I got everything ready to start prepping my morning shot and got USPS customer service on the phone. The rep was very nice but had absolutely no new information - all she could see was the same tracking page I was already looking at. I told her the package contained time sensitive medication that I needed for the weekend and after a 2 second pause she told me the package wasn't going to make it and I should look into getting my meds locally. Double uh oh.
So here I am, trying to mix my Menopur via needle and figure out what to do. I called Kaiser first since they had a valid prescription on file for me - no answer. I forgot that they changed their pharmacy hours and they're no longer open over the weekend. My next call was to Rox San pharmacy, the pharmacy my clinic deals with most often, where I left the most scattered voicemail ever:
"Hi, my number is...I mean my name is S, I'm a patient over at SCRC and I ordered my medication online but it looks like my package has been delayed. I don't have enough meds to get through the weekend...I'm supposed to take 8, I mean a day...so I need to pick up a couple boxes of Menopur. I should probably get my Novarel too....My name, I mean my number, is blah blah, sorry I'm super scattered today kthanksbye"
It's not easy to use a cell phone and keep your field sterile and I kept accidentally sticking the mixing needle through the side of the rubber stopper. Oy. The next call was to SCRC where I left a message for the weekend nurse since no one was picking up. This one wasn't as scattered but you could probably tell I was freaking out a bit because both the pharmacist and the weekend nurse called back a few minutes later. The pharmacist was calm and kind and told me she could get in touch with the nurse for me and have my meds ready asap. It was about 9:30am now and they closed at 11:30am so we would need to move fairly quickly. A minute after that, the nurse called back and said she was sending over a script for 15 vials of Menopur and the Novarel. I was finally able to take my injection and ten minutes later the pharmacy called to say my order was ready.
Now here is where things got muddy again. I was all ready to go and pick up my Menopur when I get a tracking update that my package has landed in Los Angeles at the big sorting facility. Thus began the debate - do we go and buy the Rox San meds? Do we wait and hope the package makes it to our local post office and out for delivery before they close? The package was running several hours behind the first one which had made it to our local post office by 9ish. It was now almost 11am and it still wasn't there. Do we risk botching the entire cycle and have to cancel? No.
We decided it wasn't worth the risk. Rox San wasn't open on Sunday and this was my only chance to get my medication locally so we went ahead and bought more meds. Three boxes of Menopur, one box of Novarel and needles/syringes ran us $1250 that I hadn't planned on spending this month. Ouch. But now we were prepared, I had enough meds to get through the weekend and if the package didn't come till Monday I would still be okay.
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| The pharmacist who packed my order at Rox San gave me this lovely hand carved jade pendent for luck. I'm sure they give them to all their infertility patients but it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I can't help but appreciate the little things like this and the way they can brighten up even a crazy stressful day. |
1pm rolls around and our local postman pulls up with no package. He double checked everything and said that he usually receives express packages in the morning. They never make deliveries in the afternoon. He definitely hadn't received anything for me, so I shouldn't expect the package till Monday. Again I felt okay about our decision, we had made the right move, the package didn't come so we'd covered our bases. I bet you can see where this is going.
2:30pm rolls around and there's a knock on my door. Oh hey, look at that. It's another, different postman. He has my package. Safe and sound and delivered as expected, given that it was shipped out two days later than expected. Oh man. So now I have the whole IVFMeds.com order, each package was shipped on Wednesday and delivered on Saturday and I just spent $1250 on local meds. Whoops.
I probably would have felt worse if the stakes weren't about 20k high. Cancelling this cycle would mean we were out what we'd already spent plus all the medication, so I'm glad we covered our behinds. I'm also looking into the offer the IVFMeds customer service rep made to reimburse me the difference in medication costs since they knew my package was shipping two days late. I'm not sure if they'll still honor it given the circumstances, but I'll give it a go. I had to bump my protocol two days anyway to accommodate the shipping time which I know not everyone can do and I had 15 vials of local Menopur to offset it. We'll see what they say on Monday.
Day 5 of injections is now complete and it looks like everything ended up working out. I will definitely be ordering from IVFMeds.com again, but with a little more wiggle room for shipping. Four days really does cut things a bit close. Their customer service has been amazing thus far but I'd like to have my meds in hand a couple weeks before my second cycle so I don't have to repeat this crazy stressful process.
