Apgars and stuff

So lucky me, I get to go meet with the Social Security Administration soon--just getting an appointment has been an ordeal. No, Drew won't qualify for any disability income due to our household income but we have to apply anyway so that a new state insurance program will act as back-up insurance to ours and cover anything that our private insurer won't pay. Also, while he's in the hospital, Drew is eligible for something like $30.00 per month, such a HUGE help (note the sarcasm).

Anyway, in reviewing Drew's medical paperwork, I noticed his APGAR scores. For those that don't know, APGAR stands for: A=activity (muscle tone), P=pulse, G=grimace (reflex irritability), A=appearance (skin color), R=respiration. Each letter is graded on a scale of 0-2, 0 being very bad (absent, blue color, etc.), 1 being ok, and 2 being good. Ten is the highest total a baby can receive. Generally APGARs are taken at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. Elizabeth's scores were 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes, so they were pretty good.

Drew's scores are a different story. They did his at 4 minutes and 5 minutes. At 4 minutes, he had:

Tone=0
Pulse=2
Reflex=1
Color=1
Respiration=0

for a total of 4 out of 10.

He was then intubated and the 5 minute scores were:

Tone=0
Pulse=2
Reflex=1
Color=0
Respiration=2

for a total of 5 out of 10.

Some other notes from his birth:

Condition=Critical
"Initially had strong cry at delivery and handed off to peds. Difficult intubation, but successfully intubated...Chest compression x30 sec for HR<60, but then had good HR..."

Some interesting and scary stuff. The funny stuff is that his occupation is listed as "newborn," his employer is "child," and his primary language is "English." :D

And you just have to love insurance. They have denied the anestheologist's (sp?) claim. Since, you know, a c-section would be really lovely without any anesthesia. (I know it will eventually be covered but why approve a claim the first time around? See if billing the insured works and they're dumb enough to pay. Have I said how much I despise how insurance companies do business?)