A Little Luck

A while back, I happened to catch a little news story about a health/fitness "camp" that was put on by Riley Hospital in coordination with Andrew Luck.  It was free, but there were a limited number of spaces.  I decided that Ethan needed to be a part of that, but I assumed we wouldn't happen to make it in.  

Well, he did and it happened yesterday.

We registered at a local football field at 1:00 on a blazing hot 90+ degree day.  Here's Ethan with "cardboard Andrew" before things got started.

 The kids were split into about eight groups and they rotated around different stations, learning some fun exercises.

Below is Ethan, the cool dude in his shades, waiting for the main event .

Still waiting....and wondering what the big fuss was about....

 

 And then the Man appeared....Andrew Luck, quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, on the same field as Ethan!

 Andrew (the husband, not the QB) and I sat in the first row of the stands and Andrew (the QB, not the husband) stood right in front of us, waving shyly at the crowd of (probably more excited than the kids, parents).

Andrew gave a little five minute speech and took some questions from the crowd (of kids) including what was his favorite sport and whether he was mad about Deflate-gate!!

 Then it was off to the stations!

Ethan did pretty well with running around the cones!

 And then he got to get up close and personal with the Luck-man himself!  (He's on the far right side below.)

 Now I fully realize that you cannot see Ethan in the picture below at all, but you're going to have to trust me....He had the opportunity to catch a pass thrown by Andrew Luck.  If you look toward the bottom middle, you can see the ball, mid-flight and two little arms reaching out to try to catch it....emphasis on try!  But still, he played catch with an NFL quarterback!

And finally, here is a picture I found on the official "Change the Play" Facebook page....I guess they liked his jump-rope style!

As a side-note, Ethan also made the local news, showing him doing push-ups in a small group with Luck, but the video would not load for me, so I'll try again another time.  

Thanks to Andrew Luck and Riley Children's Hospital for providing this fun opportunity of a lifetime!

My Graduates

 We've had a few graduations around here in the last couple of weeks.  I graduated from my medical coding program in April and then last week, Ethan graduated from Kindergarten and Emily graduated from elementary school.  

The picture above is of Ethan with his teacher, Miss Liechty.  He had a great Kindergarten year and we are so blessed that she was his teacher.

The official 1st grader!

 

 Ethan's class....lots of boys!

There's the real Ethan!

 

Ethan and Dad

 

See, I really am there...Ethan and Mom

 

Ethan and his teacher

 

The whole family!

 

And the best part of graduation.....the cake!

 

Two days later, Emily graduated from 5th grade and is now officially a middle schooler!  Heaven help us!!

Here she is with two of her friends, Lily and Emily, singing a song.

 

Her class was large for her school...I got most of them in the picture! 

 

Emily receiving her certificate from her teacher, Mrs. Kane. 

My New Title...

Guess who has new letters following her name?   Yep....me!

 I took my national medical coding certification exam on Saturday.  It was the CPC exam (certified professional coder) and took me 5 hours, 20 minutes to complete.  Yesterday evening, after obsessively checking my exam status, I found out that I passed with a score of 91%, which I am told puts me at "Magna Cum Laude" status!  From what I understand, the CPC credential is the gold standard for outpatient medical coding, so I'm good to start applying for positions.  However, I can also code inpatient and vastly prefer that, so I need another set of credentials to help open doors for hospital inpatient jobs....so, after a quick celebratory dinner this evening, it's off to start studying for that 4 hour exam, and hopefully another set of new letters behind my name.

So far, it's Christina, B.S., CPC-A...and hopefully soon to include CCS!!

And End and A Beginning

I haven't posted anything in a very long time.  It's embarrassing.  There....that's out of the way, now on to the very good (in my humble opinion) reason:

I graduated!  

Ok, so I already have a B.S. in music ed, but after discovering that I do not like teaching, that didn't really do me much good.  So for the last year, I've been studying to become a medical coder.  If you're like me, and have no idea what that actually is, allow to me explain very briefly.  You go to the doctor/hospital/nursing home/physical therapy/etc...  Whatever happens there is dictated into your medical record.  The medical record consists of words.  Medical coders turn those words into numbers that describe for whoever will be paying exactly what was done.  So I read the medical record, look up the code in the appropriate book and hope for the best!  Sounds easy, but I discovered that it's FAR more difficult and exacting than I ever could have imagined.

 Case in point, in the picture below, notice all the books lined up on my desk?  Those are just this year's code books.  They are updated every year, each for a specific set of codes (inpatient, outpatient, medical supplies/drugs and procedures for both inpatient and outpatient....because of course they can't just be coded the same way!)  The tiniest of details can make a huge difference in the amount that  a provider is reimbursed and thus, how much the patient has to pay.  It's a rather precise field. 

And so these days, most of my time is spent staring at the view from the picture above, studying for the national certification exam that will officially allow me to include the letters CPC (certified professional coder) after my name and qualify me for good jobs.  It's a good time, but it will be worth it (I hope!!) when I finally find a job (hopefully from home, but we'll see).  

