I'm a guinea pig

I have two exciting things to share about Real Food Blends!! I swear they don't pay me to talk about them; I just really like their product. However, they DO let me try out some of their new meals before they start selling them to the general public. Or another way of looking at it is, they experiment on me to see if their latest inventions cause my stomach to explode, or perhaps cause a mutant alien life form to incubate in my belly (this only happened that one time).

Their latest concoction was a powdered breakfast blend, so I took the opportunity to have it on a ferry on the way to the North Carolina Outer Banks.

And now I've tube-fed on a boat. My life is complete

They've made a breakfast blend with egg, sweet potato, avocado, and apple, only this time the meal is in powdered form. I loved this meal for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it's 540 calories per blend, which is much more of an adult-size portion for me. Also, I can see it coming in very handy while traveling, particularly on flights or when I'm hiking. Plus, they are less expensive than RFB's three other meals. And what's not to love about the ingredients?? Avocados, sweet potatoes, eggs, and apples are all foods I put in my blends constantly.

Once again, no crazy ingredients; exactly what the title says

Preparing the blend was easy. We added the powder to a blender bottle with 16 ounces of water, shook vigorously for a while, and it was ready to go. In hindsight, I think I'll bring along one of the metal oscillators that came with the blender bottles because there were still a couple clumps that were harder to push through my tube. Otherwise it went in really smoothly and filled me up that morning. I can't wait until these meals are back in stock so I can buy them by the case (*hint* Christmas/birthday gift idea *hint*)!!

Just a man and his blender bottle

The second piece of Real Food Blend news concerns my insurance. I hesitate to come out and say this because my insurance might change their minds at the last minute, but it's looking "More Probable Than Not" (#deflategate reference) that my insurance will pay for me to get Real Food Blends!!!!!! I've been calling and calling, but haven't had any luck with the DMEs (Durable Medical Equipment--the companies that provide medical supplies, including equipment for tube feeders) in the Knoxville area. Knoxville is a "Competitive Bidding Area," according to Medicare, which I would think opens us up to an unlimited number of DMEs to provide our enteral feeding equipment. Instead, this means that there is a relatively short list of 13 DMEs for me to choose from. The list does not include the DME that everyone else in Tennessee can use to get their Real Food Blends (Reeves-Sain Infusion).

Since I started trying to get my insurance to pay for Real Food Blends last year, the DMEs have all refused to recognize RFB as an approved enteral formula. They only approve the crappy formula that makes me nauseous, like Ensure, TwoCal, and Jevity. For the third time in the past year, I called Adult Pediatric Specialists to ask if they would give me Real Food Blends. Adult Pediatric Specialists is the company that one of my approved DMEs, Lincare, uses for feeding tube supplies. I know this is confusing, but this is the simplified version. Long story short - Adult Pediatric Specialists said they can supply Real Food Blends through Medicare!!!!!

They've talked to my doctor and gotten all my information. It looks like I should start getting the meals by the end of the month, but I won't really start celebrating until I get that first package in the mail. I can still foresee getting a phone call from some DME bureaucrat saying, "Sorry Mr. Liebenow, but it turns out anyone with more than 7 letters in their last name isn't covered for enteral nutrition. Please change your name to 'Doofus' immediately." As soon as I get my very first, insurance-provided, RFB, I'll post a picture on here.