And the answer is...

Well, we got the news this week....

Seth's insurance is NOT going to cover any of his medical expenses. There was some medical jargon and mumbo jumbo about most likely being a preexisting condition (mind you there was nothing visible on the CAT scan with contrast in May), but you know that impartial doctor that works for the insurance company and is probably a cancer expert is probably right. I mean we were just trying to fool them by taking out a policy and moving to Haiti, the whole time knowing Seth had cancer. I used some not so nice words when we got the letter and have had rather awful thoughts about the doctor that made this decision in his very fancy office and drove away in his very fancy car, to his very fancy house. I wonder what it feels like to make decisions every day that impact other people's lives so significantly? I wonder if it even crossed his mind as he was looking over all of Seth's medical information? Basically I pretty much hate big insurance right now and am more in favor of that thing in Obama Care that says insurance companies can't do that whole preexisting condition thing (DO not take this statement as an opening to any political discussion, I don't do that).

I also met with the financial people at Scott and White who said that my current income is about $500 a year too much to qualify for assistance. I told her that I recently got this job and that if we could base it off the income we had when we incurred the expenses (because honestly from the time I got the job till now we haven't had a ton of medical expenses and my insurance started Feb. 1st for us). She said only my current income counts (too bad the insurance company didn't get their act together and make the decision 5 months ago when we started cancer treatment). The good news is she said they thought they could do some type of adjustment on the bill, which I laughed at because even an adjustment of $25,000 off is still more than we could ever afford. She also said that our bill was only about $150,000 right now, but I have a feeling all the charges just haven't shown up yet. Finally, she said that our insurance company said there are $10,000 worth of charges they won't pay no matter what.

So, we are getting a lawyer and appealing everything, I think we are going to try to talk with a lawyer this week. I have heard that denying big claims is pretty standard for health insurance companies and that you really need to have a lawyer appeal it, I guess it means we are more serious. We just keep moving forward and continue to stay hopeful. This situation has reminded me as much in control of our lives that we like to think we are, there is so much outside of our control. So many of our friends in Haiti know this so much more deeply than even we do. We do not find purpose in this, but we continue to try to find hope and know that even out of the bad good things can still come. For me this has meant that as a medical social worker I am able to be much more empathetic with families struggling with sick loved ones, for Seth this has been dreaming of the possibilities of a new position at Mission Waco/Mission World. For Finley this means having as much fun as possible with her grandparents and aunts and uncles!

Seth had a port put in this week, which although was an outpatient procedure meant he had to be sedated. This was not something we anticipated, being that we drove separately to the hospital and I was planning on going back to work. I ended up having to call out of work so I could be with Seth and we left one car at the hospital, but we are going back Monday for the start of chemo, so we will just pick it up then. Seth keeps joking that he can't go swimming now because he has too many holes in his body and he would just sink. Please continue to pray for him, I can't even imagine how beat up he must be feeling!

Thanks for joining us, I will post pics next time and keep all of you up to date on potty training and house hunting (I know you are all dying to hear about Finley's poop). Thanks for praying for us and trusting with us!

Seth, Sarah & Finley