Monday, August 12, 2013

Genetics

Thanks for the supportive comments on yesterday's post. Sometimes you just need to dump it all out there, you know?

Today was a rough day, nausea-wise. I've had a few of these lately; if I remember correctly, weeks 9-12 were the worst for me last time, too. So, here we go.

I was required to replace my pool pump today, at a cost of $950. Ugh. The old one hadn't worked properly for years, and finally last week started emitting such an awful, high-pitched squealing that my neighbor came over to complain and I knew I had to fix it. It's a lot like the sewer line - you can't just leave it, it has to be fixed whether you can afford it or not. Oh, the joys of homeownership.

Then I went to my genetics counseling appointment at Kaiser. Much to my annoyance, it cost me $30 and involved sitting there horribly nauseated for an hour with a cranky, whining Bumpus while the counselor insisted on going through this entire notebook of chromosomal disorders despite me telling him over and over that we went through this all last time and I already know all this. What I really wanted was to schedule one of the early genetic tests. But of course he couldn't tell me how much it would cost, so I called the deductible center when I got home. I was crushed to learn I would be responsible for the entire cost - about $1450 until my deductible is met. Everyone online has said they paid about $250 and their insurance picked up the rest. Why, once again, do I bother having insurance? It's totally fucking useless!

So I'm so disappointed - all my plans to learn if the baby is ok and the gender in the next couple of weeks are dashed; I'm not going to be able to make a big announcement at my event or tell the family. I will still do the NT scan, and if I want I can do a mail-in test for gender for a couple hundred $$ right now. But I don't know - if I have to wait another month or more for NT results I might as well wait until October for gender and save the money. I'll see. Some women online have also recommended I contact the early test companies independently, to see if I can get a better deal. I might do that, too.

Tomorrow I do a walk through at the hotel. I hope the contact person doesn't give me any more reason to distrust her. I hope I come home feeling confident that the event will go smoothly. I need a little confidence boost right now.

4 comments:

  1. Sorry that your $30 appointment was useless and that your insurance won't help with the test (might the event go well enough that you could foot that bill??). I hope that the walk through goes well tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely contact the companies. I've heard that several of them offer deals where if your insurance does't cover it they will only charge $250-300 (of course I haven't had the opportunity to test this. And I'm quite accustomed to getting screwed over by insurance so I understand your caution).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've also read you can have the test done for under $250, and most insurance companies don't cover it because it's not FDA-approved and few studies prove it's accurate. I would totally do it though! In addition to materniT21 there's one called Harmony - maybe you can get them into a bidding war over your business. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes definitely call materniti21. I am pretty sure its $250 out of pocket even if insurance will not pay. I called them and they were super nice and easy to reach.

    ReplyDelete