I dropped Larissa (with her note) and Emma off at school and then headed to Columbia to take Anthony and Michelle to the orthodontist. I am giving the prices of braces for those that are looking and curious about the cost. This is not secret information so I have no problem sharing it. Here in South Carolina orthodontist procedures are not covered by medicaid at all. Our own insurance covers some.
Michelle is getting braces on her front teeth only. She will eventually get full braces when more of her teeth come in. We are doing those teeth purely as a self esteem booster. Michelle calls her teeth Nanny McPhee teeth because of the way they stick out. We had a choice to correct that now or wait until she gets all of her braces. Apparently she has a strong muscle that runs up between her front teeth. This may need to be cauterized to correct her problem. We chose to spend the $1880 to correct the problem now (out insurance covers 940). It is expected that she will have these braces for 10 months.
Anthony got full braces. He may need to have some teeth pulled to correct his problem. His teeth protrude and are not aligned correctly. His braces will cost $6880 and he is expected to have braces for 30 months (our insurance covers 1750).
These costs cover everything from the beginning to 6 months beyond the retainers. I wonder how the costs are compared to other areas. Larissa has an underbite and was evaluated. She will have braces but not yet, she may get some spacers in the next 6 months because of overcrowding.
I took the kids to school after the orthodontist and went in and talked with the principal about Larissa. Larissa's teacher says that Larissa cried when she hurt her wrist but seemed fine after that. Larissa has claimed all along that she asked her at lunch to see the nurse for an ice pack and was told no. Her story has never changed. As a matter of fact when she came home today she told me that the nurse came to her and asked what happened. Larissa said that she told her that she asked to see her for an ice pack at lunch but was told no. I am inclined to believe Larissa and don't know what to think of the teacher denying the fact that Larissa asked.
The principal believes her teacher but does feel that when a child is hurt at recess bad enough to cry then they need to be sent to the health room for the nurse to determine if there is a problem. She plans on implementing this with her teachers. (Our school does have a nurse).
I am not going to get into a battle over the arm situation. However, I reiterated that I want called when Larissa appears to be too tired. I have yet to receive one phone call yet she comes home so tired that she is dizzy. I said that their concern of her abusing the situation is causing undue stress on Larissa. If she is so tired that she is dizzy then she is not functioning in class. If I feel that she is abusing the ability to call me then I will deal with it.
As soon as the kids got home from school Larissa had a doctor appointment. She now has a referral to see a orthopedic doctor.
At 6:30 Michelle had a chorus performance at the local high school. We all went to watch. See her? Probably not since she is behind the piano. I always seem to have a problem with seeing my kids!
We got home around 8:30 and I got the kids to bed. Just as I turned to my HGTV channel to relax Jason came into the house with an odd expression on his face. He started shaking and told me that all of a sudden his tooth was killing him. He was in some serious pain. I have never seen him in that much pain. I took him up the the ER to get some antibiotics and pain medicine. He does not have insurance. He is too old to be on ours, makes too little for Obamacare (I don't understand that, I thought that was the purpose of Obamacare) and he makes too much for Medicaid. I paid for his ER visit and the medication they gave him put him to sleep. Tomorrow we have to find him a dentist to deal with the tooth and fill his prescriptions.
Finally, around midnight I got home. I did all that running around and didn't accomplish anything at home. Such is my life, I have to schedule time to clean and do laundry.
Jasmine's braces are entirely covered by medicaid. We had to take her off our delta dental and switch regular dentists to do it. Are you delta? I think they pay $1,200 total and not one cent more. And they wouldn't covered any of Ty's and Jessica's follow up stuff even though they hadn't paid a cent of theirs when we switched insurance because they weren't the company that approved them for the initial braces.
ReplyDeleteTy now has no insurance of any kind. He is 24 so off of ours. He tried applying for medicaid since he made so little but was turned down. Guess you have to have a kid to get any help. An autistic child trying to be responsible doesn't get any help with anything :(
Jessica had a bad abcess and her face swelled up. She had just aged out of our insurance (it happened the day after her 23rd bd!!) but our dentist saw her and gave her antibiotics. She hasn't gotten anything done with the tooth though due to the cost of a root canal and crown.
Something must've been in the air yesterday. I was on my game all day, and fell down the stairs when only my 10 year old foster son was home. It took 50 more minutes for my husband to show up so I could call 911, because I couldn't move off the floor. Turns out I have a spinal cord contusion and I can't even sit or stand on my own today. Plus, now our son is totally freaked out because of his past experiences with ambulances so he was a basket case last night and is still not really keeping it together today.
ReplyDeleteWow, hope you heal quickly! That would have scared my kids who haven't had a history of ambulances. Hope things get back to "normal" soon for your foster son.
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