Thursday, November 8, 2012

Calgon take me away



I am in such a bad mood.  A bad mood doesn’t even begin to put a dent in it.  A colossal foul mood.  Throw a temper tantrum… while sitting at my desk… crying all by myself bad mood.

Yesterday, I went back to the RE because my stomach still looks like this 2 weeks post surgery.  For two freaking weeks I have had an itch that can only be equated to that of a yeast infection on my entire stomach.  For two weeks I have wanted to crawl out of my skin.  The steroids initially helped, but once I was down to 3 pills in the pack, it came back with vengeance.  I officially look like I have syphilis…. Actually I wish I had syphilis because I’ve heard that is easily treatable.  This on the other hand is some crazy thing never seen or treated before.




Yesterday, I went to the RE and you know… it’s like talking to your grandma with dementia… to everyone.  What’s wrong?  Start all over. Explain everything all over again, only for her to go get a nurse… where we rinse and repeat. Only for her to get a doctor where we rinse and repeat.  Only for him to tell me that they specialize in vagina’s not rash’s… NO SHIT! And to have him forward me to a dermatologist. 

Go wait in the waiting room while we try to schedule you at the dermatologist. 

Okay…. Tick tick tick tick…

Okay… we have an appointment for you at 5:10pm at the dermatologist.

Go back to work.

Leave to go to that appointment.  Right when I get on the interstate ramp… the windshield wiper blade popped off of the wiper.  There is a nor’easter and now Im stuck on the interstate behind a tractor trailer with no wiper on the driver side.  I cant leave the wiper on because the metal is scratching the glass, and the wiper is hanging on by a thread and I don’t want to lose it on the interstate.  I get off the interstate, fix it in the pouring rain. Happy to be alive.

Get to the dermatologists office.   Fill out all 900 pages of that paperwork.   Get called in and have to talk to the nurse.  I tell her everything.  Again, she calls for back up.  Rinse repeat.  I think you are allergic to the antibiotic.  This rash is everywhere. 

No, I am not allergic to the antibiotic.  I had the rash before I took that.  Well I think you have an infection.  No you have cellulitis.  You have idding (whatever the hell that is).  No You have an infection and cellulitis.  I have no idea what I actually left with being diagnosed as having, but I did leave with them calling in two prescriptions for a steroid cream and an antibiotic cream.  

At this point, I do not feel like waiting at the pharmacy.  I just want to go home.  I call my husband and ask him to pick up the prescription.  It should be ready by the time he gets there. 

Well it wasn’t.  In fact they didn’t even have the script.  So he’s calling me  and I’m calling the dr’s office which is now after hours so Im getting the message service.  Then he calls me and tells me that they only have one script.  I just knew it is going to be the antibiotic… the one I don’t really really need!  Husband asks the pharmacist which script do they have… naturally the antibiotic.  Im calling the after hours number again.  Then they found the script, then oh wait they didn’t, then they really did find it.

Are you freaking kidding me right now with all of this?  

Finally, husband gets home and I get a shower because I am about to crawl out of my skin.  So the creams are applied and things are looking better. Lets not get ahead of ourselves there is still plenty of time for shit to hit the fan.

Suddenly it dawns on me that I ordered all of the meds except Lupron and I need to start taking that on Sunday.  So after much fuss dealing with my new prescription coverage last week with this, I decided to follow up with them to see what was going on.  Its with Caremark for those of you that may have had to deal with them.  They were supposed to call me back on Monday with a plan. Today I find out that I have a person assigned to me and she will call me back.  Well can you please tell me why I have to call her?  Why after 6 days of having the prescription has she not contacted me?  So Im slightly agitated.  I leave her the voicemail.  She calls back while Im on the phone with the other pharmacy trying to get a back up plan in place.  Then I call her back.  She tells me that I do not have prescription coverage on infertility drugs.  Yea I knew that, but after three cycles of this… I am a professional scam artist.  So I reply… well it’s not for infertility, it’s for the treatment of endometriosis. After I said that, she was stumped and said she would talk to the department that approves it and see if it is covered.  So that is still out there, fingers crossed that gets approved through insurance.

On top of that… it’s been one of those days at work where people are asking you random questions before you even get to your desk.  You know those days where other people don’t do their job, and it becomes your problem.  I don’t feel good, I’m tired, I’m itchy and the world is annoying me.

