Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day and Musings

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First I want to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day and offer a moment of gratitude for the men and women who have fought and who currently fight for our country. My DH's young nephew is home from a tour in Iraq and due soon to ship out to Afghanistan. I have the utmost respect for these brave soldiers.

Thanks to them all for their decision, their sacrifice and their dedication.

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Now, shifting gears.

I told my DH how upset I was over the clinic billing us $125 "monitoring fee" for a stupid blood draw. Usually he hates it when I raise a fuss about things, but in this case he agreed with me - and with you all. So I am going to call the clinic this week to discuss it with them. I'll have to check all my receipts, but I think in total they have charged me $725 for monitoring coordination fees. If they balk or give me a line of crap, I will ask them to provide me a written, detailed explanation of exactly what services they have rendered which are attributable to the fees charged for monitoring coordination. We'll see how it goes.

We were having a wonderfully quiet weekend until our rude, redneck, testosterone-laden, knuckle dragging, idiot, neanderthal of a neighbor and his wife returned this morning from their whopping two day camping trip. Sigh. They own a super-gigantic fifth wheel RV which I call the Aircraft Carrier. It lives on a concrete slab in their front yard right next to our driveway. It used to be partially on our driveway. About 6 months after they brought it home, I hired someone to install a lovely redwood fence exactly along our side of the property line. The neanderthal was positively irate. Although I had given him two months warning that I intended to install a fence, he did nothing until the day the fence went up. Then (idiot) realized the RV would no longer fit on the existing slab. He cursed me out like a trucker (real gentleman). He ended up having to hire someone to widen the concrete pad (now 1/4 of the way across his front yard - very classy) so that the Aircraft Carrier can fit. He never apologized for cursing at me. I guess he assumed my property was his to use as he saw fit and somehow it was wrong of me to put up a fence on my own property. So the loud mouth is home. Sigh.

What else? I am on day 6 of BCP's. I will take them for 3 more days then wait for AF. She usually shows up about 4 days after the last pill. On CD 2 or 3 I will have b/w for an E2 level. I think we want it low, low, low so I can jump into my next cycle. I have to say I feel sort of guilty. I am anxious to get this next cycle underway. I have zero patience (you may recall I admitted in a previous post that patience is not my strong suit). And yet, as I read other bloggers' posts, and see the issues and obstacles they face, and the length of time they will have to wait to cycle, I feel a bit embarrassed about my impatience with my own relatively short wait. Their struggles add dimension to my own journey. I need to learn from this.
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9 comments:

stillhopeful said...

Sorry the loudmouth is home! Nice way to kickoff the summer, huh?

Anyway - I really hope you can start your cycle soon. With an adjustment to your medication level, hopefully this will be the one!!

And I completely get where you're coming from with the $125 charge. One thing you might try is to ask them for the insurance contract rates, In other words, if your insurance did cover this, what would the insurance company pay your clinic (they always have lower, agreed upon rates for insurance companies, than the "retail" rates we have to pay). It worked for me and I was able to pay a little over $2,000 LESS for my IVF cycle than they would normally charge because that was my insurance contract rate...

Eb said...

well, idiot sounds delightful! Maybe you should hold an infertility weekend and we can all run around with drums to get the frustration out -howling at moon would also feel good :-)

just me, dawn said...

ugh on the neaighbors coming home! yuck and double yuck!
and i think we are all allowed a little impatience every now and again :) hang in there. and I am thinking low low on the E2, it worked for me this cycle!

cindyhoo2 said...

I feel your pain with the 'lovely' neighbor. Some people simply cannot be expected to behave like rational beings (like a person who thinks that it is okay to park his hillbilly land yacht on your property). I think you could annoy and confuse him by blasting NPR from your house. LOL

I am also impatient to start cycling again. I think this is a natural state for those of us with fertility challenges.

ICLW

Jenny said...

Just stopping by from ICLW :) Love your bloggy.

Kristin said...

Ugh...your neighbor would drive me crazy!

Good luck with this cycle.

~ICLW

looking4#3 said...

Yes, your lunatic neighbors would put me over the edge. I can NOT relate. I happen to have neighbors that very frequently send over fully cooked delicious dinners---just because!!! I told them, if they move, I am moving with them!!!
I would definitely call the RE's office. That is bullshit!!!
Keep me posted on that one. I love a good battle with billing/insurance!!!

Anonymous said...

definitely get a itemized statement. they work for you. they probably think no one will ever ask...they have all the poor desparate infertiles at their mercy. i call bs!

sorry about the neighbors. he sounds like an ass! (even though we are hillbilly land yachting types ourselves. we have respect for propertly lines in these parts. *wink*)

time to get the cycle rolling! best of luck!!

xoxo
~jd

Anonymous said...

I can completely relate to your feelings of impatience. My clinic makes me take a break cycle in between IVF cycles which is really difficult for me...I just want to get the show on the road already! So I feel you on that! Good for you for putting up a fence to keep the aircraft carrier out of your yard...that's absolutely ridiculous!!