Game off.

At least temporarily.

On Tuesday I had a 13mm follie, so the plan was to trigger today and IUI tomorrow. I had a scan this morning and after much digging, found that the 13 only grew to 15 in 3 days. Awesome. Nurse wasn't too discouraged, the possible plans thrown out were for trigger either tomorrow or Sunday with and IUI on Monday or Tuesday (respsectively). Blood draw to confirm this.

Not so much. I have another follie scan Monday to see where I am at. Apparently my levels sucked. Hooray. Happy Friday.

On the plus side, my lining was at 8.7 today. Much better than last cycle.

Stupid encounters of the third kind.

Or take three if you will. Lucky you- two posts in one day.

So the douchenozzles at my prescription company called back. It was going to be $96 for my shot. Ex-fucking-cuse me? Your price is listed at $45. "Oh, well, it's gone up a little since then." A little? That is twice the price dumbass! Then she was rambling on and on about waiting for my insurance to approve.
"Why the fuck are you involving them? That's the whole point of your plan, that it is for people who don't have coverage to get a discount after paying an enrollment fee."

No answer. "How much is it through your plan?"

"$102"

HOLY MOTHER FUCK OF GOD. Are you kidding me? Your stupid plan is MORE that my out of pocket cost? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

My sanity is worth $20, which is the price difference between them and what I paid at Walgreen's last cycle.

I am seething at this point. I have put up with this stupidity for the last 36 hours for absolutely nothing. For the second time in less than 4 hours, I hang up on one of their employees. I really hope I don't have to call them ever again. I'm probably on a blacklist of some kind at this point after telling the one she has no clue what she is doing and arguing with the other.

I called the pharmacy that my nurse had heard had it for around $65.

I am now the proud owner of a box of Novarel worth $62.40.
I guess that's what I get for trying to save $20. If you don't think I am having a beer to calm my nerves after dealing with this, you are crazier than my insurance company.

Stupidity, take 2.

So I went in for my follie check this morning and had the wonderful task of letting the nurse know they needed to call in to authorize the prescription they had written. For some reason she looked at me like I had three heads, but agreed to do so and I gave her the number. That was at 7:30 this morning. Protocol for the insurance company is to then call me to arrange shipment.

Waited.

Waited.

Waited.

Finally at 2:30 I called the company and spoke to the person I spoke with yesterday. After proceeding to change the story about 5 times in a 10 minute conversation (ranging from my doctor needs to call to my insurance company needs to authorize to my insurance company needs to reject it), I finally hung up on her.

I am pretty sure I was at an insanely unhealthy blood pressure at that point. I tried to call the main number, which had them attempt to send me to her again. Oh hell no. I tried a couple other methods and tried other pharmacies, but ended up finally calling the mail order pharmacy back and when they attempted to transfer me yet again, I stopped them and got someone else.

My prescription will be arriving tomorrow. Maybe the approval come through it that amount of time, but I have a hard time believing that.



Oh yes. There was a Dr's appointment in there as well. All is proceeding swimmingly. Had one follie at 13, another around 11, lining is 4.5. Tentatively planning on triggering Friday, IUI Saturday.

I. Dumber. Phonecall. After.

Seriously.

I jumped through my insurance company's stupid hoops to get them to pay for IF meds. I forgot my insurance card and prescription at home, so J had to lend a little hand and fax that in for me. No biggie. That was around 10:30 or so.

Finally at 3:15 I got a call that they had my prescription and all was well, they were just waiting on authorization.

From my doctor.

Who wrote the damn prescription.

Whose signature is on the damn prescription.

::headdesk::

There's a reason I don't count.

But for some reason I decided to today. Is there a way to turn back time and undo this? I really didn't want to know that this is actually our 25th cycle of trying. Yes, we missed a few months due to J's deployment, but counting all cycles, that is where we are at.

Yippee. I should throw a party or something. If I wait until next month I can double it up since that will mark 3 years since I ditched the pills. Only to wind up on completely different ones a couple years later. Yay.

Dear Clomid

Due to findings that have been made, I must kindly ask you to get the fuck out of my reproductive attempts.

DIAF while you are at it.

Sincerely, K

As of today's baseline, Clomid has been officially fired. My lining was fucking 3.8 last cycle. For those who are lost, they want it to be between 6 and 8. 3.8 is bad. I'm actually a little miffed they didn't cancel my cycle. I had to be damn close to the threshhold for that. I would have rather saved the IUI money and took our chances with TI instead. The joyousness that happens when you are getting bounced around because of holidays and vacations.

