors papers, and a ringing phone. Are you kidding? Wasn't this enough stress? So we get there. We wait..and we wait.. Finally, they call us in. The nurse asks me ten questions then says she will be back with a baby gown for him to change into. Not even two seconds later Jaxson spits up all down the front of himself, and me. WONDERFUL. Forty-five minutes go by..I'm getting more and more impatient. I go to the desk, I ask the lady if they forgot about us...she says Oh no mam, actually the appointment was already booked, but not updated with his scheduling office, so he is double booked, he should be right in...Mmmhmm..GREAT! So another 20 minutes and finally a resident doctor comes in. Asks me the same ten questions, then says the Dr will be in shortly...As if I believed that at this point. Ten minutes later, FINALLY! A doctor, the resident, and two students. Just what I need. 5 adults and a baby in a room the size of my closet. The doctor goes over all the possible treatments, some basic information about the marks, and shows me on his computer the progress that has been made in recent studies about these marks. The pictures are overly convincing and give me hopes that these will be gone and done with before we know it!
He decides beta blocker medication (which has had amazing results, with little to no risk) will be the best option for little Jaxson. He tells me he would like me to come back once a month for the next year. Yeah okay, at the rate of 270$ a visit, OUT OF POCKET! I explain he doesn't accept my insurance, and I'm not sure we can afford such a thing. He tells me he will contact Jaxsons pedi, and see how he feels about following up with the treatment, and only coming back in six months to see him. That sounds much more reasonable to me. He then tells me pressure wraps will also help to reduce the puffiness of the mark on his arm. So he shows me how to wrap his arm, and tells me to keep him wrapped 24/7, and only undo these wraps for baths. Okay! So that's great news. His hemangioms are not growing on the inside, and their simply common birthmarks. I'm ecstatic. I finally get a sigh of relief. Pay my dues(which were outrageous!), and out the door we go..Cross the street. Get to my car.
Pull out into the lovely streets of Detroit. My mom calls me. I cant get to my phone and people are crossing the street left and right. Finally I get to my phone. Four missed calls. She calls again, I pick up.

She then tells me Similac, has recalled a whole bunch of formula, and to check Jaxsons when we get home.. OH GREAT. My baby is now screaming, he's hungry. I turn on my GPS, hit the home button and it tells me... "turn right, enter lodge on right" Oh okay. Onto the lodge I get, I look around, looks like im going out of the city. WTF? So I look at my gps. It tells me to continue 52 miles to the Ohio turnpike. LOVELY. My gps is set for TN as home, and not my moms house. So I change the address. "exit first exit on right." Oh okay, well if MI didn't have construction cones up for the next 15 miles, (WITH NO ONE WORKING...) then I could of. However, I had to drive 15 miles twords Ohio before being able to get off the expressway. Now..my gas warning comes on. Great. In Detroit. No gas. Pull over. Get gas. Back in my car. Back on the expressway. Get about 20 miles, (so basically where I started) Just to be in dead stopped traffic with a screaming, hungry baby.

Finally after an hour and ten minutes in traffic, we get home. I check my sons formula. YEP RECALLED. For what you may ask? BEETLE AND BEETLE LARVA CONTAMINATION! So for the last week, I have been feeding my poor son, formula with a side of beetle contamination. GREAT. I cry some more. Because what the hell else could go wrong? So I call his pediatricians after hours answering service, and they tell me Dr. V will call me back. Calls back immediately. ( I love his pedi, he's wonderful) I explain what has happened, and he reassures me everything will be fine, and I don't need to rush my son to the ER like I was prepared to do. He tells me I must however toss every single bottle, bowl, spoon, formula container, travel case. ANYTHING that came into contact with his formula had to be replaced, and that I should bring him into the office tomorrow. So with a screaming, hungry, baby with a tummy ache, I'm off to babies r us! Where swarms of mom are scowering the bottle isle, and the formula isle. Similac has pulled all of their powder, so you can only buy liquid concentrate (because their liquid was not affected), which we all know is twice as expensive as the powder. Oh well, I suck it up. Get Jax new bottles, formula, spoons, bowls and formula travel case. 120 some dollars later, we're out the door. And I'm positive every person in the store was glad to see me and my screaming son go. I get home, scrub a new bottle, and feed my poor boy. And a smile I have not seen in three days plants itself on his face. WHEW! I'm so relieved to see that! My poor baby is now swinging away and content as can be...Thank goodness. I can't even imagine what tomorrow has in store for me!
All in all, my sons marks are harmless, the specialist was wonderful...(and well worth it I have to admit), and we've got new "un-tainted" formula... So, here's hoping everyone out there has had a better two days then me, and that tomorrow is much less hectic and traumatizing...

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AA