It occurred to me tonight that Nathan has never seen this blog, much read any of the stories. I'll make a mental note to make sure he does... one day... but for now this seems like a great time (albeit long overdue) to update everyone on his progress.
Nate has been doing very well as the years have progressed. He's far less dependent on medicine and supplemental calories than ever before. Last month we found out that he's lactose-intolerant, so we've had him taking Lactaid pills before dairy. Small discoveries like this have helped us adjust his diet to a point where he's steadily gaining weight.
He's been very active in sports and other activities. He played baseball for a few years and started playing soccer last year. This summer I started taking him to the driving range to hit golf balls; he loves the sport so we even got him his own set of clubs and he started taking lessons. In his second round on a real golf course he even got his first honest-to-goodness birdie!
Here's a short video I took from the driving range today. He's still building up distance but he has a pretty nice swing to work with.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Who is Nathan?
Nathan Daniel Dixon was born February 17, 2005. He's a handsome little boy with blonde hair and hazel eyes. He loves trucks, trains, and basically anything with wheels. He's the younger sibling of Alyssa Marie Dixon, his 5-year old sister. And up until the morning of Saturday, August 4 2007, he was very much like any other 2.5-year old boy who likes to run around and cause trouble.
Shortly after noon on Saturday, August 4th 2007, we (my wife Christa, our two kids and myself) headed out to run some errands. Not even 10 minutes later, the scariest event in my life began to unfold. This blog is the journal of my son's fight with the birth defect known as Intestinal Malrotation and the condition it can cause named Volvulus. Although the primary goal of these writings are to communicate the state of Nathan's recovery to his family and friends, I hope that others who are unfamiliar with this defect (as I was) will be better prepared to identify and react to the symptoms it presents.
Shortly after noon on Saturday, August 4th 2007, we (my wife Christa, our two kids and myself) headed out to run some errands. Not even 10 minutes later, the scariest event in my life began to unfold. This blog is the journal of my son's fight with the birth defect known as Intestinal Malrotation and the condition it can cause named Volvulus. Although the primary goal of these writings are to communicate the state of Nathan's recovery to his family and friends, I hope that others who are unfamiliar with this defect (as I was) will be better prepared to identify and react to the symptoms it presents.
Monday, March 16, 2009
One Year Later
From time to time I find myself in a conversation where the other party mentions a loved one being hospitalized. On the rare occasion that Nathan's experience comes up, I point listeners to this blog. Today was one of those times, and I noticed it's been almost a year since my last update.
Nathan is progressing slowly. He's doing well enough. We're very grateful to have him home. In fact, he's only been back (admitted) to the hospital twice, both times because of a vitamin deficiency. He's off his enteral feeds for up to 6 hours each day. He visits daycare during the mornings. This is more for the social aspect than because of our work schedules. Christa is still a stay-at-home nurse/mom, and she's doing a bangup job.
We would love to see Nathan permanently off TPN and IV, but we're still balancing his ability to digest with his needs to get back to some normalcy. He lacks any desire to eat when he's on TPN. We're hoping to increase his daily schedule to two boluses which would allow him to be "off tubes" for 8 hours a day.
The insurance nightmare I mentioned last year has been resolved. In hindsight (for me anyways), it seems like a distant memory. For months we were under a constant onslaught of insurance denials and collection calls from the hospital. We submitted appeals to each insurance company and to the Maryland Insurance Commission. Finally we began to see a breakthrough, and everything appears to be settled now. We're very grateful for everyone's support, and very relieved that we didn't have to go to court.
I don't know if anyone reads this blog anymore, but at least this post should serve as some sort of closure over the events I've detailed during our ordeal. The next time I direct someone to this link at least they'll be able to infer that we've come to some sort of satisfactory conclusion.
Nathan is progressing slowly. He's doing well enough. We're very grateful to have him home. In fact, he's only been back (admitted) to the hospital twice, both times because of a vitamin deficiency. He's off his enteral feeds for up to 6 hours each day. He visits daycare during the mornings. This is more for the social aspect than because of our work schedules. Christa is still a stay-at-home nurse/mom, and she's doing a bangup job.
We would love to see Nathan permanently off TPN and IV, but we're still balancing his ability to digest with his needs to get back to some normalcy. He lacks any desire to eat when he's on TPN. We're hoping to increase his daily schedule to two boluses which would allow him to be "off tubes" for 8 hours a day.
The insurance nightmare I mentioned last year has been resolved. In hindsight (for me anyways), it seems like a distant memory. For months we were under a constant onslaught of insurance denials and collection calls from the hospital. We submitted appeals to each insurance company and to the Maryland Insurance Commission. Finally we began to see a breakthrough, and everything appears to be settled now. We're very grateful for everyone's support, and very relieved that we didn't have to go to court.
I don't know if anyone reads this blog anymore, but at least this post should serve as some sort of closure over the events I've detailed during our ordeal. The next time I direct someone to this link at least they'll be able to infer that we've come to some sort of satisfactory conclusion.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Looking for Help
Beyond everything else we've experienced, we now have the insurance company refusing over $300k in claims dating back to August. There was some confusion over our insurance cards when Nathan was first admitted to UMMC, and it wasn't until October that we were informed the wrong cards had been submitted. The claims have since been batted back and forth between UMMC and MAMSI, and now both sides are refusing blame and dumping the bills on us.
MAMSI has never denied that our son was covered for these procedures. They are refusing the claims solely on the basis that the hospital hadn't submitted the claims to them in a timely manner. The hospital is claiming that we never gave them the correct insurance information (we did after we were informed they had the incorrect cards... months later). We need some professional representation, this justifiably scares the hell out of us. We could lose everything we've worked so hard for over the years. It doesn't seem fair, given everything else we've had to endure.
Can anyone recommend a lawyer specializing in this field? We are in the metro Baltimore area, although any good firms in the MD/DC/VA area would be welcome. If you have my email, please send me a private message. Otherwise, a comment below would be fine.
Thanks,
Jason
MAMSI has never denied that our son was covered for these procedures. They are refusing the claims solely on the basis that the hospital hadn't submitted the claims to them in a timely manner. The hospital is claiming that we never gave them the correct insurance information (we did after we were informed they had the incorrect cards... months later). We need some professional representation, this justifiably scares the hell out of us. We could lose everything we've worked so hard for over the years. It doesn't seem fair, given everything else we've had to endure.
Can anyone recommend a lawyer specializing in this field? We are in the metro Baltimore area, although any good firms in the MD/DC/VA area would be welcome. If you have my email, please send me a private message. Otherwise, a comment below would be fine.
Thanks,
Jason
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sunday Evening, 2/17/08
The last five days have been, as a whole, very good. It's so comforting to have Nathan back home, although Christa has her hands full playing the stay-at-home nurse. We had a couple unnerving nights with more allergic reactions. The second one was enough to have the nurse practitioner decide to take him off the multivitamin IV altogether. This has been a blessing in disguise. Now we "only" have three pumps to deal with.
Nathan has responded very well to being home, better than we ever expected. He seems to simultaneously be getting over the terrible twos. Coincidentally, his third birthday was today. Although we had to bypass any cake or ice cream, we had fun blowing out a candle (on a plate) and opening his gifts. Here are some pictures from the last few days. Note the haircut, his first in six months. Hardly looks like the same boy.
Nathan has responded very well to being home, better than we ever expected. He seems to simultaneously be getting over the terrible twos. Coincidentally, his third birthday was today. Although we had to bypass any cake or ice cream, we had fun blowing out a candle (on a plate) and opening his gifts. Here are some pictures from the last few days. Note the haircut, his first in six months. Hardly looks like the same boy.
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