Category: Health

Speech Evaluation

Posted on by MICHELLE N

I got an approval letter from Cal-optima regarding William’s doctor request for speech evaluation; which surprised me because I thought the doctor office should send the approval request few weeks back when they requested for hearing test.  So I called Magnolia Medical group, where William’s doctor is (Dr. Huy / YenChi) ; it turned out that last time they only requested for HEARING test; which means I need to make another appointment with Providence Speech and Hearing center for William to have a SPEECH evaluation.

So I called Providence, the next available appointment is Thursday Oct 26, which is 1 month away!  Looks like it’s the average appointment time with Providence because last time it also took about a month to have hearing test appointment too.

This time I chose the location in Fountain Valley (17075 Bushard, Fountain Valley, CA 92602).  Last time I didn’t know they have a location in FV so we went to Orange location).

I wish the doctor’s office ordered both hearing and speech test last time so that we don’t have to wait another month for speech evaluation; then wait about 2 weeks for the report to ready;  until then the doctor office can initiate speech therapy request to Cal-Optima for my 3 year old son.  This process is just taking too long.

No School Day

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday, William is still coughing so I decided to work from home to take care of him.  He slept until 9:30 AM and woke up then ran into my office.  His face lighted up to see the door open because the door to this room is always closed.

No Mitchell school, no daycare, William seems to feel better staying at home. I didn’t see him cough much later in the day.

Speech & Hearing Evaluation

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday 3:00 PM at Providence Speech and Hearing Center.

William’s primary care doctor  refers us to Providence Speech and Hearing Center so that William can have speech and hearing test. According to the doctor, his test of 2 years ago is too old so she wants us to do a new evaluation.  This is a necessary step in order to request for speech therapy.

Our appointment is 3:00 PM. Our plan is Tim will pick William up at Mitchell school at 1:00 PM, take him home, feed him some pizza and then take him to the Providence center around 2:30 PM.

One year ago when he was evaluated by the psychologist from Mitchell Child Development Center (Santa Ana School District); they said William is not ready for Speech therapy because even though he was 3 years old, his development was about the same as 6 months old children.   Over the year I’ve seen him progresses a lot; now he’d repeat the words we say and listen to our simple request more.  Especially he’d make eyes contact when we say hi or bye.

So I hope if he can have speech therapy soon, he’ll improve his speech at faster pace.  I’m just afraid that the process of getting him to speech therapy is too long.  It took about 1 and half month to get appointment with Providence Speech and Hearing Center for evaluation alone!

Cough Is Back!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday afternoon.  William started to cough after school at Mitchell.  Later in the evening he coughed more during ABA session with Ms. Annie and Jody from ABEST.

So I cooked him salmon porridge;  after dinner we gave him 5 ml DimeTapp and another 5ml around 4:30 AM on Tuesday early morning because he could not sleep and started to cough again.

Tuesday 8 AM.  His head felt warm to the touch.  He’s still coughing but not that much so I sent him to school.  Hopefully he’ll get better soon.

Medi-Cal Approved

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Got the approval letter from Medi-Cal.  One day later got the BIC card.  Tried to contact our Medi-cal case manager Juliana Mendosa several times on Friday and Monday but all I got is the voice mail.

Updates:

Tues 7/25: Juliana returned my call; I told her about our current situation with William’s ABA services; and asked her if there’s a way to expedite the transfer of Medi-cal to CalOptima.  She said yes and scheduled to meet with the personnel from reimbursement department tomorrow at 9 AM.

Wed 7/26 @9 AM: Juliana called and set up a 3 way meeting so that the personnel from reimbursement department can ask me questions.  She only asked me 1 question “Have William been using ABA services?”

– With Medi-cal?  I was not sure so I asked.

– Yes – She responded.

– No, our ABA services agency said that our case must be transferred to Cal-Optima first before then can doing anything.

– OK, I’ll expedite the case, you can check with Cal-Optima tomorrow to see if you’re in Cal-Optima network; It should be in their system tomorrow.

That’s it.

Thursday 7/27/2017: I called Cal-Optima (714 246 8500) to check if our case is in Cal-Optima system yet or not.  After asking about our Medi-Cal number, name, DOB, they transferred me to another department because they said my son is disabled and that department would be able to assist us.  I left a voice message with my name, phone number and Medical-Number.

