Friday, April 23, 2010

Numbers and number$ and the voices on my shoulder

Never let it be said I don't know my own body.

After seeing the heartbeat, I was coherent enough to request a progesterone check.

"Well, the baby looks great so we don't normally do that. If there's a heartbeat, it means the progesterone is good! But, given your history, we'll do it."

Progesterone returned: 9.9 (It should be in the 20s).

I never get to say "I told you so" to doctors, even well-meaning ones. Instead, I completely broke down in public. My friend Angie says that it seems like maybe I was due for one of those.

The doctor immediately prescribed 100mg progesterone, 3x a day.

I called Dr. Beer's office in California. Since it has been more than a year, they can only call in a month's supply of my previous medications (the ones I was on with Brody) and within a month I have to send them more blood work.

Cost of medications for one month (with my insurance):
Dexamethasone (steroid to depress my immune response to pregnancy): 4.00
Progesterone: 180.00
Lovenox (twice daily injections into my stomach to thin my blood because of my genetic predisposition to clotting): 250.00 (cheaper than it was in 2006, when it was $356/month; it's $1600/month without insurance)
Folgard: 10.00
Monthly meds: $444.00

Now for the labs. About half of the labs I can get covered: the ANA reflex to titer, the TSH, the chem panel, homocystine levels.

As for the other ones - natural killer assay, leukocyte antibody detection panel, antiphospholipid panel, human T-reg, anti-DNA/histone panel, and Factor XIII gene polymorphism - there is only ONE lab in the US that does the labs they need: and it is not inside my insurance coverage area. In other words, we pay for them: Cost for the initial testing?

$1461.00

And I think they will require monitoring blood work, of at least a few labs, every month (with Brody, it was about $350 each month for testing).

I do not know what to do. I know what I want to do, but we do not have that much money available. One little voice says "Just go natural. It's worked so far, so let this pregnancy be natural."

The other voice says "Isn't your baby worth a few thousand dollars? What kind of mother are you, anyway?"

If the meds are not needed, they are not harmful. If they are needed, and I don't have them, the pregnancy will end.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

If you are a wealthy person, with money to spare, I'm swallowing my pride and putting this here.







It's not tax deductible, but it would go to a good cause. And if the pregnancy ends before I need these labs, I will return the money to you. I feel sick doing this, but for now, it's the only idea I have.

2 comments:

SaRaH said...

One month at a time we will figure out how to take the best care of y/our precious one.

Unknown said...

If ever I prayed for a miracle...