Happy Day of Giving Thanks

Exactly three months to the day that my Mom and I packed up the car and drove down to Palo Alto we arrived back home to Reno. It has only been a few days since we've been home but has been oh so nice. I don't feel like we're completely here yet because we still haven't settled in and we have no moved out of the room at the Ronald McDonald house. We have a clinic appointment on Monday, so we're going back down tomorrow some time and coming home (for good) on Monday afternoon after we clean our room and give back our keys. It will be bittersweet.

Yesterday we went to our friends' house for a Thanksgiving feast. It was so great to be home and to see all of our family and friends. I can feel us moving back into some sense of normalcy, being home really helps me to feel it.

Joaquin is getting better at walking. Just now he is feeling confident to walk to where he wants to go without prompting or having someone waiting for him. He used to want to hold my finger while he walked even though he didn't need it but now he's doing it by himself. He's also dancing - taking little steps quickly. He always used to dance by putting him hands in the arm and waving them up and down, but now he's got the footwork to go with it.

The past few weeks we've been dealing with his white cell count being low - which leaves him susceptible to infections. We were having to pay for the GCFS out of pocket until we can get insurance to cover it. Yesterday I was at the pharmacy in Reno and the shot was a larger dose and was going to cost us $429! And then the pharmacist told me that she had called Wellcare and they said we had been terminated. I was fuming, knowing we are not terminated and that they always try to say we're terminated, so I called them right there in the pharmacy. I had to wait there for over an hour but in the end I walked out with the GCFS shot and only having to pay the $3 co-pay. I felt victorious, but sick of always having to fight to get things covered. Even the pharmacist yesterday didn't understand why they put us through all of this when it's something he needs.

And then I get a call from the doctor at the hospital who checked the lab work we got in Reno and he said that Joaquin's white cell count was on the higher side, so he wouldn't even be needing the shot! It was good news that his white cell count went up. I was thinking about how last year before we came home he had issues with high blood pressure and once we were home it went down to normal. I'm hoping that being home will make everything smooth out for him as well. I'm thinking it will. Even though he's still getting used to being home, I'm sure he can sense that I'm happy to be home and feeling more relaxed having our friends and family surrounding us.