It's me screaming.
We have thrush AGAIN!!!!!!!! Will this ever end?????
(deep breath)
Let me start over...
On the drive to VA I noticed that we were getting thrush again. That afternoon I started to feel the burning pain in my breasts. When I woke up the next morning I had a horrible, white, painful rash on my nipples. Sounds fun, right?
I immediately got on the phone with Tricare (health insurer for the military.) I told them I was out of town and needed an appointment ASAP. Tricare South told me to call Tricare North. I call Tricare North. Wouldn't you know they told me to call Tricare South? After asking to speak to a supervisor I finally got the name of an Urgent Care facility 30 minutes away.
I then called Urgent Care to warn them that we were coming. The receptionist said "Two sets of twins? I can't wait to see you when you get here!" I bet.
Jason's sister offered to watch the big boys and I loaded up both sets of twins. We drove to the clinic and I unloaded the babies into the Mei Tai and put the girls in the double stroller. When I finally reached the receptionist she was amazed that I was alone. Alone? She thought I was bringing my nanny. I had a good laugh about that one!
The waiting room was (thankfully) mostly empty. There were 2 older men and a very young man waiting but that was it. Of course the babies start screaming and I end up lifting my shirt to tandem nurse them while I'm writhing in pain from the thrush. The men nervously tried not to look. The girls began fighting over a toy and one of them bit the other. Typical behavior for them but probably shocking to the poor guys in the waiting room.
We finally see the doctor who inspects my nipple and agrees that I have a very bad case of thrush. Then she looks at the babies and says that they have it too. She turned to me next and asked, "Now why do you think the girls have thrush too?" My face turned red. "Because they're still nursing too." The doctor's face was priceless.
Three hours after we arrived we were on our way home with 10 prescriptions. She suggested trying Nystatin before resorting to Diflucan but I didn't even bother to fill the prescriptions for Nystatin and went straight to the Diflucan. It worked and cleared up the thrush right away.
The prescriptions ran out on Friday. Two weeks of Diflucan for the 5 of us.
Today I have thrush again. AGAIN. This is absolutely insane!
I know WHY we are getting it. When the babies nurse they have a terrible latch because of the tongue tie. They click and gasp for air. They choke and lose suction. It's a mess. My nipples are in constant pain. Because of the nipple trauma I develop thrush, plugged ducts and mastitis.
The babies turned 3 months old on Thursday and we have had thrush 3 times, been through 2 courses of Diflucan, had 2 plugged ducts and one bout with mastitis. Is it any wonder some women give up breastfeeding? This is just ridiculous!
The only fix for us is going to be having surgery to correct the babies' tongue tie. However, we have been trying to get the referral processed since they were 5 weeks old. You have to jump through a LOT of hoops with Tricare.
First you have to fight to get an appointment with your Primary Care Physician. Then they give you a referral to a specialist. In our case it's an ENT at the local hospital off post. But it's not that simple. We have had to wait to have the referral processed (2 weeks) and then wait for the ENT clinic on post to decide whether to send us off post. They decided to send us off post because they had no appointments until February. But then we have to wait for the chief of the ENT clinic on post to sign off on the referral. And she was out of the clinic until Wednesday.
So hopefully tomorrow we will get the referral to go off post. Then we wait 2 more weeks to have that processed. Then we cal to make the actual appointment at the hospital and wait another 2-4 weeks for that. Then after the appointment we have pre-op and then the surgery. Did I mention that they force me to make a separate appointment for each baby. They are identical twins but they will schedule one for a morning appointment and one for an afternoon appointment. Does that make sense? It could be March before we get this fixed!
And all the while my babies (and my nipples) are suffering.
Tomorrow I will call and harass the receptionist again about my referral. And then I will call and harass Tricare. And then I will call the ENT's office and sob hysterically into the phone. Hopefully my nipples don't rot off before then.
For all you civilians out there, this is what you have to look forward to when we get universal healthcare. Yay! Aren't you excited already?
