Halloween Festivities

Sunday we took Sophia over to my parents' house and dressed her up in her little pink pig Halloween costume. We weren't really planning on taking her trick or treating but wanted Grammy and Grampy to see her dressed up (again...we went to my Dad's office on Friday and she was dressed up...I didn't get any pictures that day because she kept me busy chasing her all around) and for Uncle Dillon to see her as well. And we had planned on taking her over to my aunt and uncle's house for them to see her too. Mostly to get as much use out of her little pig costume as we possibly could. She seemed to like it even though it made her a sweaty little pink pig. :-)











Tonight after dinner we got her dressed in her costume again. Since we really can't trick or treat in our neighborhood (for a lot of reasons I won't name or I will just get annoyed) we decided that we would drive to a close by neighborhood and just go to a few houses. We took a few pictures and then went out to the car. We really weren't going far, only a few miles, but Sophia fell asleep in the car! We then decided that we would just go home. Maybe next year we will have more success! Even though we didn't actually do any trick or treating, Sophia was the cutest little pink pig ever. And we did better than last year, we didn't even dress her up in a costume last year!! Surely next year we will make it to at least one house for trick or treating. I think Sophia liked being an adorable little pink pig but will probably be happy that she won't have to wear that costume ever again!! :-)

Carving Pumpkins

Last Tuesday we carved the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch. For some reason we decided to involve Sophia in this activity.
She didn't really want to touch any of the goopy stuff from the inside of the pumpkin but was very interested in the seeds. We only had to fish two out of her mouth. :-) She was also interested in the carving tools so that was fun to try and keep her away from them the whole time. And even though she didn't want to touch it, she seemed to want to walk through the pile of discarded goop. Thanks to Michael's great carving skills we ended up with a good looking Minnie pumpkin (which Sophia recognized as Minnie and really liked) and another spooky pumpkin (my request, Halloween just isn't the same without a spooky pumpkin).
Another favorite part of Halloween and pumpkin carving for me is roasting the pumpkin seeds. Normally I can barely wait for the seeds to dry out before I stick them on a pan and into the oven to roast. This time I waited a full two days for them to dry before roasting them. This turned out to be an epic fail. After they were in the oven only a few minutes I heard a popping sound. When I when into the kitchen to investigate, it turns out the super dry seeds were popping off the pan like popcorn. And they tasted like cardboard when I finally took them out. Ugh. Next year they are going straight from the pumpkin to the oven, just minus the goop.

