I had the $25.04 to pay for it out of pocket, so it could have been worse. But I was overwhelmed with anger just the same. With everything that comes out of the pharmacy for Sasha having a chunky copay for being compounded, another 25 bucks for a generic med for me that I've been trying to get refilled since Monday is criminal negligence.
Why did my refills run out anyway? I've been on this migraine preventative for years. My next doctor appointment is in a couple of weeks, but somehow I had to get a refill request. This should not have been a big deal. On Monday the pharm started faxing refill requests. By the time I called the doctor's office on Friday to see what was going on, they assured me they'd get it done that day which was nice because I explained that the pharm had been faxing them, that I had an appointment in two weeks, and that I was almost out of meds. By the time I walked into the pharm on Saturday to see what in heck was up, insurance stepped in. The pharm indeed had gotten the prescription, but insurance was refusing to pay without further justification for why I needed this med, which was impossible to obtain, being Saturday.
I have two insurances. I pay money every month for the privilege of medical insurance. I have a life long history of migraine, doctors, neurologists, therapy, and even a week-long hospital stay for migraine. Cue overwhelming sadness, anger, frustration and rage. Having constant neck pain as a lovely new symptom of constant migraine probably wasn't helping.
I'll tell you what, I want that job. I want the job of the person who sits at a desk and writes shitty policy to make it difficult for sick people. I bet they get paid well. Actually, I'm not sure I could even do that job. I mean, I'm creative, but there is no way I saw that one coming. I think that's the worst part of all the mistakes in the medical world, is that it doesn't matter if you follow protocol, you ARE going to get screwed. Protocol is bullshit, there are too many moving parts, and it's corrupted at hell. There is no way to win.
I'll never get the 25 bucks back but way more concerning is the fact that it's 12 days into December and I'm 7 days into rescue meds. December is so typically a completely awful migraine month. There hasn't been a December since I started tracking in 2011 that hasn't stood out as terrible. The only redeeming factor about today was that the kids were happy all day. That does not make everything worth it, as some might suggest. But it was nice, despite Sasha's abdominal migraine pain which was at least treatable. Oh, right. That.
I don't even...*sigh* Speaking of Monday, while at Sasha's latest UCSF appointment, mom as my witness I explicitly stated no less than 6 times that her prescription needed to be written to be compounded corn-free. Her last one from there was written correctly, so I was hoping it wouldn't be an issue. See, this is why I have trust issues. Two neurologists and a nurse FUCKING ASSURED ME it would be sent over correctly, which of course, it fucking wasn't. This only become somewhat of an actual problem instead of just a hassle when I'm supposed to split a tablet in half to follow the titration schedule, which they had conveniently left off the pharmacy instructions. Compounded meds aren't tablets you can split in half, they are powder-filled capsules you don't generally mess with unless you're dumping them into a safer capsule or applesauce or something. (no we don't have applesauce but yes I generally dump them into safer capsules)
I explained to the pharm what happened, and they were able to procure and compound the med without a prescription rewrite HOWEVER since no indication of a titration schedule was included, I was left with expensive 10mg capsules when I needed to start with a 5mg dosage. &^%^$%#$%^^&*()* And since the last thing I wanted to do was 1. call and explain the problem to someone at UCSF and hope they understood 2. get a prescription rewrite 3. wait even longer and pay more money for it to get made since compounding takes days, I just busted out my razor blade, started making lines like a crack head, and split the damn dosages myself. *sigh* I think I'm proud, but I'm not %100 on that one.
So pretty much a typical week. It's hard not to get suicidal when you're doing all this with a constant migraine. I really think having fewer, just FEWER migraines would help so much. To think there was once so much beauty in the world, and that I used to see it, and now there is just pain and sickness...
