June 07, 2010

An Attempt at Being Positive

I realize all of my recent posts have been downers. Honestly, IRL I don't walk around with a 10-foot field of negativity radiating from me - apparently it all just comes out online.

So, I decided to post a couple of happy things. On the bright side:

I've lost another 5 pounds in all of this. No good reason for it, it just seems that my body is now at a stage where it plateaus for 4-5 weeks then suddenly drops 5-7 pounds with no warning, then plateaus again, drops again, etc. etc. So at least the scale is saying nice things (relatively speaking) to me.

I called my insurance company to find out how much of my $10k infertility benefit is left, because we need to know that in weighing what to do next. I was kind of afraid to do it, because I thought maybe it would make them re-evaluate my claims and find some infertility ones that they overlooked. But I figured we have to be pretty close to the $10k at this point, so really what did I have to lose?

Imagine my shock when they called a few days later to tell me I've used less than $3,800 of it! And then they even sent me a follow up letter stating that fact, and a printout of the spreadsheet that shows which claims counted toward that amount. So I have good news from an insurance company, in writing. If the earth feels like it's a little bit off of its axis lately, that's probably why.

The $3,800 is for one fresh retrieval and one FET. Apparently most of what is billed falls under diagnosis codes other than infertility ones. Last month's FET counted for $840 toward that amount. So technically we have enough of a benefit left to do about 8 more FETs. Not that I see that happening - I don't think RE will allow us to use my uterus much longer.

And speaking of using my uterus again, yes, that is one of the options we're debating. It's not that we don't have options, it's just that none of them (for various reasons) seem particularly hopeful/realistic/appealing to us at this point. But this is supposed to be a happy post, so I'll save the rest of that for later.

Oh, and one other happy thought. I'm taking next Monday and Tuesday off work so that I can have a long weekend. I figure after this past month, it's the least I can do for myself. :-)

6 comments:

lastchanceivf said...

That is awesome on the weight loss and the insurance stuff. I'm glad they can code it to get around it all getting sucked into one cycle. I know you have a lot of decisions ahead--wishing you clarity and peace with it all.

Libby said...

I'm all for time off work! Better yet, I sometimes don't tell anyone in my circle that I'm off so I can just be with me for the day!

That's great news on the insurance front too. It's even harder to figure when the docs accept much less from an insurance company than they do from self pay patients. My old insurance had a contract with my RE to pay @ $7,500for a basic IVF package, but my self pay price for the same service is $13,500. Crazy!

Congrats on the weight loss! My scale needs a talking to...I want it to say nice things too :)

Nico said...

I think you are a truly amazing person. I think I'd be walking around with a 100-ft circle of negativity!

That really is good news both on the weight loss and the insurance. At least you don't have to factor that into your decisions.

Long weekend sounds GReaT! Are you going to do something or just hang out and relax?

mara said...

I have never heard anything like that on the insurance stuff. (Getting stuff in writing = crazy talk.) That's great! And so is the weight loss.

Your long weekend sounds fantastic!

Heidi said...

I'm so sorry for your loss! I don't know what I was googling when I found your blog, but we had a loss around the same time. I hope you enjoy your long weekend coming up!

Penelope said...

This is really nice post works well and easy to configure...thanks for all info.
Floor Parquet