birthday trip report...now finished!

[QueenDoOver]

Hi Molly, Get well soon! We have been fighting some of the same stuff up here as well. I finally got over the sore throat and now it is sinus stuff. I think in part it is the changing weather. We just need the cold already!

I do have to put in a plug for Minnie and Friends. You do truly see some of the characters that you do not see any place else. Nathan got to dance with Minnie on our last trip. It was so sweet! Fairy Godmother was a hoot. Captain Hook. And it is so pretty in there. I thought the food was good too. I almost hate to take away park time for the long character meals, but they are so much an experience in themselves that I always think it was worth it.

We are doing Minnie and Friends on Saturday at 10 for breakfast, but since I got free vouchers to cover that meal, we have decided to add on Goofy's for dinner on Friday night for the boys birthday celebration. We will order a special gluton free birthday cake for them to be delivered as well, and this is the only place that we can do that. Otherwise we can do the individual Pirate birthday treasure. Hmmm.... decisions, decisions.

So, I say go for it, but you probably figured out my opinion already, huh?

I am not in the duldroms, but rather in the panic stage. What have I forgotten or not planned correctly??

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks, all. I'm feelin' the get well wishes!

Alas, the immune system is still working on it. Hubby's coming home early from work today (which is not a problem...he's finally truly salaried with no phone shift, so if the work is done it's done!) to take E to his first swimming lesson. I'm so happy he'll get one swimming lesson with E.

 

[bumbershoot]

E continues to say that he will go on HMH. This is very cool. I need to order earplugs and earplanes soon for the trip. He'll wear his cool Skellington fingerless gloves and will borrow Robert's HM ears (bought for a song at the AMS outlet several months ago), and hopefully those things with the earplugs will help him love it.

I continue to *birthday funcard souvenir* shop in my mind.

We now have the Disney *debit* card, which comes with that meet 'n greet 5x7 photopass that the credit card does, so that's pretty cool. Hopefully they'll credit our account properly (the first 5 non-PIN transactions on it are supposed to give us $25 in their reward dollars thing) so I can go to one of the in-park locations to get the reward dollars card and that helps even more with the budget.

Writing up a list of "must haves" while there, wondering if we should get a Vons order going, or if we're going to decide on a rental car which would mean we could just stop at the store.

These decisions are all taking a very long time. Silly business trips and sick people in the house....


*************whine whine whine whine*****************

I think I've spent half the day on the phone with drugstore dot com and our insurance company.

I finally had to send off a low-key, calm, nastygram to drugstore...they're driving me batty.

I think it's all worked out, especially since hubby has a NEW prescription...same drug, double the amount...for the drug he's been taking, but after 2 conversations (each one prompted by my receiving an email from them!) with drugstore and being reassured that all was canceled, nothing was being sent, all work is being STOPPED on the order...they just about got an order out the door. And that means that there's another prescription on our insurance account, which, if the brick/mortar pharmacy goes crazy when we pick up a month's supply before R leaves on his business trip, will cause us to have to pay out of pocket again. It probably won't be an issue, because this is a new prescription, but from the hideous communication and confusion between rep and rep and rep and computer today....anything can happen.

******as E used to say as a little mite..."dal dun!" meaning "all done"****

 

[Brady's Mom]

Okay, Molly, I am totally interested in the Chase Disney debit card. We have an account at Chase - but never heard anything about a Disney debit card. Can you tell me more? I guess I haven't been adventurous with that account since it is not our main checking account. Hmmmmm....have to do some checking since we have a trip coming up soon and an extra $25 Disney would be so great!

 

[bumbershoot]

First, we don't know that we'll keep it after our first year is up. Why? Because there's a $25 annual fee for it. So the $25 in rewards dollars is given after 5 non-PIN purchases, to kind of "make up" for that, at least in the first year. Of course, it could be a time-limited offer, I don't know.

You earn very very slowly. As in...$1 on every $200 you spend. Sad sad sad. However...more than we were getting before, especially since they dumped the wamu rewards thing once they took over.

And you only earn on non-PIN transactions. Funny to have a debit card and ONLY use it as a credit card, but oh well.

I finally read through more of the info on it, and noticed that they put the rewards on there the last day of your statement period. That's cutting it awfully short for us! But the info says that you can go to one of several locations at DLR and get your rewards card and have it filled...so that's OK.

Just some months ago there was NO chance I was going to do this debit card, since you have to pay for it. And then I realized that we were paying the same amount on the credit union CC, to make it a "rewards" card...we're moving away from the CC now (except for R's business travel if he goes to a place his company card isn't taken, and except for car rentals b/c we don't appreciate having extra money held) so we'll be dumping the rewards part of that card...anyway, we realized that we were not, actually, adverse to paying to get rewards, LOL.

And now each of us has a cute card...Robert has Mickey and friends I believe, and I have a sparkly starry Mickey head in an inky dark blue nightsky on my card. ('cuz that's worth 25 bucks) rolleyes1)

 

[kaoden39]

Our car loan is through WAMU, I may consider opening an account there just for that and pay my car payment out of it. That would really rack up the money.

