Starting Line Jitters

We're about to start the Medi-Cal process. I'm nervous. I am feeling better about the process as a whole, because I have a fuzzy view of how it all works now... but i'm also nervous that we'll get denied. If we get denied, its might mean some tough things in the future...

So how this works.
Medi-Cal (its called medicaid everywhere else but california, go figure) is basically a medical insurance for underprivileged families. It is primarily income based. The rules are insanely strict. You can't have $2,000 to your name... including: cars, savings, checking accounts... anything that you own yourself. Jason and I both have a car, so BAM! We don't qualify. They don't look at the fact they are small compact things, or the bills we have to pay on a monthly basis... its an assumption that if you have $2,000 dollars in assests and your emergency savings account, then you can pay for your insurance yourself.
Okay fine, well we don't want the insurance, we want the durable medical item coverage... we don't need them to cover a hospital stay, we want them to cover a dynavox and possibly a wheelchair/walker thing in the future.
There is one other way to qualify for Medi-Cal. You have to have a 'diagnosis' and be medically handicapped 'enough'. Darby's neurologist firmly believes that Darby has Cerebral Palsy. That would be his diagnosis. But now its up to us to provide a board of developmental peditricians with Darby's medical documents and evaluations that state that he is in fact disabled enough to be in need of medical items. This has me nervous. Its just so hard to show people darby's problems. I have mom's, all the time, asking me "well, he looks normal, so whats wrong with him?". I know. He looks normal. He looks adorable. I never thought his adorable-ness would cause me problems (well maybe when he's 17 yrs old, because lets face it, who doesn't fall in love with a brunette with blue eyes? yikes).
Darby's regional center worker has been very helpful in getting me the info, and yet a little unsettling because she seems pretty skeptical that he's going to get it. fantastic.
I asked her on the phone the other day to be real with me and to tell me what i'm supposed to do if we don't end up qualifying? she answered, "fund-raise?" Sweet. A few pancake breakfasts, sees candy bars, and a couple car washes later, this will be helpful.

The Plan-
-Get darby's medical records from ucla faxed to me and then emailed to regional center.
-Get darby's eval and report done for the dynavox asap.
-Send the eval to Darby's neurologist and see if she is willing to write a letter to be added to the paperwork to reinforce the communication and overall delay medically.
-Send over some of his last therapy reports... why not? maybe they will read them.
-Continue with the paperwork process for the dynavox. It will just have to be on hold until we hear a final word about medi-cal. But i'd like everything else to get done, so we can get it as fast as possible.
-Pray. Pray. Pray.

If we get accepted? Awesome! Darby will be able to get anything he ever needs medically paid for, for the rest of his life. We can get the wheelchair/walker thing in a couple months, and not worry about how that is going to be paid for, along with the dynavox. Our insurance will do its thing and pay most of it, and then medi-cal will cover the rest.

If we get denied? I have no idea. Sees chocolate bar anyone? ha... you laugh now, but i'm serious.

Speaking of cars... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also a bit worried about that... i'm not sure what exact model his physical therapist has in mind for a walker... but I own a saturn. a very small saturn.
that being said... if any of you out there have a minivan or suv that you've always wanted to give us, but maybe were hesitant because you weren't sure we'd like it. we would ;0)

just sayin'...

Dyna-Awesome

So this week we have started on the long journey of acquiring a Dynavox for Darby. What is a Dynavox? It is an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) device that will help darby to be able to communicate with those around him. It looks like a giant ipad, very thick- very durable.

The one on the left is the one we want. Its bigger and heavier, but allows the buttons and options to be displayed on a larger screen.

This is a better picture of the display... (ps, we are actually asking for the green one, not pink)

Pictures will be displayed like buttons and Darby will be able to press the one that he wants... for example- there will be a picture of a cup of juice, a granola bar, a cracker, or a ball, all on one screen. Darby can press the item that he wants, it will talk for him and say "juice", and I can retrieve a new juice for him to drink.

This machine is pretty incredible. It is actually a working PC, and so its able to hold a lot of info as well as do a lot of neat things. My favorite feature is going to be the ability to personalize the object pictures. Darby does occasionally get the idea of a graphic picture actually meaning a literal object, but I like the idea of having my face on there or a picture of his penguin plush or mickey mouse, in order to help him to respond quicker in knowing what each button is an option for. Make sense?

Why does Darby need this? Well, the poor child isn't talking. He doesn't verbally communicate. He knows about 3 signs in sign language, and is starting to take on some more, but its very slow going. Darby can make sounds and he can cry... but he isn't babbling or making consonant sounds. He is cognitively aware enough that he is getting frustrated by the fact he can't tell us what he wants. His speech therapist is hopeful that this is really going to help him develop his communication skills.

We are starting the paperwork now. I'm pretty sure our insurance is only going to cover about 75% of the cost, and so we are apply for medi-cal to cover the rest. But you know, its government stuff, so the websites make no sense, and i'm sure the process is going to be miserable. its just the way it goes with the government. in fact, i'm signing up for a digital fax machine right now because the paper pushing has already started!

You can check out this link to a youtube video that shows Selema Gomez actually using a Dynavox...

www.dynavoxtech.com      the video is on the right hand side.

Well I should be off now... talk to you all again soon :o)