Hold on, wait a minute, HOLD ON!!!!!!

What catastrophic coverage are all of you talking about???? I phoned the company and I had two distinct phone calls with the customer service people and absolutely asked them the following: Is Alan completely covered for IVIG and will it cost us anything? And the answer was "Yes you are completely covered and NO, you don't have to pay anything?

Now you are saying we have to pay towards catastrophic coverage????

We live on $900 a month after the rent. There is no money for anything else, no movies, no vacations, no nothing.

Nobody said anything to us about contributing toward catastrophic coverage. If they bill us I'm dead!!!!!

mel

P.S. I just went to drugstore.com to check out alprazolam and they want over $200 for 120 pills. Costco cost us $12.00.

here, check it out.
http://www.drugstore.com/pharmacy/pr...291&trx=1Z5006

hold on. I looked up xanax and saw the generic version (same alprazolam) and it's 14 bucks.
http://www.drugstore.com/pharmacy/pr...001&trx=1Z5006

Am I nuts, or are there two different alprazolams here?
I'm having a senior moment.

120 tablets, 1 mg, generic for xanax (alprazalom) - just under $15.00..... www.drugstore.com..... (I take it to stop my legs shaking at night) Medicare plan D doesnt cover it - if you dont have a prescription those are the sites that charge you a small fortune! (I just looked at your link - you are looking at the 24 hour long acting version which I think is new)

I think the surgeon [no names were safe ] would finish up walking away very depressed with a tension headache

You're right. never knew there was a 24 hour xanax.

The way I'm going with the stress, I'll probably never make it to my 60th birthday in November. I'll be on 24 hour, 48 hour, all the hours in the week!!

And I never even take an aspirin!!!!!!

All this ivig and catastrophic coverage stuff will do me in.

Honestly, I don't understand this catastrophic coverage.

I do know one thing. If the customer service people told me that everything wa covered and then they come at me with some bill for $100,000, I'll lose my mind. And I know that this is going to happen because it happened with Alan's cardiac rehab.

We got it pre-approved, pre-certified, pre-authorized, I phoned everybody known to mankind, got it all set up.

Guess what we got in the mail 7 months later?. That we owed Hospital $7,800.
I got that taken care of in 5 minutes flat. The insurance guy even apologized to me.

I can just imagine the bill we're going to get now.

At least I can get my alprazolam and I can sleep. You can throw anything at me during the day, but let me have my sleep at night.

bye for now and thanks all of you for the valuable information but if anyone can explain this catastrophic thing to me, I'd appreciate it.
mel

Melody - I don't know if this would help, but in our area of the country, Wal-Mart has certain prescriptions for $4.00. Try this link for more information.

http://www.walmart.com/pharmacy?redi...=Prescriptions

How is Alan feeling this morning? Like this....?

Yeah, Alan is doing fine but I'M NOT!!!!

Let me tell you what happened to me at 2 a.m. Ever get a spasm in your toes, where they start jerking up and you look down at your foot and you think "what the hell is this???" Well, I'm sleeping, I wake up and my left foot is doing this. Some of toes are starting to point upward. Very very uncomfortable. So I say to myself "okay, you've been stressed lately, you are spasming again, just stretch your foot and it will work itself out." I haven't had this in YEARS, but people always get a spasm or two in their lifetime so I thought no big deal. I began having spams over 30 years ago, somtimes in the upper muscle of my chest. Once in a while I would get the toe thing. But this happened maybe 3 times over the years. The chest spasms happened when I was in my late 20's. I knew when one would hit and bam, then it would stop. The doctor told me "muscle spasms". And if anybody read my response to luin and his bladder thread, you know what I went through for 4 years with bladder spasms. Haven't had any of them for 10 years.

Well, when I went to stretch my left leg, the spasm shot upward and the pain in my leg, well let's just say, it wasnt' good. I stopped moving and tried to quiet myself (all the while thinking, oh my god, now I have distonia).

So I take my right foot and press down on the toes of the left foot hoping it will relax whatever was going on. I then swung over and put my feet on the floor. Couldn't walk for a minute, The spasm had to abate. It did. I then took a hot pack that I microwave and I then took the hot pack, wrapped it on my left foot, laid in bed, (oh, I took a half of alprazom, figuring it would "relax me") and sure enought in two minutes I was fine and out like a light.

Can this be to stress or nerves??? I'll be asking Dr. Fred soon but I just want to know. I'm going to google spasms. Thank goodness for that.

Anybody know anything about spasms??. I do have PN in the tips of my toes but have never heard of PN giving spasms.

thanks
Melody

Mel,

Don't worry...you may not have to worry about Catastrophic coverage. All insurance plans are diffferent. Some have a very large deductible before the coverage kicks in and that is called a "catastrophic" plan. You probably do not have that plan with Empire. Check your policy. I'm sure if the customer service reps stated that IVIG was covered at 100%, yo9u don't have to worry.


Ann

Mel.... diuretics (which you take) deplete magnesium. Low magnesium leads
to leg cramps. Also potassium-- if you don't eat well for just a couple of days
you can get low in potassium too. Low potassium also contributes to muscle cramping.

Did you run out of Xanax? Did you not take it and then get the cramp?
This would be a typical type of withdrawal, since you use it regularly.

I don't think extended release Xanax is for you or Alan. It is basically for
people with chronic anxiety who need all day coverage. Benzos have to be used carefully, and as little as possible in the "elderly" population.

