Well the specialist my doctor referred me to does take the insurance but they are considered an out-of-network doctor which means I would have to pay for things out of pocket. Can't do that, I am not a millionaire!
I called my insurance company and had them give me a list of specialists that I can go to that are in-network providers and gave it to my doctor. Now just waiting for the appointment to be set up. Of course that means it won't be in the time frame of the original situation, but something is better than nothing I suppose. The doctor they are going to try to get me an appointment for is the head of reproductive endocrinology at a very reputable hospital in St. Louis, so that makes me very happy!
I am nervous/excited to go and see what they have to say. It's kind of scary, but I am glad that things are going to get moving along in the right direction. We just want a child and at this point, after a year of trying without luck...we are just about up for anything!
It's amazing to me how difficult this stuff can be though. I checked to see if there were any specialists who worked in Illinois and the only ones were in Chicago. I guess they figure it's just closer to go out of state when you live in the rest of Illinois. This isn't going to be a short little commute either, it's 40 miles from my house one way to this doctor, but you got to do what you got to do.
A good friend and her husband are starting the IVF (invitro-fertilization) process and they do not live in a state that requires the insurance to cover fertility treatments so they are going to be paying out of pocket for this to work. It's over $5000 for just the procedure, let alone the medications, dr visits, etc. I can't imagine where we would find that kind of money and we would only be able to do it once - so if it didn't work, we would be out of luck. I am really hoping that it doesn't come down to that. Illinois, thankfully, is a state that requires some fertility coverage by health insurance. We would have to take out a 2nd mortgage on our house just to cover these costs!!
Something I have noticed that I wonder about tremendously is the frequency of infertility in women. You know they say 1 in 4 women can have it, in my school building alone there are 5 of us out of 55 total teachers (1/2 being male). It seems like such a large portion of us. So frustrating. Why can't our bodies just work damnit???? This is what they are designed to do and it makes me so mad that it won't just do its job all ready! After 12 months of trying, I should be talking about morning sickness, sleepiness, and back pain. Oh well, we will get there eventually.
Just think of it this way. You will have worked so hard to get to the point of morning sickness, sleepiness, sleep deprivation, back pain and all the other joys of pregnancy, that you will enjoy every ache even more!
ReplyDelete