It never ceases to amaze me that I serve a mighty, mighty God. Whenever I get overwhelmed (like today) and think that I need to work hard and jump through hoops to get all my ducks in a row, He comes along and shows me that He had it under control the whole time and that He really didn’t need me to do anything for Him…including when I was fretting. At times like these, I am reminded that I am such a foolish little lamb. (WARNING: This is the very descriptive version of a day in the life at the Reis house. I decided to write as my de-stressing therapy for the day; therefore, it is rather lengthy.)
At 9am, I talked to Dr Cameron’s secretary to confirm everything for Thursday and to see what test results needed to be sent to him before the appointment.
I called my new PCM to schedule an office visit for tomorrow afternoon and also to request the referral to see Dr Cameron on Thursday. The referral coordinator said she’d work on it.
After that, one of the EFMP case managers at the base clinic called to tell me that I needed to get a Tricare case manager off base since my PCM is now a provider out-in-town. I called the # and was told that someone would call me back later in the day or tomorrow to ask a bunch of questions. Then my case would go to the panel to decide if I qualify for a case manager to oversee my medical needs and referrals. I should have an answer in 5 days. That was not what I wanted to hear…I needed the referral for my appointment on Thursday.
Right before lunch, Dr Cameron’s secretary called to move my appointment from Thursday morning to all day Wednesday. Dr Cameron wants a CAT scan of the area of the ulcerated mass before he sees me. So now, I have a CAT scan at 10:30 and then the appointment with Dr Cameron at 1pm. At this point, I’m thinking, “Oh great, now I have to get the referral moved up to Wednesday.” She also told me that the surgery wouldn’t be scheduled until after Thanksgiving…either the last week of November or the 1st week of December. I was very excited to hear this. As much as I want this surgery done and for the pain and burning to be over, I’m still thinking of everything that I need (or I should say WANT because in the grand scheme of things, they’re not really important to anyone but me) to do.
- I want to get all my ducks in a row so to speak…especially when it comes to getting the kids taken care of. I want their routine to be interrupted as little as possible. I don’t want them to miss co-op on Wednesday or gymnastics on Thursday afternoons. Plus Caelan has weekly allergy injections, etc, etc, etc. I’d just like some time to get it all set up and mapped out. (I don’t have to worry about keeping track of any of this because my wonderful TX friend Becca has volunteered to keep track of and coordinate childcare, meals, etc while I’m in the hospital and then home andrecuperating…she’s one-of-a-kind.)
- The EWS Marine Corps Ball up in Falls Church is this Friday…we have a room at the hotel. Caelan is staying with our friends the Buchanans, and Cassidy is staying with our friends from TX, the Jaworskis. I am so glad we’re still going.
- Caelan has a couple of specialist appointments related to his developmental delays as well as his vision and sensory issues. I’d like to be the one to take him.
- 3 Sundays ago, we resumed the senior high youth group at church (from its summer break…yes, I know, technically summer ended awhile ago…we’re a little slow). Then, this past Sunday, we added the junior high group to the mix. I’d like to be around for a few more Sundays (mostly for the gamesJ) before bowing out for surgery (I’m just joking…the lessons are important to me too). (I know, I know, surgery is more important than this, but I really, really don’t want to grow up. AND it’s really, really important to build relationships with these youth because they are our future. With the right perspective in place, life can be a lot of fun in spite of its circumstances.)
- I’m also helping with the Awana program at Mt Ararat Baptist Church. New Life wasn’t able to start their program this year so the kids are participating at Mt Ararat, and I’m working with the junior varsity on Sunday nights and the varsity on Wednesday night. Again, I’d like a little more time with the youth before having to be absent for awhile.
- Lastly, and this is truly, truly the lamest “want” on my list, but we’re becoming members of our church here. We were given a choice of which Sunday would be good for us, and we picked the 10th. I’d really like to be there for it. The staff and members of NLCC are just amazing. We feel very much at home already. I just want to be able to publicly make the commitment to them that they’ve already demonstrated to me and my family.
- Oh yeah, Thanksgiving with my family…I’d like to make sure I’m home and celebrating with the kids. It’s important to them.
After lunch, I called back the PCM to let them know the appointment was moved up to Wednesday. She told me, “No problem.” Well, a couple of hours later, I got a phone call because there was a problem. (UGH!) After ironing out a lot of insurance confusion with them (I had to call Tricare and the doc’s office back and forth a few times), I was told that the referral couldn’t be put in until Dr Bataille saw me for my initial visit tomorrow afternoon. I was thinking, “How is the referral going to be approved for a specialist less than 24hrs later? I don’t even have a case manager to push it through?” I was starting to worry and panic because I didn’t want to cancel the appointment. I talked to Matt during a break at school, and; he reminded me of God’s faithfulness. He said, “You always do this, and it always works out in the end. The plans fall in place, and you worried for nothing. Just let it go.” I was thinking, “Oh yeah, that’s easy for you to say.” I did a few things around the house to take my mind off of it.
Around 4:45, I decided to change course and get out the house for a little while. I thought that since it was after work hours no one would be calling for anything related to any of this stuff. I figured the kids needed to get out of the house as well. At this point, I’d spend a majority of the day on the telephone so they were quite wild and unruly—at least in my book—by this time. I’m sure most of you moms know how kids can get when you spend almost the whole day on the phone trying to take care of important stuff. In fact, Caelan used part of the time to perfect his latest talent/trick…making gas noises with his armpits…he’s close to an expert now. (My brother Michael is very proud of his nephew’s accomplish…but just wait, he’s going to have his own child in February. Payback is coming!J) Sooo, we went to the clinic to get a couple of scripts filled (including my “miracle drug”…Zantac).
When I got back from the base pharmacy, it was 5:30…for some reason, it takes a long time to get civilian scripts filled at this base pharmacy. There was a message on my answering machine from a nurse case manager with Tricare. She’d called at 5:15 to get some info (just like I’d been told earlier in the morning). I called her back and caught her just before she left. After getting my GI medical, she determined that I would definitely rate having a case manager, but it would still take 5 days to go through the process. She said that she would operate as my case manager anyway until it was official. Now, all I have to do is have the PCM’s office fax her the request to see Dr Cameron and she would approve it right then and there. I was so thrilled…yes, I did confess to God and Matthew that I was fretting over nothing. Once again, the Lord has made my path straight.
So, this was just a crazy, crazy day for me. The above doesn’t even include taking care of the kids today or arranging for them to be taken care of on Wednesday. How can I ask someone to take them for about 10-12hrs? That’s a LONG time. In the end, my friend Kathy is going to come over and watch them from 7-9am (so they can wake up on their own and have breakfast). A very sweet older lady from church (Elaine) is going to pick them up and; bring them to her house to play for most of the day. Finally, sometime after 3, my friend Kim is going to go get them and bring them back to base so they can participate in the trick-or-treating festivities here on base. (It’s supposed to be amazing…military people who live off base bring their kids to base housing so they can participate. A neighbor said he bought 10 bags of candy last year and ran out. This will be Caelan and Cassidy’s 1st time going trick-or-treating…we changed our mind after reading the facts concerning the history of Halloween and; discovering that we had a lot of misinformation.
Well, I think I covered all the bases with this one.
Thanks for reading through this whole recount of my day. Thanks also for your continued prayers.
I pray that you have a blessed day.
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