Know those horror stories about pills that are $100 each?
Well hey, those aren't just rumors! Since my MRI showed no bone infection (YAY) and yet my toe is still infected, I was sent back to the infectious disease specialist. We think my infection is now resistant to the second to last antibiotic that both works for it and I'm not allergic to*. Yay.
(*There are two IV ones that should work after these last oral ones, but that would mean hospital stays...)
So this last ditch antibiotic, the last one I can take, is $100 per pill. How insane is that? And this is even wackier: I have no co-payment for it. Dirt cheap drugs I have to pay $10 or $20 copay. This $100 per pill one? No copay.
Unfortunately the copay to see the specialist is almost $200 (and I have to see her again next week for a followup *sob*), but at least I'm making the best of all these bills that I can: I'm getting an air millage card that I'm going to use to pay off the $1,000 MRI, my $1,000 tax bill, all these odd medical bills, etc. I might even start putting my rent on it. At the rate I'm going, I'll be able to fly first class for free when I fly home this summer.
Back to the antibiotic: It worries me a little to be on it. It's not a "last resort" antibiotic just for me, but for the whole world -- it's the antibiotic with the fewest things resistant to it.
Amusingly, I also have an antibiotic cream I have to stick into my nose. Really! Apparently some people are naturally just a carrier for infections, and they're carried there, and she thinks I might be one. (I really, really wanted to say something like "I hope this doesn't mean you think I pick my nose" but I figured as an infectious disease doctor, she'd know that. I hope.)
And a sad, though unrelated-to-me thing: My infectious disease doctor's assistant just got gastric bypass surgery a couple weeks ago, so she and I were talking about things. I had to bite my tongue so hard. She's had ice cream! ARG! You can't do that! It's been a year and a half for me and I haven't had a bite of ice cream or anything sweet! I wanted to shake her and ask whhhhhhyyyyy would you do that after having surgery? Not to imply I'm perfect, I ate a bad dinner last night (I wanted chicken, but they ran out of it...), but nooooo sugar! Especially since she's only weeks into this! Arg! (If you know someone who's had this surgery and eats sugar, please do not tell me. :) I don't want to know how much you can safely cheat! I need my black and white line in the sand. :) )
(*There are two IV ones that should work after these last oral ones, but that would mean hospital stays...)
So this last ditch antibiotic, the last one I can take, is $100 per pill. How insane is that? And this is even wackier: I have no co-payment for it. Dirt cheap drugs I have to pay $10 or $20 copay. This $100 per pill one? No copay.
Unfortunately the copay to see the specialist is almost $200 (and I have to see her again next week for a followup *sob*), but at least I'm making the best of all these bills that I can: I'm getting an air millage card that I'm going to use to pay off the $1,000 MRI, my $1,000 tax bill, all these odd medical bills, etc. I might even start putting my rent on it. At the rate I'm going, I'll be able to fly first class for free when I fly home this summer.
Back to the antibiotic: It worries me a little to be on it. It's not a "last resort" antibiotic just for me, but for the whole world -- it's the antibiotic with the fewest things resistant to it.
Amusingly, I also have an antibiotic cream I have to stick into my nose. Really! Apparently some people are naturally just a carrier for infections, and they're carried there, and she thinks I might be one. (I really, really wanted to say something like "I hope this doesn't mean you think I pick my nose" but I figured as an infectious disease doctor, she'd know that. I hope.)
And a sad, though unrelated-to-me thing: My infectious disease doctor's assistant just got gastric bypass surgery a couple weeks ago, so she and I were talking about things. I had to bite my tongue so hard. She's had ice cream! ARG! You can't do that! It's been a year and a half for me and I haven't had a bite of ice cream or anything sweet! I wanted to shake her and ask whhhhhhyyyyy would you do that after having surgery? Not to imply I'm perfect, I ate a bad dinner last night (I wanted chicken, but they ran out of it...), but nooooo sugar! Especially since she's only weeks into this! Arg! (If you know someone who's had this surgery and eats sugar, please do not tell me. :) I don't want to know how much you can safely cheat! I need my black and white line in the sand. :) )