Today I had my nurse and my RE back. My nurse was much happier with the follies that were measurable today- there were quite a few more than last cycle. Of course then she drops on me that they are going to discontinue my Clomid and try something else. I had a little panic attack trying to figure out where we were going to come up with funding for injects when we were planning on a Clomid cycle. Then she mentioned that it would be another pill. Ah, Femara. Thank God. So we finished up, my RE explained to me why the Clomid had the effect it did (I was nice and didn't tell him "No shit Sherlock- it's an anti-estrogen and lining is built off estrogen." I was nice though- I remembered he doesn't know how much I actually know and am letting him do his explanations to make sure we are on the same page).

So follow up next week. I need to make some calls about my trigger shot so I don't over pay. Again.

In the process of that I found the joys of the cost of Femara. Mother of God, it runs around $150 for ten teeny tiny fucking pills. Fortunately, Femara is not listed as a fertility drug, so insurance covers it (score) and I went to Femara.com and they had a prescription thing that takes it down to a $10 co-pay (double score. If you may end up with Femara at some point, REMEMBER THIS! All you do is print off the page. Walgreen's took it, so I doubt you would have any issues elsewhere).

You want me to pay how much? For what?

Today I had my nutritional consult with my chiropractor's office. I've put it off because I didn't think they were going to tell me anything I didn't already know but didn't bother to follow already. I did kind of want the book to read, but they won't sell it to you without doing the consult. Since it was already figured into my package, whatever. Let's get this over with.

So I get my adjustment and I go back with the gal for this talk. She starts talking about her credentials- or actually her complete lack thereof. Just a mom who has done some research but has no formal training in anything nutrition related (red flag).

So she keeps babbling on about crap I already know (I am so holding back a "just give me the fucking book" comment by this point. She starts talking about nutritional deficiencies and blah blah blah. Then she goes on to say that it's kind of like the pregnancy she lost because she had low progesterone.

You now have my attention.

To which I quickly reply "That's usually a symptom of a different problem." She looks stunned. "What?"
"Low progesterone. It's a symptom, not an actual issue. Kind of like how Dr W solving the headache isn't what needs to be done- you need to find the source of the headache to cure it instead of just treating the symptoms."

Apparently they don't know how to respond when you throw their own logic back at them. Hehehe.

So she continues on and finally gets to the end of her little spiel. Finally. Give me my damn book.

But wait! There's more!

For only $599 they will run various tests and tell you what you are deficient in and what you need to start eating. I almost died laughing. Apparently telling her we are doing fertility treatments didn't sink in and she thought we have spare money just lying around. Ha. She tried to talk me into at least a Vitamin D test. Thanks again. It's winter, we haven't seen the sun in how long, I admit that I don't eat the best and I don't supplement this (I have them, I just forget to take them). Yeah, I bet that number is going to come back sky high.

I paid for my book and went home.

Fail

Best word to describe medicated cycle/IUI #1.

I was good and only tested about 12 hours early. Start white. Nada. I'll still take the one the doctor gave me in the morning, but I'm not even bothering with my Prometrium pill tonight. There's really no point is holding it off any long, right?

Right.

Obligatory New Years Post

Because, well, it seems wrong not to.

I'll start with the IUI yesterday. Got there at 7 for J to drop off his sample. We had some breakfast afterward, then window shopping at Cabela's (which with J is never just window shopping). Returned to the RE's at 9 for my fun.

J's count was 235 million, so that was a plus. The IUI itself wasn't even noticeable. The freaking sponge they shoved up there (wrapped in a plastic baggie with corners- we will be having a discussion about this before they try that again) hurt like hell. I had to walk bow legged for the next 4 hours and sitting? Holy crap, it was hell trying to find a comfortable position. Yanked it out after the 4 hours and I am pretty sure my vag had a huge sigh of relief. My poor vag is getting so violated in this whole thing- the dildo cams, then then sponge.

And there is more to come. I will start on progesterone on the 3rd. And they will be vag inserts. Score.

Now for the New Year's crap. I do have a couple resolutions.
1- Stop chewing. It has to be done. Now. My biggest hurdle will be that J chews as well (and the same type) and that makes it very hard (I've tried before). I generally only chew when I drink, but will do so other times. I'm starting with the other times. If for some reason I can't drink, that issue will solve itself.
2- Keep the house cleaner. A fun challenge with a small house with little storage space and 2 big dogs. I need to get the garage in better order so I can get the excess stuff out of the house. One thing J and I would like to do is sit down to dinner not on the couch. As of now, we can't even sit on the bench for the kitchen table. That needs to change.