Thursday 28 June 2012

Private or public?

I'm really considering taking out private health insurance.
Before now I don't know why I haven't thought twice about having a child through the public health system. Although the basics are covered by Medicare i'm thinking it's not enough. I want my own OB, who I want to choose, and I want to choose the hospital.
My dp previous job had health insurance but his current one doesn't yet and neither does mine.
So I've been looking around and tossing up what to get.
The BIG thing is the 12 month waiting period for claiming on obstetrics!!!
Ridiculous. I naively thought most waiting periods were 2 or 6 months (I guess this is just extras!)
There all around $1,700 a year just for me and cover hospital and extras.
But 12 months.... Gosh. If I my body will do the honor of conceiving I don't want to have to wait 12 months to try!
A lot of them say you know, 'the 12 month waiting period means you need to wait at least 3 months until you start trying'.
I understand this is so the hospital is covered but what about prenatal care and the OB? Will it cover that?
I think i'm going to be on the phone to these companies for a while to figure out what they offer (and hopefully there not pushy sales people!).
I researched them all online for around 3 hours last night and still don't have the answers I want (when I get set on something I focus so hard I look up '5 mins later' and it's hours later.. Lol).
At the moment i'm considering Hbf, hcf, hif, Medibank or Bupa.
I'll have to look in to them all further to see what they really offer, but at the moment I like Hbf for their personal touches. They give you 'what to expect when your expecting' and teddy for the bub when it's born! Only downside is they're based in WA so I'm not sure what range of services/ covered OBs they have here in NSW.

Furthermore, most will cover IVF (hopefully it doesn't come to that), but what about my condition at the moment?
It would be 'preexisting' so would it be another 12 months on that to claim for things? And how narrow or wide is the definition of my preexisting illness? It's not PCOS, at the moment there not sure what is causing the Secondary ammenhorea, or will they just not cover everything associated with what has been identified thus far?

Anyway sorry to all you that are not Australian, some of this is probably confusing but it has helped me get my thoughts together! Anyway I'd love to hear all opinions or what your private health insurance does/doesn't cover (even if you don't live in oz)

Monday 25 June 2012

And the results are in

I got my blood test results today.
No PCOS which is great - all my hormones were normal.
Well all except prolactin again.
Down a lot since last time, from 919 to 638 (still outside of normal range).
Dr wants me to get an MRI to check my pituitary gland.
I asked dr if other hormones would be abnormal If something was was wrong with my pituitary gland and she said not necessarily?
So I have a referral for an MRI, however I personally want to delay it for a little while, see how the gyno goes and what she has to say, and maybe retest prolactin again after my holiday (since it is down a lot already).
However I had to reschedule the appointment and the next available was another month so now I have to wait until the 2nd August for the gyno.
More waiting games...

Wednesday 20 June 2012

A plan

So I've made a plan for the next month.

Reluctantly back to bc for the next month. Me and dp don't like condoms but were going to have to use them for a little while.
I can't take the pill, and don't want anything semi permanent since we want to ttc in a few months (otherwise I'd get a IUD). So that's it for now.
Basically we're going on holidays next month down the coast then up the coast, then overseas to Vanuatu (yay!!).
Only problem there's a small risk of malaria on the island. That means anti-malaria medication.
No way do I want to risk conceiving whilst on those pills - I've searched around and apparently there are too many risks.
Has anyone taken them while ttc/pg, or know anyone who has?
(I plan on taking either doxclycline or malarone, I've taken doxcycline before and had no issues but apparently it's the more detrimental drug...)

So as much as I want to let nature do its thing... not in July.
There goes the romantic notion of conceiving on a tropical island!
Anyway, 5 more days until i get my blood test results... Kind of want to ring up just to see, but i know they won't tell me over the phone!

Sunday 17 June 2012

Blood tests and stomach pain

I had my blood tests yesterday. I had to sit down for 15 minutes before my prolactin test (like that will make my hormones go back to normal levels, and not make me more restless?).
Besides re-taking prolactin they're also testing other hormones like testosterone to help identify if I have PCOS. I'll get the results next week before I see the gyno.
DP had a general check up too and little did I know that his body doesn't like getting blood taken. Poor thing got all sweaty and pale and his eye sight went weird and he had to lay down.
Isn't it weird when we see your men all insecure we both worry and love them more?
Overall I've been pretty relaxed considering I'm in the middle of my final uni exams for the semester. Only thing is I've had a sore stomach for a few days and I'm not sure why yet, I just know its nothing I've eaten, so I'm wondering if it could be more af coming? Only time will tell.
In the mean time I'm addicted to my hot water bottle.

Friday 15 June 2012

What's wrong with my body?

When I first went to my gp (a few months ago) with no af she diagnosed me with secondary amenorrhea and ordered some tests... after a bfn of course...
Her first thought was that I had no af because I was underweight (I somehow, not intentionally, lost 6kg) and only weighed 46kg.
So I've been stuffing myself and still have only gained about 1kg...
She also did blood tests and the only thing that stood out was prolatin. Mine was unusually high at 919.... (normal levels are 85-500). This was over a month ago and I am re-testing tomorrow.
She thought this was due to stress (I didn't think I was stressed?) from working 3 days and having uni for 3 full days. Here I was thinking I could handle it, and I thought I was. Reluctantly I cut down my hours to relieve pressure on myself, sacrificing that extra money I'm trying to save for our house deposit.

I also had an u/s about a week ago and that just brought up more questions.
- No signs of a baby of course (still broke my heart a little.... I know I'm dreaming)
And talk about being uncomfortable? One thing I'm not looking forward to when pg, I'm prefer a pap any day over an u/s... lol

Wow where do I start? Talk about a lot going on down there??

Firstly I had or have endo... (probably why I use to have such painful af)
I have a slightly solid nonspecific nonvascular hyperechoic lesion? (Got to love that medical mumbojumbo)
I have more than 20 follicles on my ovaries and probably pcos (even though I'm under not over weight and don't have excessive hair growth?)

My gp referred me to a gyno which I have an appointment with at the end of this month.
So now the impatient wait for more answers!

Where i am today

So here's a catch up on my situation. I really want a child and would love one now but am not actively ttc until I finish my university degree. So although were not ttc were not using an bc because a miracle now would be fabulous and although I want to finish my degree, I know I can still finish it if I'm pg. However, no matter how much I want to get pg, I don't even know if that's possible at the moment... I have had amenorrhea (no AF) for just over 6 months. I don't even know if o is possible. I've looked it up online and supposedly it is possible without af, however I haven't charted anything as I think I'm scared if I do it might show that I'm not o and have no chance of being pg. Each day without af I hope that a miracle has happened and I am somehow pg, but I still don't know what's going on with my body.