TWW Update

So today is day 5 post IUI. No real symptoms to speak of, at least yet, but it's all a bit confusing. This has definitely been a weird cycle! I will say, though, that this has been the easiest first five days of a TWW yet, due to some distractions...

Last Wednesday, I accidentally took my last Zoloft pill without having ordered the refill. I thought I had more in the house, but as soon as I took the last pill, I thought I better double-check. Sure enough, I didn't have any. Oops! This isn't a med you're supposed to stop taking cold turkey, and I knew I needed to take action. I have to use mail-order for ongoing prescriptions, and it takes a few days for the med to arrive. I immediately went online and ordered the refill, but decided not to pay the extra $23 for overnight shipping, because my plan was to call my PCP in the morning and have her write me a script for a few pills to tide me over. I left a message on the prescription line at my PCPs office on Thursday morning... and never heard back!

I know - I should have have called again on Friday, but it was a little crazy, being my birthday and having the IUI and all, and I didn't want to be a nuisance. After all, I'd left the message, I'd explained the time sensitivity... I figured I'd be getting a call from the pharmacy any minute saying my prescription was ready. Except that didn't happen, and then I was heading into the weekend, and days 3 and 4, without the med. That's not good! I was getting increasingly irritable, and Jordyn was clearly bearing the brunt of it. It was weird - I was aware that I was flying off the handle for stupid little things, but I couldn't help it. It just happened. I felt so bad for Jordyn, even thought I knew it was withdrawal from the med, and I know my incredible frustration and anger towards my PCPs office for not being responsive was a part of it, too. I was in a horrible mood all weekend long, and it got worse as time went on. I also started to have some nausea and just kind of not feel good, physically. I wasn't at all suicidal or anything like that - just bitchy.

Monday morning, D3PIUI and day 4 without zoloft, I was at work, and it took until around 11:00 before I had a chance to call my PCP. I left another message on the referral line about needing the med. I knew it was quite possible the mail-order refill would arrive that day, but had no way of knowing for sure before I got home from work, and at that point, it would be too late to get the PCP to order it if needed. Oh, and I also left a message on the referral line - a THIRD message asking for a referral to be put through for the RE I have an appointment with on Thursday. I'd left two prior messages about this and had gotten no response, so I was doubly pissed that I hadn't heard back about the med OR the referral.

Around 4:30, on my way to pick up Jordyn, I called back and pushed whatever number it is to speak with someone at the front desk. Screw the prescription and referral lines - clearly they don't respond to messages left there! I explained the med situation to the woman at the front desk, who eventually had me talk to the nurse practitioner. I explained again - holding myself back from really letting her have it! - I was in SUCH a bad mood, and felt like such crap, and was so PISSED at this point!! She said she'd fax in a prescription for a few pills to hold me over, and when I asked, told me the referral had been put through. So, at least that was good, because I was worried they wouldn't do it since the RE I want to see isn't in their network. But still... really??

When I told the woman at the front desk that I'd left messages on the prescription line, she told me that "unfortunately, that's not the best way to do it". WTF?! Then why do they have a message when you call that says for prescriptions press 4, for referrals press 5, for everything else please press 6?! I told her (and the NP) that that should be changed if it's not the best way to do it! They said for regular refills it works, but not for time-sensitive ones like this, because sometimes the medical assistants get so busy so they don't have time to check the messages... WTF?! If this doctor didn't have such great reviews and was so highly recommended, and if I could get in with another great doctor, I'd be so outta there!

Meanwhile, after all this, I called my dad, because we were supposed to go shopping for snowblowers on Tuesday and I wanted to confirm a time and place. He picked up the phone and almost immediately told me that my mom had acute appendicitis, they were at the hospital, she'd had a CT scan, and they were waiting to meet with a surgeon. WTF?! I knew she'd had a pain in her side over the weekend, but my sister, mom, and I went shopping on Saturday and she was walking around, trying on clothes, etc., and didn't seem very sick at all. But the pain didn't go away, so she went to her doctor on Monday, and there she was, about to have an emergency appendectomy! My dad asked me to call my siblings and fill them in, so I did that in the parking lot of Jordyn's school before going in to get her. Needless to say, there was no snowblower shopping on Tuesday; instead, Jordyn and I visited my mom in the hospital before she was discharged. She's fine - had the surgery, spent one night in the hospital, and went home yesterday - but it was still quite a random ordeal.

Ok, so back to the Zoloft issue... After picking Jordyn up on Monday, we went directly to CVS to pick up the prescription the NP had sent in. I literally couldn't wait to get the med in my system again - I felt a bit like how I imagine an addict feels! But would it really be that easy that the script would be filled and ready and waiting when we got there? Of course not! The woman at the pick-up counter said she didn't have anything in the computer as being ready for me, and I had to go to the drop-off counter and talk to someone else to see if the script had even been received. It had, but was on hold, because the mail-order script had also been received and it was noted as an issue and both couldn't be filled. The pharmacist said someone needed to notify them of the issue (needing a few pills to tide me over until I received the refill) so they could call my insurance and ask for an override. I didn't know anything about this! She called while I stood there, and was told I don't have any overrides on my plan, and she took down a number to give to me to call about an exception. WTF the difference is between an override and an exception I have absolutely no idea. But I can tell you I was in no mood to be dealing with this! And shouldn't overrides be situation-specific, and not plan-specific?? But I digress...

My choices were to call the number and try to figure out how to get an exception, pay for the med out of pocket, or go home to see if the mail-order refill had been delivered that day, and if not, turn around and come back to get the med. Forget that last one! Turns out Zoloft isn't very expensive (and this was the generic version), and the 15 pills the NP had ordered cost $10 and change. I knew I didn't need close to 15 pills, so I asked how much it would be for 5 pills, and was told $7 and change. WTF? Makes no sense, math-wise, but whatever. In the end I paid $10 and change for all 15 pills, got in the car, and swallowed one as soon as I could get the bottle open!

And yes, of course the mail-order refill was in the mailbox when we got home!



So yeah, I've been pretty distracted these past five days, so it hardly even seems like I'm in a TWW. IUI on Friday, shopping with mom and sister on Saturday, roller skating (!) birthday party with Jordyn on Sunday, work on Monday, visiting my mom in the hospital on Tuesday, and work today. Plus dealing with being in withdrawal most of the time, and being so fed up with my PCPs office that that was the focus on my thoughts, and not being in a TWW. I'm feeling MUCH better now in terms of the withdrawal, but I still have some mild nausea on and off. At this point, I have no idea what to attribute it to - a slow-to-resolve withdrawal symptom? a pregnancy symptom? something else?

If I were to guess, I'd say this IUI is a bust. First, no symptoms yet, and I've always started with them on day 5. Well, that's not completely true - I have had some crampiness/twinges the past couple of days, but nothing too significant. Second, there's no way all the stress of the few days without Zoloft - and being so irritable and upset so often - did good things for any embryo trying to form. I did start the progesterone supplements again last night, 4DPIUI, as directed, so hopefully that will help in the event anything IS trying to happen.

I have the RE appointment tomorrow, so hopefully we'll at least come up with a plan going forward. If you read this soon and have any thoughts as to things I may want to remember to ask, please let me know!