John and I had a very important doctor's visit yesterday. We met with a fertility specialist at the Jones Institute to see if there was anything they could help us with, whether it was with medicine, or an actual procdure. There were some good things, and some not so good things about our appiontment.
I should first mention that we made this appointment back in October, and have been anxiously awaiting it since! I changed insurance to go on John's plan, since we were told by Optima Health that they cover infertility office appintments, and treatments. I chose a really crappy plan when I started work in August (totally my fault!), and it doesn't cover anything. The cosultation alone would have been $400! It was a big decision to change insurances, because it is much more expensivce per month for me to be on John's plan. We crunched the numbers, and decided it was totally worth the extra money each month. On John's insurance, Optima Health, our special office visits are $40...phew...what a relief!
Our doctor confirmed that two out of the three miscarriages we've had, have all been viable, and that we are getting pregnant, just not sustaining the pregnancy. She thinks the best thing to do is start me on certain hormones, and track my cycles from day 1, and kind of control my cycles. She also suggested that she does a procudeure, which includes an xray of my uterus inflated with a dye liquid to see if there are any abnormalities. I've heard this is an excrusiating procudure...but I'll do anything. We both agreed while talking to our doctor that we'd go ahead with the procedure, only to find out that my new insurance (the one that's supposed to be AMAZING for infertility patience) does not cover it, and the procedure alone would cost close to $900! On top of that, the doctor also told us that Anthem Health Keepers (the insurance I just dropped) has certain plans that are actually
better for a patient like myself.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! 'You have to be kidding me!', was I think the exact words out of my and John's mouth.
So....with that news, we decided to not go ahead with the procedure/xray exam right now. Instead, we're going to wait for my cycle to begin, and I'll have specific blood work drawn. After they get the information from the blood work, I'll start taking meds to help my hormones being way out of wack (which is causing the continual miscarriages).
I walked out of the appointment disappointed, but in some ways, it was what I was totally expecting. I know, it's sad to admit, but why would anything good come out of this? We've faced these kind of appointments before...so it was kind of what we were expecting. I have to continually remind myself of the positive: I have insurance, we've saved up for these appointments, and most of all
hard does not equal bad, it's just hard. It's okay for me to go through some hard times. It's not going to kill me, I'm not going to lose myself in this, and I can stand some pain. Hard is not bad, it's just hard.
I'll keep you updated...