4 December 2010

Reflux Issues
Our home health nurse got to see firsthand on Thursday what happens each time Jereth spits up. It is a rough experience for him and he gets sweaty, pale, and clammy. She called the doctor's office to see if they would call in a prescription for reflux for him.

Friday we got a call from the doctor's office saying that Dr. Mumford was out of town but his partner, Dr. McGuffey had approved a prescription and we could pick it up at the local Albertson's so we'd have it for the weekend. So we went to Albertson's after I got home from work and the adventure started.

Alberson's pharmacy had received the prescription but were working on figuring out the directions for such a tiny baby when we got there. We were told it would be at least 20 minutes, so we wandered the store then checked back. Finally the prescription was ready and I waited in line for an available pharmacy cashier. When it was my turn the pharmacist wanted to talk to us about the prescription.

Apparently this is a very pricey medicine and my insurance was only willing to pay $2, leaving us with a $168 copay. The generic version still had a $120 copay.

The best part... the way the medicine is dispensed is in little tablets that need to be dissolved in water before giving it to Jereth. So we'd have to mix up about 5 mL, give Jereth 2 mL, and throw out the remaining 3 mL because it won't keep for the next day. Gotta love the idea of throwing 3/5 of such an expensive medicine away.

The pharmacist tried to get in touch with the doctor's office to see if Dr. McGuffey would prescribe something else that isn't as expensive (since we don't have $120 for the copay right now) but the office was already closed and no one would answer the phone.

So we left without the medicine figuring we could touch base with Dr. Mumford on Monday and since Jereth has been having the spitting up problem since he was in the hospital it shouldn't be that big of a deal to wait a few more days.

Then last night Jereth's breathing started sounding like he did in the hospital, with a raspy squawk during almost every breath. In the hospital the respiratory therapist said that squawk was caused by reflux. So now we are listening carefully so we can get him back to the hospital if it gets any worse.

The biggest problem with taking him back to the hospital this weekend is that we'd have to take him through the emergency room. The last place I want to take Jereth is to a waiting room full of sick people, so I'm hoping to hold off until our doctor gets back and we can consult with him.