 

[bumbershoot]

Our car loan is through Chase. That's why we still have the account, since my loyalty for what used to be died a few months back.

How do you find the option to pay by card???? I wonder if your loan is different, since it started with wamu and ours started with the evil ones (er, chase)?


Speaking of car loan...I made a chart/picture thing on some graph paper I found. Each square is worth $5, so I've marked down each $5 worth of principal. It's so fun. And I cheated by starting with the beginning of the loan, and oddly the total ended up being just about the total of squares on both sides of the paper (though I do have a border that doesn't count), and we alreayd have all of one side filled and are working on the second side. For some reason, less money went towards principal this month vs last, when the amount is SO much less this month, so I'm confused on that one (especially b/c the payment made yesterday is for the OCTOBER bill, woo!), but it's still half the interest payment we were making just 3 months ago, so I'll deal.

Anyway, ti's so much fun, to fill in those spaces. I even have fractional spaces filled.

 

[mnmrmustard]

Yeah, the debit sounded tantalyzing until you mentioned the $25 annual fee Darn them!

I hope you don't get hit up for the extra out of pocket on your hubby's perscription and that the whole pharmacy thing stops being an issue for you.

We've decided to not do a rental car while we are down at DLR. The only place I was going to go was to get groceries the first day and we've decided to just do the Safeway delivery thing.

Good luck with the continued planning and more P & PD for everyone getting well!

 

[bumbershoot]

I know. The fee is very very annoying. And I had already turned down their normal for-a-fee rewards card, but the whole disney thing got me. They know their audience.

Oh the pharmacy...ugh. I finally found a nice insurance lady on the 11th, that I randomly got again when I called for the second time yesterday, who is helping me get the extra 29.99 reimbursed. I'm SO glad I called when I did, because now of course the drugstoredotcom stuff has dropped from the insurance, and people would be even more mystified. So tomorrow we'll fax that stuff over and wait.

Oh man Robert's endocrinologist is LIVID with our insurance company for not covering the HCG. He faxed a new prescription off to the insurance company's "specialty pharmacy", and he wants us to call him every day that the insurance company denies it.

The level of prolactin hormone in Robert's system is almost halved after just 3 months. Awesome!

 

[mnmrmustard]

I know. The fee is very very annoying. And I had already turned down their normal for-a-fee rewards card, but the whole disney thing got me. They know their audience.

Oh the pharmacy...ugh. I finally found a nice insurance lady on the 11th, that I randomly got again when I called for the second time yesterday, who is helping me get the extra 29.99 reimbursed. I'm SO glad I called when I did, because now of course the drugstoredotcom stuff has dropped from the insurance, and people would be even more mystified. So tomorrow we'll fax that stuff over and wait.

Oh man Robert's endocrinologist is LIVID with our insurance company for not covering the HCG. He faxed a new prescription off to the insurance company's "specialty pharmacy", and he wants us to call him every day that the insurance company denies it.

The level of prolactin hormone in Robert's system is almost halved after just 3 months. Awesome!

Well at least there are some decent people working at the insurance co - hope you can get her again if you need to call. And great news on Robert's hormone levels!

 

[bumbershoot]

She even gave me her extension.

 

[kaoden39]

The option to pay the bill is on the WAMU website. It probably is something that has stayed available to the customers that have the loan through WAMU. I so much prefer paying online. I don't think that I will actually do the debit card thing it seems kind of silly, the account we have with our current account is free so why change it? Not only that I have banked with this bank since the 70's so I am not changing.

I am glad to hear that things went better for you and good for R's Dr. I think I like him.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Hooray for Robert! That is such good news. And the side benefit is that people are doing diet-y things with HCG and losing a LOT of weight. Not necessarily a choice that I would make - since it can be so cost prohibitive, but my sister is using it and is seeing some results.

We have 6 weeks on Sunday until we are DLR again. Not as soon as you guys, but coming up pretty fast.

Yay for R's Dr. for being so proactive in order to help him - it is soooo great when you get a Doc that actually wants to solve the problem instead of just medicate it. (Sorry if there are any Dr.s reading.) I haven't found that many that don't just want to throw a pill at you to mask the symptoms.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well we had another frustrating issue at Walgreens (only got half the pills needed), but they looked at a calendar and Robert will only be gone one Thursday, so that's OK. I'll just pick up the others when they get in.


Then Robert remembered that he'd gotten a phone call...from the specialty pharmacy (our insurance company runs it or something, it's for special drugs and all injectables (though I somehow doubt people needing insulin have to go through them))...they need to arrange a delivery! So...does that mean...he's getting the HCG????? Wow!

I wonder what the endo wrote on what he faxed to them?????!!!!!!?????

You know, all of this experience has really shown me what insurance-knowledgable people say...if you're told "no", ask again, and again, and again. Eventually someone will tell you what you need to know, so you can contact the right people and say the right words...and then the answer will be "yes". And that's just what happened. This started in June, and it was only last week that I heard the words "specialty pharmacy" and was given their fax number (for docs to use) to give to the endo.