So that's the scoop here.  Lots of work, a little fun here and there, but mostly just plugging away to accomplish a goal. 

Goal #1 Complete training course - COMPLETED

Goal #2 - Pass CPC exam - In Progress

Goal #3- Get a job - Getting there....

 

 We're still on arrival day of our Disney vacation and I thought I'd share a few more pictures of the resort and grounds.  The above picture was taken in the lobby of the Polynesian resort.  There are little Tiki people all around the resort.  There used to be a huge waterfall in the lobby (which frankly, I preferred) but the newly redecorated lobby is still very nice.

 If you look up above Mr. Tiki, you'll see all these lanterns.  There is also a second floor to this room with restaurants and gift shops and access to the monorail.

 This is the waterfall into the main pool area.  This end of the pool also has the end of the waterslide (just to the left of Larry Lifeguard).  The other end has a zero-entry which is always nice for little kids or those of us who might not want to do stairs.  It was nice to have full-time lifeguards so that parents didn't have to get in the pool if we didn't want to.

This is the beach area and to the right, the newly constructed (and highly expensive) villas.  It's a great place to get the beach experience (you can't go in the water though) and to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom, which is just across the water and trees.

 Scattered all around Florida (the resorts and parks) are a ton of these little fellows.  If you're not scared of lizards, it's a fun diversion to try to spot them while standing in lines at the parks. 

Honestly, I don't remember what I was taking a picture of specifically, but this is looking out over the pool area.

And here are the kids at our first park...Epcot.  Hey, look....we found Nemo!

Ethan wanted me to take a picture of him posing in front of the fountain.  Mission accomplished!

So We Went On Vacation

 Well, I haven't been a very good blogger lately because, well, life has been busy.  But in the midst of all of that, we took some time for a family vacation.  Andrew got a nice bonus from work earlier in the year and after the rather difficult year we had last year which left us unable to do anything but go to doctor's appointments and tests and surgeries, a vacation was sorely needed.  So we packed up, drove to Indy and flew south to Florida...Disney World, to be more specific.

Since I took something like 700 pictures (don't worry, I won't subject you to nearly that many!) I'll start at the beginning of our journey...our resort.  We got to the Polynesian resort (a Disney resort) around 2:30 in the afternoon and went up to check out our room.  The first picture was Ethan discovering our hotel room.  There were two beds and then a nice fold-out bed that is pictured below.  

The picture above is from our hotel room balcony.  We were on the third floor of the Samoa house, overlooking the pool area.  The entire resort has just been remodeled in the last year and the rooms are lovely and the entire resort feels very tropical and relaxed.  The pool features a large volcano, complete with water slide and off to the left in this picture is a very nice kids splash pad area.  

If you turned to the right and looked off the balcony, this was the view.  The resort you can see across the water is Disney's Grand Floridian hotel.  It's the very top of the line, fancy-pants Disney resort where Disney weddings are held.  There is a nice little beach area and a dock where you can catch a boat to the Magic Kingdom, if you so desire.

 This is the couch/fold-out bed that was in our room.  It was pretty comfy for a fold-out.

 And because we're weird, here's a picture of the bathroom.  It was quite spacious with plenty of counter-space for 4 people. Just across from the bathroom was a little counter area with a coffee maker (totally unused) and a mini-fridge and two closets.  Overall, the rooms were really nice and tasteful, compared to what I remember from our last stay, where the tropical feel was a lot more "in your face". 

 This is one of the ponds around the resort, specifically the one you can see from the monorail station.  The resort is one of three that the Disney monorail visits, making transportation very easy.  I love all the tropical plants and waterfalls scattered all around.  It would be very easy to believe you were vacationing on a tropical island.

And here are two very excited kiddos, waiting on the monorail to arrive so that they can get to their first Disney park.  Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.  The weather was HOT and humid (even in November!!) and my camera lens always needed more time than I had to clear up the condensation when we would first leave our room for the day.  

Be sure to check back over the next week or so to see more posts from the rest of the week.  I'll try to be timely in posting them, but no promises!

Happenings

 I've been working hard on my new career path.  This is my view most days (and some nights) now.  I'm almost done with learning all about how to code ICD-9 medical codes.....and my timing, as usual, is spectacular as those codes became officially obsolete when the medical community switched to ICD-10 codes on October 1st.  Oh well, the process is the same, but the apparently there are a lot more codes and they look vastly different.  Good times!  So in a couple more weeks, I'll take my final exam on the -9 codes and then start learning the -10 stuff.  Maybe sometime next year I'll actually be employable.

I have learned a ton, but mostly, I've learned that there is SO much I still don't know.  This is HARD.  I had no clue how much detail was involved, as well as how much medical knowledge is required.  I currently want to pull my hair out, but I am hopeful that I'll get this all figured out soon.

And now, in no particular order, are some pics from the last couple of months from around here.

