May 13, 2008, Transplant Follow-Up

I had my 8-week transplant follow-up on May 13. I went in at 7:40 am again, but I made an effort to drink a LOT more water before the appointment. My creatinine for the day was 1.1 (which is down from 1.2, and that's a good thing). My guess is the 7:40 time is what caused the discrepancy, as I do not feel any different.

All my other lab number look pretty good. My BUN is at 11.0. My magnesium and phosphorus are both a little bit low, but that's not a problem.

The only real complaint that I have is that Medicare is now my primary insurance company. This is a problem because my prescription drug insurance through work does not want to pay as a secondary company. So, I'm going to get stuck with either co-pays from work or with 20% from Medicare. For the Myfortic, I will be paying about $640 a year under my insurance plan. The Prograf will be another $480 per year. And, the Prednisone is probably $2 a year.

The annual cost for Myfortic, according to Medco, is $3,536.40. The plan pays $2,896.40, which is about 81% (meaning I save a little money over getting this through Medicare). The annual cost for Prograf is listed at $12,966.72 (for a year), with my insurance plan paying $12,486.72 (in that year). This is about 96% of the cost of the drugs, meaning I am getting a much better deal on these than I would through Medicare. The two medications combined have me paying about 7% of the cost, which is better than the 20% I'd have to pay through Medicare.

So, I guess I will continue to pay for Medicare for another 18 months, to cover my doctor's visits. It was nice not to pay for those medications in the past, but unfortunately, that's no longer an option. I knew it would be coming, but did not expect it this soon. So, it will be a cost to add in to everything else. Not a problem, just something to think about.

That's it for this post. More later, I think.