2 hours later I got a phone call (Vietnamese speaker) , asking what I need help with.  I told her that I’d like to select group United Care and add my son’s doctor in the plan.  I also asked her what does it take to get approval for ABA services.  She gave me the Behavorial Health department number to contact.

So I called the number (855 877 3885) asking about how to to obtain approval for ABA services; I told the lady that we already have the ABA Services agency so she tried to look up ABEST name but could not find it; I gave her Nhu’s last name and first name, she could not find it either.  She asked if I know any of the therapist name so I told her Nhi’s name; but she wanted to know Nhi’s last name which I don’t know.  She told me to call back when I have enough information.  (She refused to look up by MIS number).

So I called Nhu from ABEST, asked her for Nhi’s last name.  And then called the number again.

A different person answered the phone; and she said that they don’t work directly with parents; ABA agency must contact them!

I’ve been making quite a few phone calls for the last few days; I’m so frustrated!  ABEST told me to call Cal-Optima and Cal-Optima told me that they don’t work with parents; I really have no idea what to do!  Frustration!

So I called Nhu, told her exactly what Cal-Optima told me, gave her the phone number that I called earlier so that she could call them.  She said “That’s weird”, that with all the self-referring clients that she has, the parents always have to talk to the Insurance providers first to get a case manager assigned before she can talk to them.

Half hour later Nhu called back; she said she was assigned a case manager and given the case manager’s email to contact.  Hopefully the case manager will contact her soon.

What a relief! finally it’s going somewhere.  But I’m truly tired; mentally and physically tired!

Monday July 31, 2017: Mrs. Nhu came to our house for consultation; she said she still has not heard anything from the case manager.

 

 

 

Diarrhea is Over?

Posted on by Moonie

Tuesday.  Before heading to school, I tried to get him drink some Pedialyte but he would not; I tried again once we arrived at school and before taking him to his classroom and he had some.  I hoped that this would help him at least get thru few hours at Mitchell school.

Fortunately I did not get any phone call from school so he must be doing fine there.  Picked him up  later, he seemed to be happy as usual, his hand was holding a pack of crackers.  So after put on his seat belt, I let him eat his snack, fed him more Pedialyte then he had some milk before heading to the day care.

Dinner as usual, he had salmon porridge, had 9 ounce of milk and slept.  Around 3 AM he woke up and whined; as normal it’s cue for us to know that he wants milk so I gave him another 9 ounce bottle of milk.  As soon as he finished the bottle , I could tell that his stomach was not feeling good because he climbed on top of my body and just lied there.  Usually he’d just go back to his sleep.  Then I heard noises coming from his butt!  Oh no, not again!

We waited a few more minutes so that he could finish his business.  Then Tim took him to the bathtub to clean him up.  It took him a while to get back to sleep, poor little boy!

So he was fine the whole day, until he had that last bottle of milk. Was it the milk? We don’t know but we planned to buy new bottles of milk tomorrow.  We always buy milk at Costco and it’s not expired yet.  He pooped right away after he had milk on Monday morning also so I have a feeling that it might be the milk that causing his stomachache.

Update Sat 4/22/2017: his diarrhea stopped and he has not pooped for 2 days.

In short, he pooped loose liquid for 6 days, he started to take pedialyte on the 3rd day for 3 days.  Other than that we didn’t give him any medicine.

Diarrhea

Posted on by Moonie

William poops have been liquid like for the last 3 days but only 1 or 2 times a day like usual schedule but this morning he pooped 3 times during 1 hour period, after he had some milk. I guess he didn’t feel good in his stomach that’s why he woke up early about 7: 00 AM.  Normally i have to wake him up around 8:30 AM to take him to school.  Maybe that’s why he stood on the floor with his stomach pushed against the side of the mattress with his face on top of the mattress.

I called his God Father Than, who is a pharmacist, he advised to give him Pectrolyte so I went to the Walmart near my house to get 1 bottle and brought back home to Tim so that Tim can feed William the liquic.  Then I called Mrs. Hana to told her that William won’t be coming.   Then I headed to work.

What a busy morning!