Now...this is rather a bad time to start, since he only has two days to get in to see the endo and have a practice run on giving himself a shot. I'd be willing to do it (I used to give myself 3 allergy shots twice a week for a year as a teen, so I'm comfortable with the intramuscular injections), but I doubt the endo would be OK with that.

So he might have to wait until he's back, but at least it'll be waiting for him, ready to help out his body.

Weight was mentioned...so the last few years, he's lost pounds and gained bulk. I'm sure I've mentioned this. Well in the 3 months since his last appointment, he has lost bulk (finally went down a size!) but gained 4 pounds. So weird!



Sorry I get so offtrack and possibly into TMI-land...but ya know, it's just talkin' about bloodwork, really.

 

[kaoden39]

I can explain getting smaller and gaining in pounds. Muscles weigh more than fat. I am glad that it looks like Robert is going to get what he needs. I can only imagine what his DR told them. Yay for him.

 

[bumbershoot]

The endo really did NOT like the whole "well I've been working out so it could be muscle" thing...oh well!

This guy...he specializes in diabetes and pituitary disorders (the latter is not something I'd realized, though I had read it, when we first went in to him)...he has an industrial scale that can go up to something like 700 lbs...he's used to people lying their butts off to him about their food and all that. Robert has really messed with his head, b/c he's very honest about things now, and has made such HUGE changes.

He has also refused to take medicines for the blood sugar stuff, and that has knocked the endo's socks off as well. For those who know the numbers...back last September he had a1c results of nearly 10. In April, it was 5.7. That's astonishing.

And it was on that visit that Robert was reading a magazine meant for providers, discussing metformin...and it mentioned that metformin was so widely pushed, even in cases when diet and exercise could do the same thing, because most patients just will NOT make those changes. Robert got a little more cynical that day (welcome to my world, Robert) but got more understanding of the endo.


Anyway, yes, I'm sure it is just that! The endo just had a funny reaction to it.


I can't believe R is leaving tomorrow for so many days! Ugh!

**********

I am happy though that the calendars have been more fleshed out, so to speak.

 

[bumbershoot]

Drat! They called before getting it worked out if they'll actually cover it. Back to the waiting game about the HCG. Harumph.

**************

I'm starting to wonder if the long delay in getting the Halloween fireworks schedule up was b/c they had to get special Anaheim permission to have fireworks every night during the non-summer.

 

[kaoden39]

Darn that is too bad Molly. I will keep you in my thoughts about that. Doctors can be so frustrating.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Anyway, ti's so much fun, to fill in those spaces. I even have fractional spaces filled.

Ha Ha, you are such a nut, having fun with such things! But I am happy for you none the less. We just switched our hotel to Paradise Pier and I am so excited for my friend that we will be on site. I really wanted Disneyland Hotel, but can't get one night. I will keep trying, but honestly I like PPH for location a little bit better. So glad to hear that Robert is doing so well!

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks, ladies!


Tracey, how fun! Since PPH has those foldout/foldover couch/daybed thingies, it'll probably be extra fun for the boys.



Augh, Robert is traveling, and he's ages away and I'd like to go to bed but my stomach is in knots b/c I haven't heard from him in over 2 hours and he was just walking around the area and I want him to get his hotel room and tell me, again, how much I ROCK because I found him a cool hotel and helped him so much, and I want to make sure he is eating (the time change can't be easy) and ask if he used the pool etc etc etc, but basically just make sure he's OK.

I know I've done this sort of thing to him by accident...I can't ever hear my phone (why oh why have I not gone to an audiologist...I have nothing against hearing aids and in fact have always known that someday I would have them since I started with a hearing loss as a kidlet) and I get all caught up in stuff and I forget to call and turn hubby into a blithering mess...he once had the maintenance guys at our old apartment complex do a "wellness check" on me where they came and pounded on the door, because I was taking a nap while newly pregnant and didn't hear the phone for hours...so I've done this to him, but he KNOWS how it feels and doesn't do things "back" to me...I know he's just taking 18,000 pictures of a place neither of us has been to...but still, dude, text, call, or email.


a few minutes later...


It worked!

So he's in the room now, and hopefully he'll get online.

Whew.

Sorry for the freakout all.


****************

Tracey, has your son ever done the SmokeJumpers "tire swing" thing over in the Redwood area of DCA? If not, he and Jack might like to try it! E and I were talking about it earlier, and I can't wait for Robert to see E on that thing.

The other fun part of the attraction is the people-watching...not so much the little kids that get upset b/c they aren't 42" yet (like my son, when we took him into the Redwood area to help get him over not being 42" to ride GRR, and boom, both of the attractions in there that he wanted to do are 42" requirements...but I enjoy watching all the clueless young adults who blast right past the sign with the height LIMIT on it. I'm 5'3" and I can't go on it. These dudes are 6' and think they can, b/c they aren't paying attention.

OK it's the same sort of naughty thrill I got out of what was in my tag, where I would watch people get soaked, but it's even better.