So far so good! Fellowship is quite a change from residency. I'm lucky in that my fellowship is much lower in stress and hours worked each week than my residency was. Not all fellows are that lucky - it totally depends on your specialty. Developmental/behavioral pediatrics is a very laid-back specialty that so far has allowed me to get home everyday before 5:00. Can you believe it? I really don't know what to do with myself. I've gone from working an average of 65 hours a week (some weeks as much as 80 hours) to working about 40 hours a week. I told Jeremiah he may get tired of me! I am looking into moonlighting - not because I want to, but because I have to. My health insurance here is costing me five times as much as I paid in Tulsa. Our rent and several other bills are also more than they were in Tulsa, so I really don't have a choice. At least my work hours are low enough that I can moonlight and still not work as much as I was just a few months ago. I'm looking into an opportunity in the fast-track pod of the ER at ACH. It's more like an after hours clinic with lower acuity than the main ER. The pay is good too. I'm just waiting to find out if they'll pay my malpractice insurance. That will be a big part of whether or not actually do it.
Jeremiah and the kids are doing well. They've totally adjusted to life here. I think the only thing Jeremiah is having a hard time adjusting to is getting up to be at church my 8:30. That's an hour earlier than we had to go in Tulsa. We didn't plan on going to the first service, but Will's class (Cool Kids for special needs kids) only meets during the first and second services. Our Sunday school class meets during the second service, so we're trying to make it to the first service. The third service would be nice though because we wouldn't have to get to church until 10:00. Oh well. I definitely think it's worth it for Will to be able to be in his class during church and Sunday school.
Will starts school in about 6 weeks. I'm nervous about it, but I am happy with the way his IEP has turned out so far. We're still waiting to meet with PT and OT because they weren't there for the initial IEP meeting, but everything else is awesome. He's getting 90 minutes per week of speech therapy and 60 minutes per week each of physical and occupational therapy. He's going to be in a self-contained class with 5 other children, one special ed teach, and two paraprofessionals. I think it's a pretty good student to staff ratio. He will also have the school district's lead ST and OT and the only full-time school nurse in the district. The Lord is definitely answering prayers in that area.
I do have one major prayer request that I need you all to be in prayer about. Will was receiving SSI payments until April when they were discontinued. About a year ago, the Social Security office said they'd overpaid us and that we were required to pay them back around $5000. Well, the waived around $1000 and collected some more from his checks (until we stopped getting them a few months ago). Now they're saying they overpaid us again. I've done everything they've asked as far as providing information, participating in phone and person-to-person interviews, etc. but they're still actually saying we now owe just over $6000. Please pray that my application for waiver and/or appeal will be granted. We obviously don't have that kind of money, and besides, I didn't deceive them to get the money. It was their mistake, and I'm praying they will own up to that fact. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I feel them everyday. You guys are the best!