The question is what has he been eating that caused him this upset stomach?  The only difference about his diet is that I fed him cooked spaghetti with Campbell and Soup Cream of Broccoli mixed with 1 can of milk like instructed.  I think he stared to have loose poops since then.  We stopped feeding him that when we saw his loose poops the 2nd time.  Other than that there’s nothing new in his diet.

So he got to spend the whole day at home with Tim; Tim took him to Costco to have lunch (hot dog and pizza).  He didn’t poop until later, after dinner; and then 1 more time before he went to sleep.  I was so worried because I have so much things to do at work that I can’t take a day off; Tim has taken so many day off already.  If William is not getting better, I really don’t know who else can babysit him.

Sent the Report to HealthNet

Posted on by Moonie

I stopped by the Post Office today after dropping William off at the Children World Preschool to send the form and the report to HealthNet insurance company to start the process of receiving ABA services from them.  This is the report that Dr. Kyle from RCOC prepared after our meeting.

The package is supposed to arrive on Friday.  I’m expecting a phone call from them next week to go over the process of how William will get the ABA benefits.

 

Cough & Short of Breath

Posted on by Moonie
William is watching TV

William woke up around 8 AM and coughed a lot; so I decided to take a day off and stay home to babysit him.  After using the nebulizer his cough seemed to stop.  I fed him salmon fish porridge and fruit for lunch.  He ate as normal, I’m glad!

Fruit for dessert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner time, watching Mickey mouse and eating rice with soy sauce and chả lụa.

Short of Breath!

Posted on by Moonie
Pari Respiratory Portable Nebulizer Compressor Pack (5.5″L x 3.5″W x 1.75″H)

Today early morning about 1:30 AM, William woke up and cried!  He coughed a lot too.  We gave him a bottle of milk and changed his diaper as usual but he didn’t stop crying.  Looked like he had a stuffy nose that made him hard to breath; so we let him use the nebulizer.  That seemed to sooth him but he kept crying and would not fall back to sleep until 2:30 AM.

William coughed again on the way to Mitchell school in the morning.

9:30 AM, Mitchell school nurse called and told me that William was at her office because he coughed a lot.  She said that she would give him an albuterol treatment; I said go ahead.  She advised the teacher to not let him stay outside because it’s possible that the wind gave him asthma.

The mask that Williams uses with the nebulizer.

10:00 AM, the nurse called again; she checked on William in his classroom; he’s doing fine.  She said it’d be a relax day for him; the classroom has a bean bag where he can rest if he doesn’t feel like doing anything.  She said there is mucus in his nose that caused him to have short of breath. His lungs sounded clear though.  She recommended to let him rest a lot.

Times like this I wish I can stay home and watch him; to let him rest on his comfortable bed.  Unfortunately Tim & I are at work right now.

1 PM, I stopped by the nurse office on my way to pick up William.  She said the same thing that she told me on the phone.   She doesn’t think William coughs is because of the cold.  She thinks that there’s lot mucus that running down to the throat from the nose that irritates the throat to cause William to cough.

The children is learning the new words that start with H. William looked so concentrating on the lesson while other children were joking.  Next time I’ll ask Mrs. Hana if William is always like that.

Continue my way to William’s classroom to pick him up; it’s still a bit early so the class is still in process.  I’m so impressed that William sat still in his chair watching the lesson that the teacher projected on the white board.  When one’s name is called, that child would have to go to the board and point to the correct picture. Mrs. Hana had to call William’s name several times before he could stand up and approaching the board.  Where’s the Hammer? To my surprise, he pointed to the correct picture.

William has running nose so Ms. Susan tried to wipe his nose with a tissue.

1:10 PM, the class is over, everyone stood up to leave.  William ran to me; he looked very bad with running nose, tired eyes and cough a lot.  I could not stand to take him to the day care when he doesn’t feel well so I called Tim’s sister Hue to ask if she could babysit William; and she said “Yes”.

William on his bed.  For the past 2 weeks he’s so attached to those Mickey Mouse books that he always takes them to bed with him.

So I took William home, gave him a bottle of milk, 5ml of the DimeTapp to suppress his cough and then use the nebulizer to help with his breathing.

2:30 PM Aunt Hue arrived; William was happy to see her. When I took off to get back to work William did seem a lot better.  But I’m not worried because I know William is in a good hand.