My Madness

I try to make sure that I only write when I have something interesting to say or a funny story of the boys. I guess my hope is that one day I will print all this off as little trinkets of thoughts for Will, Sam, & Isaac. Well, today I am breaking my rule and just writing because my brain is so frustrated that I must vent and you all get to hear the madness in my head. So, here goes!

As some of you know, Will has a leg length discrepency of about 7/8 inch. We have known about it for a few years now so each year we take him to the Orthopaedic doctor to have him remeasured to see how it is doing. This year we also took him to Shriner's hospital in St. Louis to have a second opinion. I don't think that we doubted our doctor here, we just wanted to know that we were doing all that we could for the time being. (As a side note, I do want to say that if you ever get a chance to support Shriner's Hospitals, please do so. The people and the work they do there is amazing and it is totally free.) Anyway, we have been told that besides our periodic visits for x-rays and measuring, we will just wait until Will is in his early teens and if the length discrepency has not improved, then he will have to have a lengthening procedure that is crazy and as Will's mommy, I cannot think about because it makes me cry.

So, in the mean time we are doing our best to make sure that we do all we can to give Will every advantage and opportunity and this is where the madness begins. Oh, but let me first say that this length issue does not in the least bit hamper Will. He has a lift in his shoe that just makes him more comfortable and really gets his hips level but outside of that he is as rowdy as any little 6-year-old! Now, back to the madness.

We took Will to a chiropractor simply because when a person has such a large difference, we figured that his poor back has to be taking a beating and we wanted him to feel great! It's hard because Will has always had this difference to some degree so he mostly feels ok because well, this is all that he has ever known. For instance, until August, he didn't have a lift that made his hips level and he rarely complained of discomfort. Now that he has the proper lift size, he won't go without it. He now knows the difference and how much better it makes him feel. So, this was also the logic behind taking him to the chiropractor, to help him see how great he could feel.

Well, it all seemed like a simple and great idea. But, nothing is simple when insurance is involved. Our insurance company denied Will's visits saying that chiropractic care for spinal manipulation in children under the age of 12 is unproven or "experimental". Now I can go to the chiropractor for spinal manipulation when it is much more difficult to fix because my bones are old and they will pay for that. But my child who has the chance for tremendous improvement is "experimental". How frustrating it is to pay every month into a system for healthcare that really only cares about treating the current problem and sees little value in preventing future ones. Maybe they hope we will be with a new provider by then.

Regardless, whether the insurance company pays their part of not, if we feel that this will help Will, that is what we will do. He is our child and we will do everything possible to give him a great life. And I promise you, if a year from now Will's spine is straight and we can attribute it to these chiropractor visits, this stay-at-home mom will be marching her 3-child-bearing hips to the steps of United Healthcare with my x-rays in hand to share with them my thoughts on their policies and what is included in my Certificate of Coverage. Ooo, I am SO scary, huh? Well, it will make me feel better anyway!