Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Big Medication Mess-Up

We had a pretty rough time yesterday.

First, at work I learned that my estrogen levels were too low. We bumped up my dosage of the Follistim, and I had to re-fill my prescription. Another $508, thankyouverymuch. Thanks, estrogen that didn't rise the way it was supposed to.

Then, I went to the dentist to have a small cavity filled, and learned it's actually going to need a root canal. Wonderful. And I can't get it done for two more weeks. Luckily I am not in pain.

After work, we had trouble with the new Follistim dose. The pen let us dial up to 225 units, even though according to my math there should have only been enough medication for 150 units. This caused me to freak out. I ended up calling a pharmacist, who assured me that if the pen let us dial that much, it was available. It's so weird, but apparently the vials often have overflow. 75 units worth!?!?! The whole pen was only supposed to have 600 units, but it had 675!?!? Bizarre, and utterly mind-boggling. Each vial is $508, by the way. Fun times.

Anyway, once I was calmed down after the pharmacist's reassurance, I got in the car to go to the RESOLVE meeting. And, because nothing could be easy in my life yesterday, the Engine Malfunction light went on. Screw it. I drove to Cary anyway. I made it there, and home, with pouring down rain to boot. The car is going into the shop tomorrow. Sigh. But it's my sister's car so hopefully my dad will pay for the repairs.

And just when I thought it couldn't continue on this way, I watched someone else at the meeting do their Menopur, and something seemed... different. There was also a weird reaction when I was saying how big the needle was for me. At home, before bed, I consulted the instructions sheet. I learned that we've been doing the injections with the wrong needle! Instead of switching to a 1/2 inch needle, we've been using a 1 1/2 inch needle for the last four nights! No wonder it hurt so much!!! I was really, really upset- like all out, bawling. I'd been doing an intramuscular injection rather than a subcutaneous, and I was terrified that it might have messed up my cycle or my dosage. I was angry at the pharmacy for it's confusing packaging and lack of labelling, UNC for not having a real medication class ("just watch the videos"), myself for missing the instructions, and the nurse for the terribly written instructions. HANDWRITING a 1 1/2 so that it looked like   a 1/2 is really inexcusable.

Well, to finish this up, I talked to the nurse today and she just acted like I'm dumb, which infuriated me. This is REALLY complex for someone with no experience mixing and administering medications, and they really could have made this easier, for the THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS we're paying for this damn thing. You know?

Anyway, no harm is done, other than my very sore belly. For the next few nights, I've been told to let my tummy recover, and use the thigh for a while.

Tomorrow is my first ultrasound since starting the meds, and more bloodwork. I hope to have good news.



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