Well I made huge progress in the battle to get Lizze the surgery she needs but insurance won't cover. I spoke with a friend at Aultman Hospital in order to gain some insightinto how the system works there and what I need to do in order to get this surgery done. I have made progres today and received confirmation on the cost.  The price of the surgery at Aultman Hospital is around $10,000. That doesn't include the anesthesiologist or Dr. D (I know Dr. D is $1,400 but he cut that in half for us).  It includes the physical procedure done via "robot" and 1.5 days in recovery. They are then giving us 30% off of that and spreading it out over 5 years.... It will cost us $120/month plus…

Raising a family with special needs is never easy. In fact it can feel like and often be an impossible task. I find myself in that very position every single day. I know some of you out there are in a similar boat. Here is some insight into how I attempt to deal with this. One of the biggest worries I have is funding to cover everything we have going on (including Lizze's pending surgery). So I have been kicking around some ideas. Basically we survive (and I use that term loosely) right now on residual income form our contracting business I can no longer work and the computer repairs that come in from time to time. We always seem to manager but the stress surrounding this aspect of our lives is enormous for…

I received a copy of Voice4U (from the developer) to give away to one of my readers.. This version is designed for Apple iPod/iPhone or iPad. I haven't decided if I will do that here or at Daily Mommy Survival yet. I own this for Android and it is AMAZING.......  Details to come VERY SOON.......              Anyone Interested? UPDATE: THE DRAWING WILL BE TAKING PLACE OVER AT DAILY MOMMY SURVIVAL. UPDATE: The winner was announced today at 5:30pm. See the above link for details....

So after a long, restless nights sleep (especially for Lizze) I have begun to process everything. The first things that pop into my mind is how are we going to survive this physically, emotionally and financially. We're barely surviving as it is. I know nothing fundamentally has changed but the dynamic has. Before today we had hope (admittedly little, but hope none-the-less) that Emmett would pull out of this or just start talking. I was hoping, praying that he was just going to start talking late little happens sometimes. I was hoping that if we planned for the worst and hoped for the best it we would come out on top. Part of me knew we wouldn't but that didn't matter. Now everything has changed. Where as before we were in "Let's figure out…

Today has to be the worst day I have had since Elliott was in the NICU. We met with the doctor and she confirmed our fears... I can't tell you how hard it is to even type right now. I had to hold it together so I could drive home. Emmett is not "Non-verbal" Autistic but he isn't Aspergers either.  Basically he it's better then non-verbal but worse than Aspergers.  To be honest I had been thinking Aspergers but he is far to delayed developmentally she said. He isn't completely non-verbal as he has a few words. She said he makes eye contact but won't maintain it. So he is Autistic... I somehow thought it would be easier to knowing for sure but it isn't..... In truth, right now I…

We are in the room waiting to hear the results. Emmett is playing and I'm typing just to keep from throwing up....

As if today wasn't bad enough we met with "we need you to go to out patient lab and have blood work done. Guess how much he is going to like that. I hate this day and wish it was over......

We have arrived and now the wait begins....