So Far So Good...

So we are in our 11th - 12th week of pregnancy. Earlier this week, Jana began experiencing some discomfort and bleeding...not good times, especially with our history. We scheduled an ultrasound for the next day, and went down there in the morning. My thoughts were that I sort of wished that we could buy our own machine -- not one of those dopplers, but a full-on ultrasound machine so Jana could check in on the baby any time she wanted to. Last time we went in for an ultrasound, we were sent down to this crappy place that had foreign technicians, that didn't seem to know what they were doing. They tried to hide the screen from us, had trouble interpreting the views, acted as if something was wrong all the time, but wouldn't explain. It was terrible. I guess there was a mixup at our doctor's office about what ultrasound work our insurance would pay for, so they thought they had to send us to this low rent place that sucked. This time, probably because it was an emergency, they sent us to the doctor's own unit with her own technicians doing the ultrasound.

As an aside, this whole health insurance thing blows. Its not really health insurance, its more like catastrophe insurance. For regular things, insurance isn't really practical. You end up paying more than the insurance company does. I would be half-tempted to just self-insure, except for that dreaded car accident or something where you end up spending 5 days in ICU with a full day of surgery, and you can never come back financially. I have a friend in hospital administration, and he says insurance is the only thing that makes it work, that even with insurance paying they still give away hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in free care, and he was super offended when I told him my theory on health insurance. I told him health insurance is a scam, its the last vestiges of the slave system, LLoyds of London -- one of the biggest insurers in the world -- got their start insuring slave shipments from Africa, and that I always end up paying more than the insurance company, they never authorize squat, and my premiums are outrageous. What's the answer? More doctors?

So anway, we go the good ultrasound office, and get it done, and everything is fine, confirm the existence of the baby's heartbeat, see the baby move, all measurements are great. Zoey and Livvy are excited, they loved seeing the pictures.

So, despite the scare, so far so good. Will be cautious from here on out....JGW