CD4, Clomid checks and drugs

CD4. Nothing really to report on that front. I will start Clomid tomorrow and will hope desperately for no side effects (headaches, bitchiness, moodiness, crying for no reason, etc).

Went in this morning for my Clomid check. I don't know why I thought I would get an ultrasound to check my ovaries for cysts. I guess it's been a long time since I've done the infertility drill. Instead, everything was done "manually", and even that is more information than anyone reading this blog could possibly want.

The nurse who did my check surprised the hell out of me by walking into the room and giving me a huge hug while I was sitting on the exam table. Not that I minded the hug; I was just very surprised. I saw this particular nurse quite a lot back in 2004 when we were trying to get pregnant. She asked if I'd had a girl or a boy, asked his age, etc. Then she told me that she herself had been an infertility patient. I had no idea.

She said she'd done several IUIs and was preparing to go back home to Iran for IVF (much cheaper there, she said) when she got pregnant naturally. Now she has 2 kids.

Anyway, this particular nurse is a rock star because when she heard that our new insurance doesn't cover infertility drugs, she went and got me a Gonal-F pen from the sample closet. Now I have enough Gonal-F to do this cycle and next, if things come to that.

I didn't realize how much these drugs cost. When I took my prescription to Long's the other night, the pharmacist called me a couple of hours later to say that my insurance didn't cover the meds. Gonal-F alone was going to be upwards of $200 for the single dose I need. Yikes!

So the sample pen from the fertility clinic is very much appreciated. And I found a mail-order pharmacy where the other meds will be cheaper than they would be at Long's.

If I'd known how much this was going to cost out of pocket, I would have looked for a full-time job with good health insurance, rather than continuing the contracting gig. S's health insurance sucks now since they switched from Blue Cross.

Oh well. Live and learn. Fingers crossed this cycle just works.