A Funny Story

No, not about pumpkins this time. There will be more of that to come with Halloween just around the corner, don't worry.
And actually the story isn't really so funny. More like infuriating.
Two weeks ago I went for my follow up appointment with the neurologist. Everything went great, nothing really new to share....the doctor said that before he gives me a prescription for the migraine medicine to just check with my insurance to see which one they cover because some of them can be pretty pricey and then he could just call it in. Sounds so simple and nice of him to think of our finances. Right? Ugh, so wrong. And so not simple.
Michael found out that all we had to do for insurance is have the doctor give them a pre-authorization for the prescription and then they'd cover it. Um, what a lie. When the nice medical assistant to my neurologist got back with me, she said that the insurance company denied the pre-auth for the medication. Ooooo-kaaayy. She advised me to call and see which of the medications that they do cover (and then gave me some possibilities...which included a couple that I had sampled and would be ok with taking).
When I finally got Traci from Blue Cross on the line, she explained that the Zomig that I was trying to get prescribed was denied because I first had to take some other "preferred" options first. Um, excuse me? Traci, would you mind faxing me your neurology credentials real quick?? When she listed the two "preferred" options, one being Imitrex, I said, no way, I've taken that, it doesn't work, I DO NOT WANT THAT. And then she grilled me on who prescribed it to me and said that Dr. Silverboard (my actual neurologist) would have to make a note on its side effects on why I can't take it and that my other option is something called Amerge. Never heard of it, since that is not one of the two samples my neurologist gave me to try or on the list his medical assistant gave me. And that I didn't go to a neurologist to just take something random that I don't know if it will work and what the side effects will be. Oh, well, explained Traci, the non-doctor, I have to take those medications first before I can get any of the others approved. At this point I am angry and trying not to cry at the same time. Not a good combo for Traci, I must say. I tried to explain why I was going to a neurologist in the first place, to actually find a way to get rid of my migraines, and this medicine (that she was not letting me have) actually worked. I asked her if she ever had a migraine or if she ever tried to function with a one year old while experiencing a migraine. She ignored most of that but did apologize and repeated that once there are notes from the doctor on why the "preferred" medications don't work then maybe they can approve the other options. Traci and I didn't end the conversation on good terms, with me getting the crappy end of the disagreement.
So, isn't that very interesting? I have spent $100 in co-pays to see a neurologist twice (because a specialist is more than a normal doc) but yet all I really had to do was call up Traci at Blue Cross and say, hey, I get migraines, what should I take for them?? If I fall and break my leg, should I just text a picture to Traci and say, cast or no, what do you think??
I understand that insurance doesn't want to pay a lot covering things, prescriptions, hospital visits, etc. I definitely get that....several years ago I was in the ER in Orlando for like 4 hours and it took me almost a year to pay off what insurance didn't cover. But I guess I just don't understand how they can decide that what a doctor prescribes or says or advises is just a complete denial. Michael said maybe we can just see how much the Zomig costs and get the crap prescription from insurance that they will cover and then also have the Zomig in case the other doesn't work....but I think it is well over $100 for like 9 pills....yikes, maybe not an option. I also don't see why insurance won't even cover some of it. And then let us decide if we can afford it, or have to try the lesser prescription first. I guess insurance is one of those things I will never understand. And will probably give myself a migraine if I even try. And I definitely want to avoid migraines, if I can, at all costs now, since who knows if my medicine will make them go away!!
One final thought....Blue Cross, you kinda suck. Today you did NOT help me out when I needed you. Glad I am not a sickly person.

Pumpkin Pictures at the Park

So what else are you supposed to do with a giant pumpkin? Well, as long as your husband doesn't develop a hernia from lugging it around, take it to the park and put some other little pumpkins with it and take some pictures! Which is exactly what we did today when Michael got home from work (and so far, no hernia!). Again the weather was perfect and all we had to do was bring our pumpkins to the little park area (that used to be the tennis court in our complex....thankfully close to our building, but we drove anyway considering we had the heaviest pumpkin in the world with us, haha) and let Sophia loose. She had a fun time. I think she is really liking some pumpkins! We were even able to use a chair that was in the area to set the timer on our camera and get a good family photo since no one else was around to take it for us. Of course, right after that, some new neighbors walked by and we had a good time chatting with her and her 2 year old son. And Sophia loves their puppy. Yay, new friends! It was a really nice night and we got some good pictures out of our little impromptu photo session. And we found a good use for giant pumpkins!!

Burts Pumpkin Patch

Today we had a really fun day at Burts Pumpkin Patch. The weather was great, it really was a perfect day, maybe even a few degrees hotter than we thought it would be. It is always a longer drive than I remember and there was some traffic on our way (and we got a later start than we intended) but when we got there it was so worth it. We skipped the trip last year because Sophia was just too tiny...not even a couple months old! Not to say that we didn't see some tiny babies there....one family was even trying to set up these two tiny tiny twin babies on some giant pumpkins for a picture.....very glad we decided to skip it last year, that is all I will say about that!
We figured it would be packed and it was very crowded....but parking was easy and we didn't have to fight for a wheelbarrow and for some reason it didn't feel as cramped as in past years that we have gone. This was good news though, we were able to let Sophia walk around in the pumpkins. She had a GREAT time! I think she loved that the pumpkins were as big as, if not bigger, than her. And she really loved seeing all the other kids there too. More than once she waved at complete strangers trying to pick out their pumpkins. We picked out our perfect pumpkins and took a good number of pictures, got some snacks and then were out of there in about an hour or so. The only thing I wish we had done was ask someone to take a family picture of us amongst the pumpkins. Oh, well, there is always next year. Because we will definitely be making the trek to Burts an annual Santoro family tradition. :-)