Joel update

Joel survived his day at school Wednesday, and did a great job of facing all the teachers and friends he had said goodbye to the Thursday before. What a trooper.

He got to skip Thursday to go to OHSU for a pulmonary test. Our insurance stated that he had to have a pulmonary test that showed he had "Restrictive Lung Disease" in addition to the CT that clearly showed that the chest cavity has severely restricted space. One look at this kid with his shirt off and you can see that there is no way his lungs can inflate to full capacity.

So, the insurance company paid for the testing to be done so that they can pay for the surgery...

Anyway, it appears that the medical definition of Restrictive Lung Disease is someone whose lungs can only inflate at 80% or less of expected capacity for height and age. Joel ended up at 77%.

Now we'll see what Blue Cross has to say.