The Day Our World Changed

So I'm gonna back track a few days first.

I had a doctors appt on Oct 14th and everything was fine. Blood pressure was normal, urine was normal, babies heart rates were good, so nothing to worry about. Well a few days later I started to get the dreaded morning sickness again and sleeping a lot. Friday the 21st rolled around and I was still feeling that way. We figured it was getting close to being time, my doctors did tell me that I would more than likely "feel" sick when we were approaching delivery time. Our csection was scheduled for Nov. 11. Although I knew in my heart I wasn't going to make it until then. All throughout my pregnancy I would joke that I had a feeling that I would be going into the hospital on my birthday (Oct. 24). Little did I know. Anyways by the time my husband left for work on Friday that Friday I was having a few contractions but nothing really to be concerned about since I had been having them off and on for a few weeks at that point. They weren't close together or no real pattern so there was no real reason for concern. As midnight rolled around I started to get this pressure that made me continuesly throw up and the pressure would not go away. Then the rib pain came, good lord it hurt to bad. So I took a shower in hopes of it relaxing me...... boy was I wrong. At that point my husband said call the doctor. So I did and she said to go in if nothing else then to get checked. 

By this time it was 2:30am ish.... so I made sure my hospital bag was ready to go just in case. By the time my husband got home from work and we got to the hospital about an hour had passed and the pressure still hadn't let up and the rib pain was still there. After going to the triage area I did the urine and blood pressure my urine was fine but my blood pressure was a few numbers higher than it has been my whole pregnancy so nothing really to be of concern on its own. They decided to give my an iv on the off chance I was dehydrated just as a precaution. I kept complaining of the rib pain that the nurse decided she would do a blood draw just in case. A different nurse came in to check my cervix and good lord I never moved so fast in my life!! She was not easy and nice by any means, I swear she was going in to make the game winning point. By this time I was crying and didn't want her near me anymore that when my original nurse came back to check on me I told her that the other one had hurt me and she felt a little bad by having her do it. The babies were being monitored the whole time as well as my contractions. They were perfectly fine, didn't show any signs of distress. I was actually having more contractions than I thought I was having but not enough to actually be in active labor since my cervix was still closed. By this time a ob resident came in and said that I wasn't in active labor that I was probably just dehydrated but he would talk to my ob to see what they said. Right about now it was shift change so my nurse introduced us to her replacement and said that she had to do another check on my cervix I was so clenched at that point I didn't want anyone near me. Thank god this nurse had angel fingers cuz there was no pain. We were still waiting on the lab work at this point but it looked like I was getting released. So we were waiting on the discharge papers, literally in a matter of minutes our world changed!!

Oct 22, 2016 was by far the scariest day of my life!!!! I was diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura which in turn made me have the highest form of preclampcia (hellp syndrome). The next thing we know everyone was rushing in to prep me for emergency surgery. Due to this I was put to sleep and my husband was not allowed in the operating room. 

Both babies had to go in the NICU. Due to my condition I was not aloud to go up there until like 11pm. Baby boy was having an issue with his platelets as well, he pretty much got it due to stress from the delivery. Both babies ended up getting out on a tube to help them eat until they could learn to suckle. Baby girl got off the tube within a few days. Baby boy is still on it but it doing so much better. They both had high bili numbers, baby girl's went down without having to have the phototherapy however baby boy needed it. Baby girl was released yesterday from the NICU however baby boy is still in there. He is off of the heater, off of the phototherapy, his platelets are finally coming up so it's just a matter of time before they are within normal range, he is getting better with eating. So hopefully he will be home soon. 

I would like to officially announce that Colton and Lillian have made their entrance into this world!!!!

October 22, 2016

Colton(baby a) at 10:14am

18" long

5.15lbs

Lillian(baby b) at 10:15am

18" long 

5.10lbs

             

Fertility Coverage Misconception: Tricare

So ever since starting treatment and sharing our story I have been asked so many times as to why we had to pay out of pocket since we have tricare. Well that's the misconception tricare doesn't cover everything, in fact there is a lot more that they don't cover than what they do cover. Even though I did a post awhile ago that touched on this topic, I decided it's time to try to help break down this misconception.

So let's start with what the tricare website states on this topic:

        

I am going to break this down for you to make it a bit easier to understand. 

•Tricare covers all diagnostic testing that is required to come to a diagnosis, this includes both parties. 

•Tricare covers all oral medications required for timed intercourse(ti) and some injectable(not all). 

You can do TI as many times as you want there is no "cap", however at some point your doctor will advise you that it is time to move on. At which time 90% of the treatment tricare has now high tailed it out of covering your treatment

You might remember that I did a post on what our next course of action was after TI didn't work and I explained what it was, if you don't you can click here. 

So you are now knee deep into a new treatment plan which includes Intrauterine Insemenation (IUI)

•Tricare covers oral meds

•Tricare does not cover the sperm wash

•Tricare does not cover injectables

•Tricare does not cover the actual "procedure"

•Depending on how your doctor runs their office tricare can cover the appointments and diagnostic testing and monitoring for those cycles (they did for ours). Some doctors offices once you get to IUI, they stop billing insurances and do a "package deal" type of thing, so if this is how your doctors office works you have to pay for everything. 

So let's say this treatment plan didn't work for you either.... the next step is IVF.  Which can cost 20 thousand plus. Sorry to say it but tricare is gone you are on your own. Now you are probably thinking Jane Doe had it covered and only paid half. Here's the huge misconception on this one. Tricare DID NOT cover it, I know shocker. There are 5 Military Treatment Facilities(MTF) within the tricare network: 

Walter Reed Army, Washington, DC
Wilford Hall Air Force, San Antonio, TX
Balboa/Point Loma Naval, San Diego, CA
Tripler Army, Hawaii
Madigan Army, Ft. Lewis, WA

These facilities have a government grant that covers treatment, it is not covered through tricare in any way shape or form. With this grant the medication is covered and you only pay half if not less (depending on location) for everything else. Getting into these facilities can be difficult depending on location. Each location has a set number of patients they take per fiscal year and they split that up into cycles. So there can be a rather long wait list. There have been people to be lucky and get right in and others that are waiting years. 

I hope this clears up a lot of misconceptions for people. 

Edited on 10/21/2016

I have had a few questions from viewers so I thought I would add the answers in to this post. 

•Tricare does not cover seragency. That is all out of pocket for you. If this is a route you are taking please make sure you educate yourselves on the laws for the state in which this is taking place. 

• Tricare does not cover egg/sperm adoption. 

You might have seen in the news that Tricare covers cryobank storage fees if your spouse is deploying. To clarify this is a pilot program it has NOT come into play yet. People had to apply to be apart of this program. The pilot will last roughly 2yrs and then from there they will come up with the final perameters and then it will either take effect or they will stop doing it. 

You might have also seen that the VA will cover one round of ivf if the military member has a combat related injury. This is true however please know there is a difference between combat injury and service related injury(which they won't cover ivf for this). There is also a long road on getting a combat related injury for fertility treatment documented. It is not something that happens over night. In some cases it has taken years.