 I looked up from studying one afternoon this summer and there was Ethan, posing.  Right now he's very proud of this picture....I figure that this will make a great pic to show at his graduation someday....

I know this isn't a great picture, but if you look out in the grass, you'll see our new little woodland creature friend.  I haven't seen him the last few days, but he was living in the little drain pipe just to the right of where he was standing, so I would see him as I stood looking out the kitchen window while washing dishes.

 

And way back in August, (how is it mid-October by the way?) both kiddos went back to school.  Ethan started kindergarten and Emily started 5th grade.  It's been nice to have them both in the same school and on the same schedule as it allows me to get a lot of work done without having to stop and start to pick someone up.

 

Here's Ethan on his very first day of Kindergarten.  He does have other kids in his class, he was just early!

 

And speaking of school, Bella decides that she wants to ride along for pickup some days.  I guess she gets bored with just me at home, because sometimes she will just follow me out to the garage and expect to go for a ride.  

 

A couple of weekends ago, we took Emily and a friend to a local kid's museum to play.  Ethan and dad tagged along too...this looks like a boat full of trouble!

 

Recognize these crazy people?  Andrew and I are on top and Ethan and Emily are below us.  It's disturbing....

The Bible According to Ethan

Ethan is 6 years old.  He has a rather unique perspective on things.  Take for instance, our conversation while getting ready for church this morning.  We'd been talking about the upcoming football games that we were planning to watch today (the Colts and the Broncos).  We had mentioned something about Peyton Manning which began this dialogue between Ethan and me:

Ethan:  Peyton?  Didn't Peyton betray God?
Me:  Ummm...not to my knowledge.  I think you mean Judas.  Judas betrayed Jesus.

A few minutes later....

Ethan:  No, I mean didn't Peyton betray God...not Jesus? 
Me:  (It suddenly dawned on me the way his mind was working) OH!!!  I think you're thinking of
         Satan!  Yes, Satan did betray God.
Ethan:  Yep, I knew it sounded like that.

And then he came to me a week or so ago and asked, "Mom, what does 'the sign-o' mean?"  So I said, well, I don't know.  What do you mean?  To which he replied, "You know, like when you sing, 'Jesus loves me, the-sign-o'."

Ah yes....Jesus loves me, this I know!

This kid keeps us guessing....and laughing.

Challenging

I haven't been here for a while because I've been sort of busy pursuing my new field of study (see the previous post).  It's taking up most of my free time these days, but that's okay because I sort of enjoy the challenge of learning something new and interesting.

 

And then there are other challenges that haven't been quite so much fun....like having to request a new disability hangtag for my car.  The one I received last fall was only good for 6 months and was due to expire in a week, so I called up my neurosurgeon's office and requested that they sign the paperwork for a new one.  When I went in to pick it up, it no longer says "temporary".

 

"Permanent" is a lot harder to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But on to more interesting things...I'm taking a course through an online program called CareerStep to learn medical coding and billing.  I started last month and have been working my way through the individual learning "modules" (does anyone else instantly think of Marvin the Martian and his 'space modulators' here?) one by one.  I am currently half-way through the longest one to date, Medical Terminology.  I am painstakingly reading every single word of this 1000+ page textbook (which may or may not be the only textbook to date that I will have read all the way through....sorry Mom and Dad, but I got good grades anyhow!!).  So far I've learned about the skin, the skeletal system, medical word-building (things like suffixes/prefixes/root words...in Latin mainly), muscles and joints, the nervous system, the blood and lymphatic system and the cardiovascular system.  It's a lot of words.

 

 

I just finished with the cardiovascular system and next up is the digestive system.  I've learned a lot of new words.  Words that will roll around in my brain when I'm driving along in the car or lying in bed at night as my brain tries to play with them.  Some of those words include, but aren't limited to:

~ Olecranon process (basically your elbow...who knew?)

~Rhinorrhea (a runny nose)

~Erythropoiesis  (process of red blood cell production)

~Gastrocnemius (main calf muscle)

~Onychomycosis (fungal nail infection

 

You're welcome, by the way...now maybe they can rattle around in someone else's brain for a while!

 

That Betty Davis Jones writes a pretty darn comprehensive textbook....with lots of pictures.  (Some of which I'll have to hide from inquisitive children when I get to the male and female reproductive system sections!!)

 



 

Most of my work until the terminology module has been done on the computer.  In fact, this is the only textbook I have at the moment.  However, this module requires a LOT of writing.  As in a half a college-ruled notebook of medical definitions....page after page of very interesting, very long words.

 

I kind of thought that once I graduated from college, I'd be done with (my own) homework, but life has a way of throwing curveballs, doesn't it?  Still, I find all this medical stuff fascinating (and often, frighteningly too familiar).  It's kind of sad when you don't even need to look up the condition because you've had it and experienced it in very real ways.  But it's also helpful, I suppose. 

 

And so that's what I've been up to lately.  I'll try to keep you updated more frequently, but I make no promises!!