This seems like it has easily become a full time job again.  I need an assistant.

11 comments:

  1. Oh Jiminy Christmas girl - you should be in a bad mood.

    As someone who is allergic to EVERYTHING and has had many-an-allergic reaction let me assure you I know the pain of walking around with fire ants on your skin.

    Are they sure you didn't have a reaction to something that's in your system? That's happened to me where I had a slight reaction to something, started taking medication for it and then that threw it over the edge into crazytown because I was also allergic to the medication. (When it's from a medication it follows no rhyme, reason or time of day for being ridiculous).

    I'm wishing you lots of non-itchy days ahead.

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    1. Okay, I tried to look up idding to no avail last night. But according to the nurse it's some unknown thing where you get a reaction to something and then your body flips the fuck out. (Again... my translation). So it sounds similar to what you described. I just want this to be gone. Especially since this welt is one of two injection sites for lupron. Im just going to love 3-4 weeks of injecting into the same spot!

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    2. Can't they try to put you on a different steroid or antibiotic? I'm definitely not a doctor or anything but from my itchy experience the length of time that it's been there plus the way it looks - it would seem they've either put you on a medication that you're additionally allergic to, or one that's just not doing a very good job of knocking it out...

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    3. My chief complaint is the itching... which they would prescribe a steroid. However since there is an infection too, they are walking a fine line because steroids suppress your immune system. To tell you the truth, I dont think there is an infection. As of right now, Im on Augmentin- oral antibiotics (however you spell it), I did a pack of oral steroids, then I just got a new antibiotic cream and steroid cream. Who knows? I'll tell you though this is the second person who suggested opening it back up which truly makes me want to throw up. So the brain trust thinks there is an infection, but wouldnt I feel sick? Like real sick if there was?

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    4. Not necessarily, I don't think.. but if it were just a skin issue pr an infection and not an ongoing allergic reaction I would think that itching would be a sign of it healing? Hmmm..

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  2. What a hot mess. I hope the new creams make it all better. Also, does it really help to tell pharmacies that it is for endo? Does your doctor bill it that way? Can I get my meds for PCOS, not IF? That would be amazing.

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    1. I am not sure. Last time, under my last insurance that did not cover anything during IVF then covered everything for my FET because Lupron is used for endo. This is with different insurance altogether, but they just covered half my meds for the FET but not the Lupron. I think a lot of RE's will work with you... so it's worth a shot. If this ends up working I will let you know. Usually, I dont think I have any say in what goes on... but in this particular instance the woman listened to me and didnt ask any additional questions. The more I go through this, the more loopholes I discover. I'm just very quick with the lies these days... when you go through this the first time you dont know what to expect... now I just lie. It's terrible, but what's more terrible is that this stuff is not covered.

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  3. Hi there! I found my way here via the Lost and Found, so forgive me if I make no sense because I haven't read your whole blog (yet!). I saw this picture of the allergic reaction and wanted to let you know that I had the EXACT SAME THING, but mine was a reaction to the steri-strips they put on my incisions after my gallbladder was removed. Actually, we first figured it out when they were on my c-section incision, and then I forgot and let them put steri-strips on my after my gallbladder surgery. Anyway, every single solitary spot that a steri-strip touched looked just like the red, puffy, itchy patch on your -- mine eventually worked their way into dozens of tiny little blisters. The first time it happened, it took me so long to realize that it was the adhesive on the steri-strip that by then it had gotten into my system and started spreading the rash all over my abdomen.

    Anyway, if you had on steri-strips (or any other adhesive strips) over your incision, you might want to consider that. What finally cleared it up for me was oral Benadryl, prescription hydrocortisone cream and oral antibiotics. I have no idea if this is helpful at all, but either way I truly hope it clears up for you -- I'll check back in with you soon to see how you are doing.

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    1. I didn't have steri strips, but Ive heard the reaction is similar. It was strictly the glue that was used. I tried all of the above benedryl, oral antibiotics, and steroids, and nothing worked.

      It does appear that this antibiotic cream is working along with this steroid cream... although I still have a freaking hole in my abdomen. Fun times.

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  4. Oh hon, this sounds AWFUL! Hoping the new meds/creams start helping soon

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    1. It's getting better! Thanks for stopping by.

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