Million Dollar Baby

The bill came today for Cayden's 111 day NICU stay:  $779,996.23.  That's over three-quarters of a million dollars!  Honestly, it's less than Jason and I thought it would be.  All I can say is THANK GOD for our insurance!  The insurance write-off was over half a million, so they ended up forking out right around $250,000.  Our copay was $1000, but the secondary Medicaid insurance automatically granted to all preemies born weighing less than 1000 grams (Cayden was 910 grams) took care of that.  Amazing!  We are so grateful.

In other news, we had a very frustrating night last night.  We went to mix up our first batch of milk using Thick-It while Cayden was screaming hungry at 11:15 p.m. only to find out it doesn't work with breast milk.  The vague directions on the can said to use 2 to 3 teaspoons in 4 ounces of liquid.  By the time we got up to 5 teaspoons in just 3 ounces with no effect after a half hour of waiting, we gave up.  We threw those three ounces of "liquid gold" down the drain and went back to using half-strength Simply Thick, even though we've been told not to. 

I was up until almost 2 in the morning researching things and found that breast milk has an enzyme called amylase in it.  The job of amylase is to break down starches.  Thick-It's ingredient list:  modified corn starch.  Nothing else.  Duh.  I am angry and disappointed that our pediatrician didn't know this or couldn't figure this out herself.  During my research, I could find no other options for thickening breast milk except for one product called GelMix, but it looks like it's only been available for a few months.  Their website was sketchy and I couldn't find any credible references about the product's efficacy or safety, so I'm not sure I want to go there. 

This morning, I spent hours on the phone.  I called the folks at Thick It, Simply Thick, the lactation specialists at the University of Colorado NICU, the Special Care Clinic at Children's Hospital, and our pediatrician's office.  I had to leave a message at Simply Thick and hope someone will call me back soon.  But the other phone calls resulted in conversations with several nurses, a speech therapist, and our old developmental therapist from the NICU.  No one will come right out and say it (because of liability issues, I'm sure), but the feeling I got from most of the people I talked to is that Cayden is old enough now that he shouldn't be at risk for developing necrotizing enterocolitis, and because he's been on Simply Thick for so long without any issues, he should continue to do okay on it.  One person told me what I've been feeling all along:  as the parent who knows him best, I have to make an instinctual but educated decision to do what I feel is best for him.  My instincts tell me he should be fine on the half-strength Simply Thick, but I don't know if I could live with myself if something happens because I let him continue on it.

Ironically, late this morning, the doorbell rang.  It was the postwoman with a certified letter -- from one of our former attending physicians at the University NICU telling us about the issue with Simply Thick and advising us to stop using it.  The letter said to contact our pediatrician for advice on what to do.  Hmpf.  I already know our pediatrician doesn't know what to do!  But I called anyway.  First of all, the nurse said the doctor was surprised that the Thick-It didn't work for us.  When I explained why it didn't work, she didn't seem to understand.  (It's simple science, lady!) Then, as a last alternative, she said we could try thickening with rice cereal.  Dumbfounded, I again explained that breast milk has an enzyme in it that breaks down starches and that rice is another starch.  Even any baby's first year book tells you that you can't thicken breast milk with rice cereal!  Sheesh!  It really scares me that they just don't seem to understand simple things!  So in the end, I told the nurse that we were going to keep using half-strength Simply Thick and that was that.  Hopefully I'll hear back from the people at Simply Thick to get the facts directly from the source so I can feel better about my decision.  What makes me feel comfortable with my decision right now is that fact that Cayden is sleeping comfortably and hasn't spit up since since we put him back on half-strength Simply Thick.