Wiped Out

The last two days have been less than eventful. Owen is wiped out and prefers to lay around the house. He has been watching tv, listening to music on the laptop and playing with Kamryn's DSi. I am doing my best to get him up and moving but he's just not having it. Maybe the waterpark on Sunday wore him out for a few days. I'm glad we're going to Stanford next week.

Kamryn got her first violin ever and I can't wait to post some pictures of her playing. Right now it kinda sounds like a "scccrrreeeecccchhh" when she plays, but she'll figure it out.

This is the first school year that Kamryn has needed to bring text books to and from school. Don't get me started on how heavy her backpack is. Poor thing. With her new textbooks, come lots of homework. She seems so grown up sitting at the table doing all the odd math problems for an hour at night. Last night I taught her how to use Microsoft Word so she could type up her first essay. I am amazed at her intelligence and drive to learn!! I was nothing like that at her age.

I am off to spend a good hour on the phone with insurance companies, home healthcare and the doctor's offices. Sigh.

Party Weekend

We have had a busy weekend full of parties and I have no pictures to show for it. Bummer. On Saturday, we celebrated Todd's (Carson's Dad's) Birthday. There was grilling, the kids swam and we had a good time visiting with family.

Saturday night I got a call from our bank letting me know that someone had my debit card and they were enjoying themselves to a shopping spree in Georgia. I told the fraud department that I was looking at my card so there is no way they have it. I'm sure they duplicated it somehow. Rotten crooks. The criminals picked the wrong person to steal from because there wasn't more than $100 left in that account until payday. This is the only time I will ever be excited to be broke! :)

This morning we woke up and headed out to the Hope Kids Luau! It was SO much fun!! We were one of the first families there and settled into a cozy table next to the huge splash pool. We took Owen's long oxygen tubing and he scooted around and around the pool for several hours. We visited with other heart families and chowed down on burgers and dogs.

I realized my true age when Kamryn and I rode down the water slides over and over again..

I am sore tonight. It has to be from the slides beating me around, tossing me into the pool of water at the bottom and climbing the stairs to the top of the slide numerous times. I really need to start working out. That shouldn't kick my butt.

Around 12:30, we were beat. We packed up and headed home for bath time and a long afternoon nap. Thanks Hope Kids for another amazing event!!!

Booked

After spending countless hours on the phone and Internet... our trip is booked!! Who knew it would require so much work to plan. I guess we've always just done it the "easy" way. Jump in the car and go!

I found a Portable Oxygen Concentrator and it's only $220 to rent for four days. A couple other places had them for over $400. Insane. I'm hoping our insurance will reimburse us since it's medically necessary to get us to the hospital. I'll deal with that later.

I purchased our airline tickets and got a pretty decent deal through Southwest. I am still a little iffy on the details of flying with his medications since they are compounded in jugs. He's on such high doses, you should see the bottle sizes of some of his meds. Much larger than the "FAA Approved" liquid. There's also the issue of taking his blended food on board in syringes. My blended creations often look a little sketch and so I'm trying to figure out how to handle that too.

I used Priceline for a rental car... can you say GREAT DEAL!?! I am more excited about my super deal for the car than anything else. I get excited about great deals.

We are staying at our favorite hotel, the one we always stay at. What's not to love about large rooms, comfy beds and free breakfast by the pool? It's impossible to get into the Ronald McDonald House, but I'll keep trying. We've never had any luck.

I appreciate you all telling me about Angel Flights. I will for sure look into that as soon as Owen is oxygen free. For some reason, there is an issue flying on the small planes with oxygen. There is something about the cabin pressure. I don't know.

We have been fortunate to have the resources available to us so that we have the ability to travel to Stanford. We have been stashing money into Owen's transplant account for a couple years now and have had some pretty amazing donations. I'm sure you've noticed the ads on the blog and the revenue from those go straight into Owen's account as well. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to get the care that we feel is best for Owen.

In two weeks, we'll be jumping on a plane. If anyone has tips for flying with toddlers, oxygen, medicine, anything... let me know! I haven't been on a plane in over 11 years and never with a little one, let alone a little one with tons of equipment.