I recently went to the doctor for my yearly exam and on the first round everything looks good. I just have to wait for the results of my Pap Smear to come back and I am praying that my results are normal or negative or whatever it means to not have to go back because something is wrong. I had a few pieces of news that ranged from good to bad as follows:

Great news: The copay for visiting the doctor is going to be reimbursed by the Flexible Savings Account where I am putting in money pretax to help pay for my medical needs.

Good news: Everything looks good so far and surgery incisions have healed nicely. (thanks to the VERY expensive Mederma ointment that I rub on them every day).

Strange news: I might have had the H1N1 virus commonly known as the Swine Flu about three weeks ago. At the beginning of October I came down with flu symptoms and have had an ongoing cough. The cough stays a few days then stops a few days and comes back again. When the doctor listened to my lungs he said they sounded clear and since I coughed up clear mucus and did not have a fever he did not think that I had an infection so I did not need antibiotics.

Pills

Bad news: He switched me to a new birth control pill (WHY??????) and this one is THREE times the cost of what I was on before….and there is apparently no generic.
HUH?
I am calling the office back to see if I can get switched back because I like what I am currently on and the new pill contains higher doses of hormones. If I have been doing fine on my current type for over a year I do not see any reason to just switch…and to go to something that is so much stronger. Here is a cost comparison of the pills:

PillCosts
As you can see the one month supply for the proposed pill is almost the same as the three month supply of the current prescription. The three month supply is more than what I have put into my FSA even after increasing the amount as I thought I was going to stay on the same prescription.

Grrr!!!!!