Melody,

If you don't like or can't take the Xanax, you can always ask for Klonopin. I was prescribed that for small fiber PN when all else failed. It's longer acting and you don't have to take 3 pills a day. At least I didn't. I have taken .5 mg once day for two years now and it took the roar of PN down to almost nothing. But that's just me. Valium is another you could try. And when I took Magnesium for leg cramps all it served to do was to give me the "trots"! Benzos get a bad rap and I don't think they should. If used appropriately, they have their place and I thank God my Neurologist eventually prescribed them. And trust me, I tried every med known to man PLUS magnesium, potassium, and the B's.

Hi all:

Well, I don't take magnesium and I don't eat Bananas so I don't know if I have a magnesium deficiency or a potassium deficiency. I do know I had a complete battery of blood tests three months ago and my numbers were spot on, everything A-ok according to Dr. Fred who reviewed my tests (from Cornell). He will take all new blood tests in April.

And Mrs. D. I have not stopped taking my xanax for sleep. I take two 1 mg pills, it takes about an hour to 90 minutes for it to kick in. I get a little drowsy and I just drift off. No major anything. I wake up just fine the next morning. Thank god for this.

And thanks for the information on the catastrophic coverage. I do hope I don't get any surprises from the insurance company. I'm calling them just to make sure.

Alan and I don't use any anti-anxiety meds during the day. We only take the xanax to sleep. He needs it for his pins and needles (even though the cymbalta helps), well, since he has the problem when he lies down, the xanax would kick in and he'd be off like a lamb. He DID TELL ME OVER BREAKFAST THIS A.M. that "melody, I know it's too soon to be feeling like this, but I am better with the PN". I said 'oh how wonderful".

As soon as Costco sends me back my prescription for Xanax, I'll do the drugstore.com thing.

Oh, I questioned Alan more about what the back guy said with the sural nerve biopsy and I told Alan that a sural thing is only for diagnostic testing and he said "No, maybe I didn't explain myself exactly right". It seems the back guy said "if you get a nerve biopsy and we send the piece of the nerve back, we can absolutely find out what is wrong with you and maybe we an fix it" That's when he went into the mathematics of "Let's say I do 100 nerve biopsy and I can help 70 people out of the 100, you might be one of the 70 people or you might be one of the 30".

So I said to Alan "Oh, he is looking for other stuff besides CIDP in the nerve biopsy?" and Alan said "yeah, I think that's what he meant"

Alan is not jumping into any nerve biopsy at the moment so I can relax about that. He is going on the boards and reading all the postings about the sural nerve so at least he's getting involved in his own diagnosis.

He said "we'll go and see Dr. Goldfarb and listen to what she says".

So just for an update on my Alan, he just went to make a wash, he had a good night's sleep. (better than me obviously, with my toe spasm thing). Oh, as we were having breakfast in Dunkin Donuts, my right arm (the muscle) began doing it's thing for a few seconds. I just looked at it and said "oh there it goes again. Then it stopped and now all is quiet.

I think my body is trying to tell me something. Nervous tension, stress, well, eventually, it all comes to a head and it affects the body in various ways.

I think, perhaps (and I may be wrong), that all this week, with Alan being in the hospital and me having to go back and forth with the access-a-ride, waiting outside for an hour in the cold all the time, coming home to an empty house, (we have no actual family to visit), and then sometimes someone would ask about my son (and all the memories come flooding into my brain), well I think my spasming is all due to nerves.

Is there a specific tests they can do to see why I'm spasming? I looked up muscle spasms on the internet and so many different stuff causing muscle spams, I was just boggled. I have quite an imagination so of course I said "oh my god, I've got distonia (Remember the movie Resurrection with Ellen Burstyn). I said "oh no, I can't deal with this).

Fear gets a hold of you sometimes and while dental phobia has ruled my life all my life, I did get a handle on this and found a phobia dentist. I don't have any other phobias. Perhaps I'm neurotic, perhaps I'm not.

But I do know if I get another muscle spasm like I had last night, well, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe rub some tiger balm on it!!!!

Just bought some at the .99 cents store. Imagine finding tiger balm for .99 cents. I've paid $4.99 at my local drug store for that product. It's really good.

Thanks for all the information.

By the way, I just got off the phone with his medicare advantage plan. Got a nice girl on the phone and I explained that I wanted to make it absolutely clear to me, that we would not be responsibe for any co-pays for the ivig. and this is exactly what she said: (and if this helps any of you out there, go for it!!!!!)

She said: "I just looked up your husband's plan, he has an excellent plan, there is no co-pay for any of it". Then I told her "what about the donut (sounds stupid I know but she completely understood)!!! Her answer: "OH, the donut only applies if they put the ivig under his Medicare Part D prescription plan". I then said "but IVIG is a drug isn't it?" And she said "well, yeah, but if they put it through under his medical plan, it is completely covered, if they apply it via his prescription coverage, that's where the donut comes in".

Now, I'm not a brain surgeon but neither am I a dumbell. I know these things are written and presented in a way to make all of us think we don't have a bat in our belfry so I again said the following: "So what you are saying is that his neurologist has to bill THIS WHOLE THING, HOME INFUSION, IVIG MEDS, EVERYTHING, through his medical plan, AND NOT HIS PRESCRIPTION PLAN, is that what you are saying??" And she said: "Exactly". I said "well, I would think his doctor would know how to do this, because she knows we can't afford this and she said "don't worry, you won't have any co-pays" and the girl said "don't worry doctors know exactly how to bill this and if she said this, then she will bill it through your medical plan, and not your prescription plan. So that means your husband is covered for everything including home infusion, the people who come to your house and the ivig meds",

So the next time we have the visit with Dr. , ya think it's a good idea to gently ask "you do know to bill this through his medical plan, right??" I dont' want to sound pushy but one would think she knows what to do, right???"

jeez, I acted like a medical secretary today and Alan is making a wash. If he only knew what I do for him!!!! (Oh he knows, I know he knows.. lol)

bye for now.
Love, Melody