Sunday, November 16, 2008

It's the Yeast of my Worries*

"I'm just trying to breastfeed my baby!" I said to the pharmacist, with tears in my eyes and frustration consuming my body.

The thrush infection started to return with a vengance this week in both Elle and me, by Friday I had had it. I called my OB's office and pleaded with them to put me on some sort of medication because her medication wasn't treating me like the pediatrician said it would. The infection was beginning to rage through my system (gross, I know, seriously) and the insides of her cheeks were dotted with white patches. Don't even get me started on our diapering situation, her bottom is a red, raw, splotchy mess. Every four hours we're treating each other, she's more than likely just swallowing the solution that should be coating her tongue, how do you get a 3 week old to swish? Grr. And me, well I'll leave you without all the gorey details of my trials.

So anyway, the pharmacy said they never got the call-in from my OB when I went to get the script on Friday night. Of course it was after 5pm and I couldn't get through to a doctor, I left a message and got no response. Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind, I think I was trying to ignore the problem, but this morning while hanging at our playgroup one of my mom friends said she and her daughter battled it for 6 months and at one point it got so bad she had it as well, in her mouth and down her throat. OH. MY. GOD. So we arrived back home and I immediately called the pediatrician, they called in a new script for Elle, this would be stronger and is thankfully just one dose a day. Then I called my general practitioner to see if they could call in something for me and after three phone calls back and forth with a nurse who didn't quite understand what I needed told me to call my OB. Frustrated and pissed I finally got through to the OB, she said she would call the pharmacy herself and call in the script, gave me some words of encouragement (praise the lord it's only one pill a day for ten days, this is so much easier than the previous scenario) and wished me well. An hour or so later I went to pick up the magic potions and the pharmacist breaks the news to me that our insurance hasn't approved the prescriptions and it might be up to three days before they can give me the medications.

Three days? I started to cry. Thankfully I was in my car in the drive thru and thankfully it was an understanding female pharmacist. I said, isn't this a common ailment, why has it been so hard for me to get this prescription? I just want to get better and I can't let this infection go untreated for three more freaking days. She was as confused as I was, said that I could pay them in full and sympathetically gave us a discount on one of the items. So $95 later I had our three prescriptions and said I would fight the insurance company on Monday to get reimbursed.

I've had moments where I just want to give up on breastfeeding, but I can't do it. I won't give in. She's too young, she needs the comfort and she's a champion nurser. Sometimes you've got to take the long road, for whatever reason. Thankfully she's a fabulously easy baby in every other way.

*Alternate titles: Beauty and the Yeast, Yeast of Burden (sorry I couldn't resist!)

No comments: