Corridor 9

This past week has been rather uneventful. The highlight of the week was on Thursday when I took 12 hours of vacation time in the morning so that I could be here at the hospital with Kristie for and ultrasound and placement of a PIC line. As usual, I was able to go back and watch the ultrasound in real time. The fluid level in the amniotic sack was estimated to be about 5.3 cc which is a bit lower than last Thursday.

We were worried that the drop in amniotic fluid level might indicate additional problems down the line. As I mentioned before, the lack of fluid during pregnancy can contribute the a lack of development in the baby’s lungs. However, we were assured that this would likely not be the case as the baby is already almost 30 weeks along. Dr. Quatro consulted with a perineonatologist from Vanderbilt University a few days ago and they confirmed that the baby’s lungs should be developed enough that the lack of fluid should not be an issue. Only during early development would this lack of fluid matter, and he should not induce labor simply due to low fluid volume. This is definitely a relief for us.

As for the PIC line, I was not able to be in with Kristie during the procedure. I was forced to hang out in the waiting area. I wasn’t too happy about this as I’d taken vacation for the specific reason of comforting her during this time. While they had a few problems getting it in due to her vein’s spasming, the procedure wasn’t too painful for her, and it definitely was worth it so she doesn’t have to be stuck 17 more times for IVs.

Kendall ended up staying the night Friday and camping out on the floor. It had been quite a while since she was able to spend the entire night with Kristie, and they both seemed to enjoy watching TV and having fun.

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

While I definitely would have been happy if it were a girl, the fact that it’s a boy is simply AWESOME! Now I won’t have to listen to the wife yelling at me for making a girl into a tom boy. I’ll have someone to camp with, hike with, fish with, hunt with, and all that general boy playing in the mud stuff!

Now, just 4 more months till he gets here and the fun starts!

Well… it’s finally coming true. Kristie is pregnant.

I was sitting there playing my game on the computer when she came in and held up what appeared to be a Q-tip. I was wondering if I had left it sitting on the counter or something. Finally after abour 4 seconds I realized that it wasn’t a Q-tip but a test strip, then after another 4 seconds I finally realized there were 2 lines on the strip.

Neither of us could really believe it so she ended up taking a total of 3 tests. The next morning she called a friend at the doctor’s office who said that 3 tests was more than enough to confirm the pregnancy.

Needless to say I’ve had a smile on my face for the past few days.

It’s been a while since I posted anything due to the server issues I was having, but now I’ve got a backlog of information to post. I’ve uploaded a few photo galleries from the trip we had to Chattanooga. Included are pictures from the Children’s Museum, Coolidge Park, and the Tennessee Aquarium.

In addition, since upgrading to the new system I’ve decided not to include full sized pics on the gallery anymore. This saves me bandwidth, hard drive space, and loading time for my visitors. If you see a picture that you’d like to have as a desktop or something like that, feel free to contact me.

A link to the complete gallery can be found in the menu bar at the top, and as usual, all photos are Copyright Andrew Buskov 2007.

I saw this video on YouTube a few days ago, and simply loved it. I have no clue who these people are, but the idea of a life changing vacation is exactly the impression I’m trying to get across to Kristie. While I understand that this year will probably not be a good year for a big vacation, I want our vacations in the upcoming years to be something unforgeable. I like Gatlinburg, but I don’t want to be going back year after year.

Vacations like the one above create memories, unforgeable wonderful memories.

Recently I received a notice from the Human Resources department about health care and insurance. The memo talked about the rising cost of health care, the fact that the city has so far been able to absorb these costs, and information about the rising price of the plans offered by the city.

Yes, it’s true that insurance is increasing. Lets look at a few statistics:

• In 2006, employer health insurance premiums increased by 7.7 percent - two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $11,500. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,200
• The annual premium that a health insurer charges an employer for a health plan covering a family of four averaged $11,500 in 2006.
• The annual premiums for family coverage significantly eclipsed the gross earnings for a full-time, minimum-wage worker ($10,712).

We’ve got two different plans at Madisonville; a standard, and a premium plan.

So you can see by the chart above that the premium plan gets rid of the deductible, and pays 100% of all in network providers cost, while the standard plan has a higher deductible and only pays 80% of the cost after the deductible is met.

Now, this is nothing new. But let’s look at the price that Meritain Health is charging the city of Madisonville for health insurance.

Now I’m sure you’re looking at this and saying to yourself that this doesn’t seem like much of an increase. I’ll have to agree with you to some extent. It isn’t much of an increase. However, you must also realize that $900 is quite a bit of money to have insurance on your family. This would break down to a minimum wage worker basically working for free 175 hours / month. That’s like working a 44 hour work week for free. But with the rising cost of health care, would you want to take a chance on needing an extra $250,000 to pay for a triple bypass?

I hear you, thats a bit extreme… I’m not even 35 yet. Well… yea, but just think about what it’s going to cost when you’re 50. So, lets get a little less extreme. It’s not that outrageous that you might break your leg sometime soon is it? How much do you think a broken leg costs? Try $50,000 if you need surgery, titanium pins, and physical rehab. Oh., and another thing. Look at the first row, first column of the table above. See it? It says Standard. So, lets take a look at the rate increase for the Premium plans.

See the difference? We’re talking almost double the previous price for a premium insurance plan. Thats $24,540 dollars per year! Lets look at our poor minimum wage worker now; he’s going to have to work 4,765 hours (roughly 595 8-hour days) just to pay for 365 day worth of medical insurance. Thats outrageous… no, actually outrageous doesn’t even begin to come close. Oh, and last I heard, there were only 6 people in the entire city with family insurance so it’s not like Meritain is out a load of insurance
claims every year.

So now the big question… WHY? WHY is it so much for health insurance for my family? WHY is it more than double last years rates for premium insurance? WHY are we still with Meritain? There has to be a better way!

Remember that Easter isn’t about the eggs, the chocolate, or the bunny.

It’s about the Lamb of God.