LTTTC Military Wives/Members

[NavyWife84]

First, I want to say that I don't want to exclude anyone or offend anyone by making this thread, so if you are not a military wife, please don't feel left out. I just thought it would be nice to have someone to talk to about things like deployment, insurance, med clinics, etc. I have noticed that in a few threads, I have asked questions and questions have been asked of me about military issues.

So, I will start off...My DH is an airtraffic controller in the Navy. We are here in MD for another 3 years and if I don't have a baby by our next assignment, I am going to scream (not to mention DH will be out to sea and we have no hope of concieving)! We have been trying since Sept. 2010. Since August, I have been in and out of doctor's offices, trying to get some answers! I have been "diagnosed" with endometriosis, PCOS, and blocked tubes. The latest is that I don't have PCOS and I think they have completely forgotten about the endo...they said I had endo after my first sonogram, but I know you can't diagnose endo without a laproscopy...gotta love military medicine! I was referred out in town and they ran more blood tests and ordered me to have another sonogram and an HSG. I just had my HSG a couple of weeks ago and they found that my left tube is completely blocked and my right tube was blocked the first time they pushed the dye through and sluggish the second time. I guess that gives me some hope to concieve naturally because maybe the hsg opened up the right side. Unfortunately, I oed on my left side this month, so I know we didn't concieve...af is due this week They referred me to Shady Grove, which is about a half hour to an hour from my house, but Tricare will not pay for Shady Grove. They told me that I could go to Walter Reed/Bethesda, which is 3 hours away! So, we will be going that route rather than getting insurance from my job to pay for Shady Grove. I have to call WR tomorrow to make an appointment with the RE. So, I guess that is me in a nutshell!

(Thanks to a lady on another post (Florida something or other...sorry, I forgot your name!) I know that I can claim my travel in my taxes! Yay! Thanks for the advice

Let me hear your stories!

 

[uwa_amanda]

No longer a military wife since DH got hurt in Iraq, got medically honorably discharged, and is now considered disabled but I have definitely been there done that with the military. We have been ttc for a little over five years. I finally took my stubborn self to the doctor and found out that I wasn't ovulating. So he put me on Provera to regulate my cycles and I finished my fourth round of Clomid on Tuesday. Hopefully with the increased dosage everything will be good and I'll get my !

 

[NavyWife84]

Welcome, UWA...once a military wife, always a military wife, especially when it comes to being honorably discharged! So sorry to hear about your DH's getting hurt in Iraq. When was he there? My dh was in Al Taqqadum in 2008.

Good luck with your increased dosage...I hope you get your bfp very soon! Five years is way too long for anyone to have to wait. TBH, I think a year is way too long!

 

[uwa_amanda]

Welcome, UWA...once a military wife, always a military wife, especially when it comes to being honorably discharged! So sorry to hear about your DH's getting hurt in Iraq. When was he there? My dh was in Al Taqqadum in 2008.

Good luck with your increased dosage...I hope you get your bfp very soon! Five years is way too long for anyone to have to wait. TBH, I think a year is way too long!

DH was over there in 2005. He and I got engaged the day his unit was put on alert in 2004. During his R&R, we paid a trip to the courthouse and sealed the deal . He was at a base about 30 miles south of Baghdad during his time over there. He messed up his back real bad when his vehicle hit an IED. We are definitely blessed that nothing worse happened.

I definitely agree that five years is a long time...I'm just very stubborn (thanks dad!) and figured that it would happen when it did. I finally realized that 30 was coming alot faster than I wanted it to (next July)...lol

 

[Chiles]

Hi, I am also a military wife

Well we are a dual military couple but I am reserves. So far we have not had an issue with tricare. They have paid for all these expensive meds I have been on. I do have to travel 45 mins one way to the RE office but I can't complain. I wish tricare covered IVF, and IUI's and I would def be on cloud 9.

MAybe you can find a RE that is in the tricare network and a little bit closer to where you are.

 

[NavyWife84]

Welcome Chiles! We met with a tricare Rep and specifically asked about ivf due to my blocked tubes and they said they would cover it as long as I went to wr. We were surprised because we didn't think they would cover it. I am still a little sceptical, but we could always sign up for insurance through my job if we had to.

 

[Chiles]

Yea I know they will cover it if you get it done at a MTF that does them. And luckily you do. I think its only 4 or 5 of them the at do in the US. I have not came to that yet, but we did find one that do reasonable military rates 5600 covers everything!!!! and its not so far.

 

[Armywife84]

Brillant thread!! I don't fit in the Military WAGs thread on another forum in BNB, they're all pregnant!! This is going to turn into a thread about us bitching about TriCare .

Amanda- I'm so glad your DH is alive !

Walter Reed, Hawaii, San Diego, and San Antonio are the bases that will do IVF. However, from my knowledge it's military doctors doing IVF at a discounted rate of $5,000-$6,000. There's also a year's waiting list at some of them (probably not Hawaii). I'm wary of it, because it's a military doctor doing that procedure!

HTH did you get TriCare to cover IVF? How many rounds did they say they would pay for?

I can't even get them to approve my DH for a urologist! They fecking rejected us, saying we would have to pay for it. If I wanted to appeal it, I'd have to get a lawyer involved. Which is pointless, because I could be saving the money for a lawyer towards an IUI or IVF. TriCare is ridiculous!

 

[NavyWife84]

I posted this in my journal, but thought I would copy it here with the info about insurance/costs....
Everything went really well with the doctor today. We talked about a lot today, but I will just update on what we decided on today. The doctor pretty much felt bad for me that I have heard so many different things from different doctors. They said that my right tube is open and my left tube might not be blocked because the HSG isn't really that reliable anyway. So, basically next month we are going to repeat the HSG to see if we can get a more accurate look (I wasn't very confident with the last one anyway). Since my chance of getting pregnant will already be increased with the HSG, we are also going to do a round of Clomid and an IUI in the same cycle. Hopefully the combination of all three will do the trick. If not, we will do two more IUIs on Clomid before reevaluating. Then we will probably do 3 more IUIs. Each IUI will cost us $150.00 (I'm not sure how much it costs without insurance) If all six IUIs don't work, then we will go onto IVF. She said that they would draw up a price, which would be around $5000. DH and I decided that if it gets to that point, then we will go to Blue Cross, Blue Shield, which will completely pay for 3 attempts at IVF. That would be in aobut 6 or so months anyway, so perfect timing for open enrollment for insurance at my job.

So, that's it for now. I am really hoping that I get pregnant naturally this month, but if not, I am really hopeful for next month. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high though because this roller-coaster is terrible. I know that it might not work, so I am trying to balance being positive and realistic.

Now I'm exhausted from such an emotional day, so I'm going to go to bed!

 

[Armywife84]

TriCare is paying for part of the IUIs? How did you swing that one?

Another military wife said that hers cost around $200 with TriCare covering everything but the actual procedure.

They wouldn't even pay for him to go to a urologist when there's clearly an issue with his sperm. So Idk how the hell they'll pay for part of an IUI.

$5,000 is cheap for IVF.

 

[NavyWife84]

I don't know why they are paying for it. We asked her about it and those are the prices she told us. Then she gave us the paper for the first iui and it had the price of $150 at the bottom. I don't know how much the clomid is going to cost but we are having the perscription filled on base so I won't know intil after dh picks it up after the holiday weekend. My friend who also went to bethesda for ivf was told she would be responsible for $4000 for her ivf. She decided to get on insurance through our work instead and have 3 attempts mostly paid for. $5000 is a great price but it is only for one attempt whereas I can have 3 attempts and just pay a copay.

It really stinks that they aren't helping you guys out more.