Pine Wood Derby

Wyatt had his first pine wood derby last night. It has come a long way since I remember going to my brother's derbys. The first difference is that technology has come a long way since those good old days.
This track was very high tech. I think if it had been working properly that the race could have turned out differently. They had all the racers names entered along with the car's number and the name that each racer had picked for their car. It was all projected onto a screen for everyone to see. Then the computer was randomly putting cars together in heats for racing. That is where it started to get bogged down. It wasn't registering all the cars and their times as they finished. Then it wasn't putting the right cars in the right places. So things got a little confusing. They raced for a while and then took a break and tried to get it working again. No dice. So they went off the notes that had been taken and finished the races and got an overall winner.
Wyatt was really proud of his first car. I think that he learned a lot about what it takes to win a race (he never did come in first with it, although it did place second in one heat). He already has his plans for next year. He did win an award for the best use of an action figure on his car. We are just proud of his sportsmanship and the fact that his car crossed the finish line without any major mishaps. (There were a few that didn't cross at all their first times down).

Venting

For some reason I just need to get this off my chest. I will tell you that this post will probably not be a fun read, but is more for me. If you don't want to read it then don't.
Things with Bethany have been going up and down lately. Not by our choice that is for sure. In Nov we were switched to a different insurance company and that switch threw us for a loop. Because of the switch we also ended up having to switch medications, pharmacies where we get her meds and we also lost about a month of treatment due to paperwork BS. She was taking genotropin. When that first shipment came (see my post about 2 boxes) I was terrified and wondered if we would ever live through this. We learned how to give the shots and we moved forward. In Dec after 3 months of treatment we were thrilled to learn that she had grown (1 1/4 inches) more than she had in the previous year. Then we learned that the new insurance doesn't accept genotropin as their drug of choice to treat her condition.....hence we have to switch to one that they will cover as we can't afford to pay for it ourselves. The new drug---omnitrop. Does the same stuff, just made by a different company. It takes 3 weeks of them pushing papers around before we get approved to get the first shipment.....we get the first shipment New Year's Eve. I was elated because I thought that we would be able to start the new year giving her the meds again. WRONG. They shipped us the medicine, the needles, the swabs to clean the injection site, the sharps container BUT there is no pen to do the injections with. Quickly I called the company and tried to sort out the mistake. I was told they would send the pen out next week. Tues (Jan 5th) we still hadn't recieved the pen. I was getting a little antsy as the medications only has a short shelf life. Gabe even thought to check the other pen to see if we could use it----NO, their viles are shorter and fatter as they don't come premixed (like omnitrop does). So, I called the company. They don't have one, they can't get me one, I have to call the makers of omnitrop to get one....transfer #1. Now I am on the line with someone from the manufacters, transfer #2 to get to the right department. With in their I think I was transferred 2 more times before someone told me that they hadn't shipped the pen because they were still waiting for approval from our insurance company. WHAT?! I already had the meds sitting in my fridge, I just needed the way to inject them. She kindly told me that the pen would be shipped overnight and they would have a nurse call us to help instruct us on the usage. I told her that I didn't think that the nurse would be necessary as we were already versed in the injection process. Wednesday came and we didn't get anything all day. I was starting to get furious. At 5:30 that night we FINALLY got the box. These guys really know how to cut it close. But I was mildly surprised at what else was in the box. We were given a backpack, a pencil box for Beth, 6 ice packs (not the cheap ones that you can punch holes with a pencil---hard plastic ones), a cooler to keep the meds in while traveling, and a doll for Bethany. Today we get a call from the nurse.....she is thankful that we declined the teaching, they can't find a company that will send a nurse to our home to teach us how to use the device because they are back east and we are in the middle of nowhere.
So I guess the purpose of this post is for me to vent about my frustrations. Why should I have to change my daughter's meds because I change insurance companies? But the good news is that we are back on track. Hopefully we don't have to switch again....if so I will start selling stuff to go back to the genotropin. ( I like their pen and injection system better).