Wednesday, November 27, 2013

More waiting

We had Jon's urology appointment yesterday morning. Everything is still settling in my brain, so I don't think this post is going to be very eloquent.

We talked about everything with the doc, including the 9 SA's that were done in 2009 and this past summer. Dr. W didn't have a definitive answer about why Jon's numbers dropped so much. We did have a hormone panel run in August with our primary doctor, but without being able to compare Jon's hormone levels from 2009, he couldn't really say anything about it.

At the end of the day, Jon is to take arimidex twice a week for three months and then have an SA done to see if his counts go up. I successfully kept it together during the appointment and the walk to a private area, but then I began to cry. This is another delay, another wait, another obstacle. It just seems that with every one of these, that we're just stuck and will never get to bring home another rainbow.

During our post-appointment conversation, Jon and I decided we would ask for an SA now to see what his current counts are, and he'll be doing that this Friday. So, I still have hope that Jon's results will come back normal and we won't have to wait until April to begin treatments, but I don't know how hopeful I should be, especially with everything that's happening with trying to get the prescription filled.

Dr. W sent the script to Wal.greens. Jon received an email stating there was an issue with payment between them and the insurance company. I ended up calling the insurance company, and they sent an exception to coverage form to the doc (if the med is covered, we will only have to pay $5/month, otherwise, we would have to pay $58/month at Wal.greens). This morning, Jon called the insurance company to check the status of his form. It turns out that the form was sent yesterday, but was not returned, probably because the form they sent had MY name on it and not Jon's. So, the doctor's office was sent a new form, with Jon's name on it, and it has been returned by the doctor. And now we wait. One would think this would be good, but it's not.

Dr. W wants Jon to take meds on a Monday/Thursday schedule, so his first dose is supposed to be tomorrow, but it takes up to 7 business days for this exception to coverage form to be reviewed by the insurance company. Jon did ask the insurance company what happens if he pays out of pocket for the meds, but they are then covered. He was informed that it depends. If we choose any other national pharmacy, we will get a refund of the difference between the out of pocket cost and the co-pay cost. With Wal.greens, there is a 7-day window in which the refund needs to occur. The issue with this is that is can take 7-10 days to hear back from the insurance company regarding their approval of the exception to coverage. So, we are taking a risk. The cost at Wal.greens, out of pocket, for 8 pills is $58. The cost at Tar.get for 8 pills is $78. So, we wait and see if we threw away $20 or are going to get refunded $73.

As stated above, Jon goes in on Friday for his SA. When we've done them as part of the sperm prep for IUI's we only had to wait a couple hours for the results. I'm not sure what the waiting time will be at this "new" clinic, but know that the DNA fragmentation will take two weeks (yes, a TWW). I'm hoping that the results will post to Jon's MyChart before the end of the day, and that the results are reported in a format that we can easily compare where he was this past summer to where he is now.

In any case, we are now in another waiting game. I just hope that at the end of it all, I'm not waiting for another child, and that there is actually another one in our home and arms.

4 comments:

  1. Ugh, I know you were hoping for better news! Waiting stinks, and yet we're forced to do it like it or not. Hopefully everything with the insurance works out, and the counts on Friday are normal!

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    1. Thank you. We're still waiting on insurance, and we have the preliminary numbers from Jon's SA...motility is up already from the summer!

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  2. I'm so sorry for the extra waiting. As if we didn't have enough of that already. Hoping the insurance stuff is resolved quickly!

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    1. Thank you. Jon's supposed to be calling today to see if there's an update on his exception.

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