Hi Everyone,

Today marks 8 months. I am pushing for the therapy hours Corey needs at home in order to gain her strength and function to attend an outpatient program and school come September. As things stand right now, she receives 30 hours a year from Blue Cross. I found out today that the evaluations for PT/OT/Speech and a visit from the social worker from Blue cross are all deducted from that 30 hour total. This means that by the time they assess her we’ll be left with 20-24 hours total. This will give us therapy for 1 month!

The PT therapist that evaluated Corey had only one suggestion; try to get more hours from the school. At the moment, we are looking at 4.5 hours per week from the district.
In addition, it was confirmed today that Corey’s bed is a residential standard “hospital bed”. Insurance believes that a true hospital bed is a luxury or convenience item for the residential setting.

This is the reason we all need to write our Senators and Congressman.

These details are not just our issue. Insurance companies have the power to dictate how they spend our money and on what they believe is a standard for care. The only way to change this is to rewrite the Healthcare legislation. This will only happen with the people speaking up! That’s us…each of us have our own issues we deal with daily. Each of you has the potential to be where we are right now. We don’t think of the details until we are living with the situation. Please consider taking a pen to paper or type your requests, we must speak up now! Rehabilitation hours are as critical as medication for Corey and thousands of other patients across the country. It’s unconscionable that Insurance believes that the family should be responsible for the care of their loved ones at this level of injury.

Someone asked me today if I hit the lottery what would I spend the money on. My answer…”a sub acute facility for 18-30 year old with long term and short term care, as well as outpatient rehabilitation with respite care for the families”. Just imagine…one facility per major city across the country. Families and patients within this demographic deserve the care, support and security this type of facility model would provide in order for the “whole” family to heal.

My focus is more immediate…Corey’s healing and recovery. This morning we had coffee on the back deck; at least my sister Louise and I did, Corey hung out enjoying the view. We took a morning walk and then back for a morning rest. We are giving her 15 minutes per hour for range of motion exercises. It’s crucial to keep her moving while we are not receiving any therapy.

This afternoon Corey was anxious to do anything that would engage her mind. I broke out the coloring books and crayons. We’ve got a new 1st to share. We opened the box of 64 crayons and asked Corey to pick a color. She definitely has her pincer grasp and fine motor control! She not only removed the crayons from the box, she also managed to manipulate the crayon to color (outside the lines of course…but why should she start coloring INSIDE the lines now, right?) We asked Corey to pick out crayons by color, which she did with about 75% accuracy. She managed to remove the majority of the crayons from the box. Our nurse asked Corey ‘who’s going to put all those crayons back’? Corey pointed to her self and proceeded to put each crayon back in the box!

Corey’s girlfriends popped in for a visit and pizza on the back deck. We had a great visit and we began to teach Corey a few more sign language motions including “thank you”…four fingers to the chin then extend the arm and hand towards the person she’s thanking. Similar to blowing a kiss, but begin at the chin. She also picked up a variation of the sign for “more”.

That’s what we want Corey girl…MORE! More progress, more new motions, more 1st’s! It’s so nice to see you with your girlfriends in your home. With our friends popping in to say hello, it’s just like the “old days”…our home is coming alive again. It’s wonderful! I am amazed at how you’re healing and the visit from your friends is the best medicine of all! Happy dreams honey. Tomorrow we will play some more! xoxo