We are in the midst of Mitochondrial Awareness week. We have been posting pictures of Matthew and our friends helping raise awareness for a disease that claims more children than pediatric cancer does. We have some really wonderful pictures of people showing their support of ridding us of this horrible disease.
We are not having the best week ourselves though. We are having a hard time with Matthew's insurance once again. We are still trying to find a way of getting his Mito Cocktail covered. The insurance was covering it and then they decided to change what they will cover. This has affected us but many other people as well. Another problem is getting his feeding supplies to us. Every so often the insurance requires an authorization to continue covering the feeding supplies (formula, bags, tubes, etc). It is always a nightmare because it takes so long to get and Terry spends a lot of time with the insurance and supply company to get this taken care of. We are always very close to running out of his formula and it gets very stressful. If he runs out of food we would have to bring him to the hospital.
Matthew had his checkup with his pediatrician yesterday who has taken care of him for almost nine years. Just like every visit both the nurse and doctor went over his medicines and allergies. He is allergic to eggs and nuts and a couple of medicines. His pediatrician prescribes Matthew an Epipen for egg exposure.
Matthew has never been able to get the flu vaccine because of his egg allergy. There is a new egg free flu vaccine that doesn't use eggs in the manufacturing of it. Terry asked for the egg free flu vaccine for Matthew because of his egg allergy. He asked 6 or 7 times if the vaccine being brought in was egg free. He was told by the nurse giving the nasal FluMist that it was egg free. He wasn't given a fact sheet on the flu vaccine that Matthew received. I looked online and found out that the vaccine Matthew received is not for people with egg allergies and/or metabolic disorders (Matthew has Mito disease). Matthew had a reaction to the vaccine with muscle spasms, itchy legs and twitching around his mouth(luckily no swelling, hives or shortness of breath). Terry called the pediatrician and we did not get a phone call back from her. Terry called Matthew's metabolic doctor in Boston and was told Matthew needed Benadryl and would need to be brought to the ER if he got worse(he didn't).
Terry called the flu vaccine manufacturer and had to fill out an adverse reaction report because under no circumstances should Matthew have gotten that vaccine. He was told by a pharmacist for the manufacturer that the CDC doesn't recommend nasal FluMist for egg allergic people or people with metabolic disorders because there are NO clinical studies showing if it's safe or not in those kinds of people.
Terry talked to the nurse who gave Matthew the vaccine and was told she didn't know he was allergic to eggs (it's on his chart and Terry asked several times if the vaccine was egg free). The nurse claims Terry asked about an ingredient we have never heard of, Thimerasol a preservative. She said she was sorry for what she did and is glad Matthew is doing ok(he seems to be ok at the moment). Matthew now has a live vaccine inside of him that he should never have gotten. Imagine the fear of not knowing what the hell to expect because someone screwed up.
