Fighting The Good (For Me) Fight
I require an anti-depressant to function like a normal human being. This is not news to most of you -- especially those of you that knew me early on in college.
I went off them for many years but recently decided that living in misery for the sake of living "drug free" was hurting me and more upsettingly it was hurting the ones I love and live with. So after a brief trial on citalopram (generic Celexa) and some encouraging results and discouraging side effects I finally fought my way on to Lexapro, which was my lifeline finally in college and which, as of right now, has no generic version.
My doctor loaded me up with samples, gave me a script and sent me on my way. When it became clear the drug was doing exactly what I wanted with minimal side effects I called my insurance company to clear the path to actually getting them to pay for the majority of the cost of the drug. I had read all the literature on my particular formulary that I could get my hands on before calling Aetna so I knew what they were going to ask and I had all the right answers. Their response? "Get your doctor to call us and tell us what you just told us." Fine. Call the Dr. The nice nurse takes all my info and says they will call me when we're good to go. That? Was 3 weeks ago. Running precariously low on samples I decided it was time to (wo)man up and call the Dr. again and figure out where this chain broke down. I hate making phone calls and I was dreading doing it for days but again, my sanity is IMPORTANT to me. So I called the doctor again. Apparently they never heard back from the insurance company when they faxed the request 3 weeks ago. The nurse I spoke with faxed it again as I was on the phone.
I sigh. Because this is not going to be easy. Getting my insurance to pay for name-brand drugs is damn near impossible. They have tried everything to get me back on the generics. I've been through most of those generics and they just don't work for me. Either I become suicidal or I sleep ALL DAY. Neither of those are the life I want. I found a drug that works for me and I can honestly say my quality of life has improved DRAMATICALLY since I began taking it. As much as I am not a boat-rocker and as much as I hate phones and automated menus and dealing with people, this is an important fight for me. It's a fear I have to face. I can't NOT have this med. More importantly I can't go cold turkey OFF of it without serious risk to my well being. So I fight.
The one upside is that the Dr. office has said that if my insurance doesn't cooperate soon I can come in and they will give me more sample packs. Which is GREAT. But I'm not letting my insurance company off the hook on this one. I don't care what it takes.