Aaron, Lily, and I went to the dentist this morning. The first amazing thing is that Lily let the dentist examine her. Not only that, she got x-rays and everything.

The second amazing thing is that none of us had cavities!

In other, less angry news, we booked a cruise leaving the end of May. Hooray for vacation!

Warning: Angry rant with swearing ahead.

So Mike's insurance changed at work this month. And while I recognize I am lucky enough to have insurance, I am also "lucky" enough to have to be on two different prescription drugs for the rest of my life. I am a bit pissed off.

I hate telling people this, but if you didn't know, I have epilepsy. I've had it since I was a teen. I'm lucky that it is mild and can be controlled entirely when I'm on the right meds. The old insurance covered my (brand name) epilepsy drug for $40 a month. While that is still over a dollar a day, it was doable.

Enter new insurance. Imagine my surprise when I pick up my medicine and they want to charge me $130 for a month's supply (and that was with the insurance company footing 60% of the bill, I believe). Are you fucking kidding me? I understand that drug companies need to compensate for research involved in developing a drug, but really?? How much per pill can they charge and get away with it?! It can NOT cost that much to manufacture a drug, especially when the generic costs so little. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong here. I'd love to see some numbers on this.

Of course I had to pay it. I HAVE to have this drug, and I was out. Mike talked to HR at work. Turns out the brand name of this particular drug is not on their "preferred" list. There is a generic available, and they would "prefer" me to take that.

There are a couple of problems with this.

1) Despite FDA approval, and active ingredients being the same in generics, there are differences. Especially (from my research) in absorption rates, and how fast the drug goes through your system.

2) I've had problems in the past with generics not working as well for me. Last time I went in to the dr. he expressed concern about me switching because of that, and said if my insurance covered it reasonably to go ahead and stay on the brand name. It is not now covered reasonably. Does my insurance company really want me to go off a drug that has been working very well for me for the past 2 years? Against the advice of my dr? What the hell? Do they think it is really in the best interest of my health to do so? Do they not care that I could lose my driving privileges (at the least) or that I could fucking die or injure someone (at worst) if the switch to generic is not successful?

Combined with a scientific article stating "Switch to generic lamotrigine was significantly associated with increased physician visits and hospitalizations," and many bad reviews on the forums on epilepsy.com (though I realize these are anecdotal), plus my Dr.'s reluctance to have me switch mentioned above, I guess I'm going to be forking out the bucks. We are signing up for a mail order plan--the insurance company will cover more if we do it that way--but it is still going to be a hell of a lot more than I was paying before.

Seen on the back window of a mini-van on the freeway:

"You've been New-Mooned!"

(We'll give the driver the benefit of the doubt and pretend she has a teen daughter that wrote that.)

But what? You can't tell me I've been "new-mooned" unless I'm looking at vampire ass. The tail-end of a mini-van does not qualify.