Pharmacy Headaches

April 23, 2015  Thursday I had my phone appointment with Dr. Wu, which meant soon I would get my new protocol from Lori and learn my life between now and my embryo transfer. On Monday my nurse, Lori, called and we had about a 15 minute phone call to discuss my new protocol for a frozen embryo transfer. This one seems long and a lot less trips north to OHSU. I'll document it as it happens, and the calendar below will update with info as well. In short, I'll be on birth control pills for quite a while, then start injections of Lupron, add in some Estrace tablets, have Progesterone injections and 2 ultrasounds in the middle of all of that.  Lori got me excited though, and helped me feel confident that I can get through this next phase and hopefully end with positive results!

Later in the afternoon the specialty pharmacy up north called me to go over my medications and payment. And here is our first hiccup! When trying to process my medication loan number they were told my account has been terminated. Um, what??? I told her I would look into it and call her back. Well... the fine print is that the drug loan is good for THIRTY DAYS from initiating it. How is that exactly helpful when this process could be longer than 30 days?? I went online to look at my insurance and when I called back asked her if she could try that. To my delight 2/3 of my medications are covered! In the end I still had to pay about $420 for these drugs. We realized, however, that one of those prescriptions that is covered by my insurance is something we already paid for via the loan earlier in the process. So now I am trying to get some documentation to show how much our prescription loan was charged to see if we can't get some things taken care of with insurance. Ugh, what a pain in the ass!

Speaking of pains in the ass ... well a pain in my ass might be preferred! My new medications arrived today. I went through the box to verify everything was there and pull out the paper work. I was reading over the side effects of these drugs. As discussed before, when it comes to medications I pretty much am assured to get the side effects. Never fails. Sucks to be me sometimes. Well let's just list some of the things that I may be in store for. And try not to laugh at the last one... and try to imagine the horror on my face when I read that aloud and realized what it said!

• Dizziness   (because I don't have that enough with my Meniere's Disease?)
• Menstrual irregularities
• Breast pain
• Nausea
• Acne    (yes, because every adult woman wants that!)
• Sleepiness   (I DO like naps!)
• Hot flashes    (ooh, here we go with that again)
• Sweating    (duh, wouldn't that be obvious with the hot flashes?)
• Headache
• Generalized pain
• Vomiting    (Oh great, so let's just pretend I'm pregnant already)
• Nausea  (double whammy with that one)
• Dizziness   (again with the dizzy!)
• Decreased sexual desire   (um, no shit. Trust me, during IVF sex is the last thing on your mind!!)
• AND ..... inflammation of the vagina.   (What the bloody hell is this madness????)

Trying to create a baby is just so miraculous and beautiful......

APRIL 2015
Sunday		Monday		Tuesday		Wednesday		Thursday		Friday		Saturday
						1		2		3		4
								Egg retrieval 9am		Phone appointment
								(10 eggs)		(10 embryos)
5		6		7		8		9		10		11
Phone appointment				Phone appointment		Phone appointment
(9 embryos)				(3 frozen embryos)		(5 frozen embryos)
12		13		14		15		16		17		18
		Granted permission for				Grandpa's memorial		Phone appointment
		a brisk walk/easy jog						Start birth control pills
19		20		21		22		23		24		25
		New protocol				Prescriptions arrive
26		27		28		29		30