Insurance Games

I'm getting really good at playing this insurance game.  I feel like I've definitely come out on top this year!  I feel like beating insurance is not the norm...so I'm celebrating while I can.

I've been pretty upfront with my insurance dealings on here and want to pass on whatever tips and tricks I come up with to future Starbucks Mommas (or whoever else is reading this).

Benefits reset on October 1st for Starbucks so you want to use as much of your benefits as you can in the remaining time, especially if you've already met your deductible!  This goes for all doctors, not just your fertility stuff.

I was eligible to get refills on my estrogen patches (the ones where they filled 180 for me), leuprolide, and PIO.  I won't need the estrogen patches for a while, and I still have a TON left over from my last batch since the transfer was unsuccessful, but if I do get pregnant I will need more!  I'm hoping I don't need another batch of leuprolide since that would mean the 2nd transfer is also unsuccessful, but I refilled that just in case.

For the progesterone, my prescription has historically been for 2 vials at a time. I refilled that today (in preparation for the coming transfer later in October) and the pharmacy tech who I was speaking with (at Cigna) told me that if the doctor sent in a new Rx for more vials, they could fill that as well.  So I asked my nurse and she sent in a new Rx for TEN vials of progesterone.  This will theoretically last 100 days!  Plus the 4 vials I already have on hand which definitely gets me through week 12 of a pregnancy!!!  So even though my 2nd transfer hasn't even started, and won't happen until my insurance changes, I already have all the meds I need.

A few weeks ago I filled the regular pharmacy drugs for the transfer like valium and an antibiotic as well.

You may be wondering when this is a good idea and if it would be beneficial for you.  This is most beneficial for people who are switching insurance providers (I'm going from Cigna to BCBS) or people switching to a lower insurance plan (I'm going from platinum to silver).  The reason for this is that right now, I have very low copays for pharmacy meds (valium, antibiotic, estrogen patches) and copays will be significantly higher with a silver plan.)  ALSO with a platinum plan, it covers the fertility meds at 100% and with silver I will have 30% coinsurance.  So these meds will go towards my $15k fertility max, but I know I'm not close to reaching that, and since I'm switching to BCBS, I'll get a whole new $15k!

The Trigger Shot

It's really amazing how they have all the timing of everything down to exact hours.  I've been injecting the Cetrotide for 4 days to prevent my body from naturally ovulating.  Now, the doctors want me to ovulate so they can retrieve the eggs.  They time this out to the minute!  

My egg retrieval is scheduled for 10:15 Monday morning.  This means I give my trigger shot at 10:15 Saturday night because ovulation occurs 36 hours after the injection.  There is no wiggle room with this one like the other medications where you could be an hour off and it wouldn't make a big difference. 

I am spending the night at Teresa's house because our husbands are out of town on a job together and neither of us like being home alone!

The lupron was the worst one because it's so much medication to inject!  Basically the whole syringe was full so it took a good 20 seconds or so to push it in.  But now I'm triggered!

I will go in for bloodwork tomorrow morning before church to make sure the injections worked and then surgery Monday at 10:15!

The Actual Celebratory Dinner

We finally got our act together and decided on Chima Brazillian Steakhouse for our celebration dinner!  Since I'm an idiot for picking to do shots at 7:30, I had to bring them with me.  These two meds actually have to be refrigerated so I had to get creative!  I grabbed a Yeti, filled it with ice, and stuffed the medication in it.  I'm pretty proud of myself for that one!  You have about an hour leeway of when to do the shot (doesn't have to be at exactly 7:30) but we stopped at the mall before dinner so I could just do it at home. 

Not only did I do it not at home, but I did it in the car.  Gotta do what you gotta do! 

With our friends, the Baldwins and Bolins.

Meds Arrive!

Yay!  My meds finally got here!  Things are starting to get real now.  I'll explain what I have pictured, but everyone is going to be SO different so you may have a totally different concoction.

1) Gonal-F.  This is a pen injector so you don't have to draw up any medication, you just change the needle tip each time.  This medication helps to grow your eggs.
2) Lodose HCG.  This one you do draw up.  I did it in a small insulin needle so it's really not bad to inject!  This one also is helping to grow your eggs.
3) Cetrotide.  This is the most complicated one of the lot.  Each box comes with everything you need though, so that's helpful!  It comes with 2 vials, one is a saline solution and the other is a powdered medication.  You have to draw up the liquid with one needle, inject it into the powder, then redraw it in the needle and inject yourself.  This med helps to prevent ovulation so that they can decide when you ovulate.
4) Pregnyl.  This is part of the "trigger shot" to induce ovulation.  This is another one you have to mix yourself before injecting.
5) Lupron.  This came as a pre-filled syringe so you just have to attach the needle and go!  This is the other part of the "trigger shot" to induce ovulation.  More on that when we get to it.

As I mentioned previously, I bought some of my meds overseas.  The gonal-f box is entirely in Dutch(???).  Not sure exactly what language this is!!  But there are great videos online to teach you how to inject each medication.  I HIGHLY recommend checking out Freedom Med Teach before injecting anything.  They give you step by step instructions so it doesn't matter if you can't read the box ;)  

I start injecting on Friday!