Stress

It is never a dull moment in Ducky and L's house!

Yesterday I finally paid for Gabby's screening costs so we could get this boat on the road. $4319. Ugh. I know it's nothing compared to the money our inlaws have spent with the agency so far but this is our first amount out of pocket (we're doing what we can, which isn't much) so it hurts. She has to do a hysteroscopy (really? when she's had three kids no problem?) and it has to be done in the first 12 days of her cycle. If they don't call her to schedule it soon we're SOL until her next cycle. I think we may be.

The hospital is giving me trouble about paying for the upcoming cycle. To do a surrogate cycle, which means I do the egg growing part - like an egg donor) and Gabby does the egg retrieval part (like in a FET) they charge approx. $12K. But I have insurance, which covers my part of the cycle (obviously not Gabby's). I want to do my monitoring (ultrasounds and bloodwork) locally because I can't drive 6 hours (both ways) every other day when I'm stimming for a 15 min. appointment. But they are telling me that they will bill my insurance for 1 think - THE CYCLE and I can't do my monitoring locally. This is bull - anyone who knows anything about insurance knows insurance doesn't get one charge for the entire cycle, there's a charge for every little thing - every ultrasound, every b/w, etc. So why can't they just not charge me for the ultrasounds and b/w (I don't believe they haven't ever broken out the cost) so that I can do those locally?

Well, they tell me I can't. Gah. So I can either stay in Boston for the monitoring, which would either mean driving back and forth (can't work driving 6 hours a day and would either need to pay for a hotel or lots and lots of gas and tolls) or pay for my monitoring locally, out of pocket. I think we're going to go the OOP route so I can at least work - saving my vacation time for maternity leave (hopefully? eventually? I've been saving/not saving forever it seems). But what a pain in the ass. I know they are incorrect about what they are saying but can't seem to get it through my contact person's head, who is insisting there's nothing she can do about it.

I did email my agency to ask them if there's anything they can do. Haven't heard back. I may be starting to be a PITA with them as well...but squeaky wheel gets the grease, right?

I really don't feel like I'm unreasonable with all these things I complain about. I just want people to do their jobs - I'm not asking them to do any extra special favors or put something through that shouldn't be. I get so stressed out trying to just manage this stuff. I do think apart from the infertility stuff, all this stress will change me forever.

I wish I could get a surprise phone call today telling me we've been picked for that profiling opportunity. Just random and out of the blue - 'twould be awesome.