Come on, already!

I have the slowest freaking ovaries on the planet, I swear.

On Thursday I was back at the good ol' RE for blood, sono, and injection lessons. I'm sure I'll be fine after the first one, but I am dreading it. Thursday's exam showed 2 growing follies, and "many small ones." After all that I met with the... I don't know what she was - she's the clinic's expert on getting patients the most drugs for the least money, and within what your insurance plan allows. I had already called the insurance company about the injectables, and they never mentioned a limit on how many times I can be prescribed them, but the clinic expert insists that I can only get them three times in a lifetime. Since it's my nature, I argued with her, but really, whatever at this point. Dr. S said she would over-prescribe so that if I need them again next cycle I don't use up another chance, and I'll just have it on hand.

The expert called me back Thursday afternoon to tell me it was all taken care of, and I'd be getting a call from the pharmacy to set up delivery. The pharmacy called Thursday night to confirm some details, and said that I'd be receiving the package Saturday and it required a signature. Crap! FedEx service is so unreliable here - sometimes they don't even ring the bell and just leave the stupid note that they were there, so I wasn't trusting that. We've also had packages signed for by the super, and he doesn't tell us for 2-3 days. Luckily since the RE office is open on weekends, I just had it sent there.

Friday night the pharmacy calls again to tell me there's a problem with the prescription. Dr. S had said she was going to prescribe Follistim, but the expert said that insurance companies prefer Gonal-F, so Dr. S said ok, she'd prescribe that instead. I don't know what the difference is - they're both brand names of the same drug, urofollitropin. (Ugh, I just saw the side effects - great.) So anyway, the nice woman on the phone said the script came through for Follistim, and she was all worried about it costing more and she couldn't get the doctor's office to call back, and she didn't want me to spend so much. I asked her what my cost would be and she said she didn't know yet, but wanted to give me a heads up and see if I could reach the doctor. Since it was almost 8pm and she was frantic, I asked her to just get me the cost for the Follistim before there was any panic. She called me back a few minutes later and apologized that my copay was going to be $25. Please, no apology necessary. I think I can swing that. She was so relieved it wasn't an issue for me. Despite the crappy economy, $25 for thousands of dollars worth of drugs is just fine with me.

This morning we rushed from NJ to get to my RE appointment at 8:15. I think I like going on Sundays - I was in and out in 10 minutes. Today I'm at CD18, and I have an 18mm and 11mm follicle, and still have "many" small ones. The nurse said she'd call if my blood indicated I should start my injections tonight, but no call as of almost 4pm, so I'm assuming no. I'm back again tomorrow for just blood to see if I need to start them tomorrow. I want to just do it already because I'm so anxious about it!

You know, when JB and I talked about kids before we were married we would go back and forth about having 2 or 3 kids (I wanted 3, he wanted 2), and now we'd give anything for just one. I certainly don't think I could put myself through all this again when and if we even get to have one child.

Drugs and Insurance

It's on to the next cycle. Dr. S decided to skip right over 200mg of Clomid to 250mg a day for five days. She also warned that even if I hadn't experienced much in the way of side effects before, I more than likely will now. I guess I've been fairly lucky. I have gotten hot flashes and some mood swings, but it looks like I might be in for a real roller coaster this month. In addition to the Clomid, I will again get a shot of HCG to ensure ovulation.

The thrilling part of all that? Neither Clomid nor HCG is covered by insurance. Nor is either one cheap. Today's grand total for both of these? $143. That is unreal. While I know great strides have been taken in recent years for insurance to cover fertility-related doctors visits, for the most part drugs are not covered.

We really are very lucky with our health insurance. We don't pay for it, our co-pays are only $15, and when it comes to fertility coverage, we don't pay anything for IUI's and we are entitled to an unlimited number of them until I turn 44 years old. I recently added up what our insurance company was billed from my RE in July and August, and it was just under $10,000. Our out of pocket expenses for the same period were probably $200, excluding drugs.

Given the medical treatment I'm allowed to have I really shouldn't complain about drugs not being covered, but at the same time for all that has been paid out for me over the last few months, are drugs just a cost that would put it all over the top?