Thursday, March 10, 2011

Holy Crapoly!

Interesting Article : http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-preemie-birth-spikes.html

For those of you that have been around for my previous pregnancies, you know that I tend to give birth early to my kiddo's. There's no rhyme or reason to it that they have found (so far) but after having 3 kiddo's spend several weeks in the NICU, we were really laying the questions about preventing this on the Doctor at the last appointment. One of the things he suggested were progesterone shots weekly, either in the office or me learning to give them to myself (yikes!). But we figure it's all worth it if we can keep this one in there more than 33weeks (my record). So we decided we would discuss it more at my next appointment coming up on Monday and make a plan of action at that time.

A friend of mine who has the same sorts of infertility and premature birth issues as we do is currently on these shots and posted a link to this article on her FB page. All of the rights to the progesterone shots have been sold to one manufacturing group. Starting next week, just in time for us, it is expected that because of this, the price per shot will go from $10 per shot upwards to $1500 per shot. Yes, you heard that right, $1500 PER SHOT!

Mike's insurance plan is currently an HSA plan which means that up until a certain limit each year we have to pay 100% out of pocket and a small Health Savings account that his company contributes to every month. For the most part, it works-however when something like this pokes it's head in, I am at a loss. How in the world are we supposed to afford this price and weekly at that? The good news is that we would hit that deductible fairly quickly, the bad news we would be in major debt trying to pay the bills flowing in constantly until we hit it.

I am open to any other ideas and suggestions of other ways to keep this baking long enough. Any thoughts?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Becca...I was on Progesterone with Hailee, but not shot...it was pill form called Prometrium. Maybe it is something that will work for you I don't know I am not an OB, but worth the question for sure. I also know that my doctor suggested I cut out certain foods that were high in Estrogen. We had a complicated pregnancy too, and I had a lot of complications and several trips to the hospital with contractions, but in the end they had to induce me to get Hailee here.

Becca said...

I am on Prometrium now but that's only for the first trimester and then it needs to be a shot. I go off the pill next week. My problem is that I do go into full pre-term labor with contractractions that the Dr's can't stop and my water breaks early. They spent over 60 hours trying to stop the twins from coming and it was all fruitless. With Caleb my water broke from out of the blue at 33 weeks. They also tried to stop him for the first several hours, but there was no stopping.

sleepinl8 said...

Honestly, sometimes just putting on weight will help your baby go full-term. I know a woman who, unfortunately, wasted hundreds of dollars on fertility drugs. She and the doctor were at a loss for what to do to get her pregnant and stay pregnant. Finally, the doctor suggested she just start eating more. Bing ba-da boom, she was pregnant just from gaining 5 lbs. Nothing is a surefire solution for everyone, but this is easy, completely natural, and makes sense if you think about it. The extra weight would provide the baby with extra protection and ensure that the baby will always get proper nutrition. You have got to listen to your cravings while pregnant - there's a reason you have them!

Becca said...

Thanks for you comment. However, I am already overweight so I don't think putting on weight is my problem.