Open enrollment time...

This is the time of the year when I am trying to finish up my flexible savings account money.  Also, it is time to renew or make changes in my benefits for the next year. At my current company, there is a lot of pressure to join a HSA plan. It is tempting: Funds roll over year after year and you do not have to spend them before December 31 like I am scrambling to do right now. Plus my employer contributes a nice amount per year.

Another selling point is that you may add more tax free money to it, you can even have it invested in something similar to an IRA account, and eventually when you retire you will have some nice savings to count on if you never needed them.

But you know what? That is what  401Ks and IRAs are for. Health insurance is something you pay for so that when you do get sick, you do not have to break the bank. And with a HSA you get to pay very high deductibles when you actually get sick.

Let us assume that I end up in the hospital with kidney stones in January of 2014, just like I did in January of 2011. My brand new HSA account would have no funds yet to cover the extremely high deductible. I know I could set up a reasonable payment plan until my HSA contributions caught up. But there is the catch:  the amount of money my employer would contribute to the HSA each year is less than the deductible.

Bottomline? HSA accounts work better for people who join when healthy, and manage to stay healthy for a few years before any major medical emergency. And while I consider myself to be reasonably healthy, I have seen an ER bill up close. Getting away with a $50 dollar co-pay was the only good thing about it.

The spouse wants me to really explore all possibilities before making a decision. And here it comes: One possibility is getting laid off. I survived the initial witch hunt but I am not confident I will still be working here a year from now. And, like I said, HSA accounts work best when you've accumulated a nice cushion over a few years.

While all this needs to be decided, I still have to go on a shopping spree and spend the last of my tax-free FSA dollars. On my shopping list: prescription steroid creams, disposable contact lenses and maybe another pair of prescription eyeglasses. Too bad over-the-counter drugs don't qualify anymore.

It's all going to be all right

This has become my mantra. I have to remind myself that, if this cycle is a total failure, it's not a tragedy. We'll still be childless, but  blessed to have each other.

There's already a few glitches going on with this cycle (besides the yellow dog being sick and the office move). The delivery of my FSH was timed so it would be sent to the spouse's workplace before my period came. Somehow they failed to notify him when the meds were delivered. My period (and PMS) arrived, and the meds were not yet in my hands. Only when I was close to hysterics did the spouse finally start making calls and asking questions, until the meds showed up. Thankfully, the icepacks were still half frozen by the time we got them.

My FSH dose was supposed to increase by 50%, but I got the same amount I got last cycle. My doctor said that would not be a problem, since I could get a refill. But the insurance said I cannot get a refill without the doctor requesting it first. So once more, I am frantically sending emails, hoping the rest of the FSH will arrive on time.

Today was my first day of injections. I talked to the spouse about using the same dose as last cycle so the meds would last longer, but he convinced me to put all my faith in the system and inject the correct dose, hoping that the mess will be solved, otherwise I will run out of FSH by day seven.

By the way, he hates needles. He runs away when I am injecting myself. This time I explained that, even if I don't mind needles, I do hate doing this on my own, as if this were exclusively my problem and he had nothing to do with it. I made him stay with me and watch the whole rite: Disinfecting the area, uncapping the vials, extracting the saline with a syringe, and mixing it with the freeze dried hormone, one vial after the other. He cringed when I disinfected my belly and injected myself. When I was done, we hugged.

I don't know if he'll be willing to go through this again tomorrow, but I am hoping he is.

Not a Valentine's gift, but still nice

In the pharmaceutical industry, cleanliness is a big deal. What is taken for "clean" at hospitals is not acceptable in a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment. Even sterile is not good enough. Dead bacteria are definitely not allowed, not even enzymes, nor random pieces of DNA. That's why they use blister packs and tamper evident packaging, to ensure sterility and wholesomeness. They do random quality control tests to make sure all batches adhere to their standards, which of course ensures no contamination.

So why, then, when you get prescription medicine, a random technician counts your pills by hand in a non-sterile environment? Who double-checks if he/she is actually putting the right medication and dose in the bottle? Is he/she wearing sterile gloves, a net and a mask? Who knows?

That was one of the shocks when I first came to the USA. A country where everything is supposed to be regulated for the better was allowing for this unreliable practice. And of course we've all heard of pharmacists giving people the wrong pills or the wrong dose. Human error comes to  play each time a pharmacist prepares a prescription. This defeats the industry's purpose of striving to have proper quality control.

Last time I picked up my antidepressant, I was gladly surprised. It did not come in an orange bottle where a technician had stuck his fingers into, like the two previous months (and like they always do with all my prescriptions). It came in a sealed bottle. Now that's what I call progress.

I really don't care for Valentine's Day, but this was a good gift.