It's been a while, but I had brain surgery and it worked!

I had brain surgery again, just over two weeks ago.  I was released from the hospital the day after surgery and here's the shot my wife posted to Facebook, with the caption, "Who had brain surgery yesterday and was already released today? This guy!"

They turned my leads on the following week, and to say there is a difference between now and then would be understating the case by orders of magnitude.  I am so happy with how the new leads are working after just the first programming session.  My walking has improved, my tremor has reduced, and my med intake has dropped by over half.  Right after programming, I took an extended walk with friends to a bar in downtown San Francisco.  I was doing great, until my meds kicked in and my dyskinesia went crazy, that was when I realized, I would need to dramatically reduce my meds.  I am still figuring the med levels and times that work well for me; however, I am doing well and feeling better than ever.

Thanks for all the well wishes over the past two years since I began looking at having my first surgery.  I don't wish my experiences of a stroke, heart attack and finding the leads had moved to finding a new surgeon and having the new leads installed on anyone, but hope others can find solace in my experiences and know that there is good news, eventually.

How OptumRX legally screwed me out of $150

I take a number of drugs for Parkinson's.  One of those drugs is Requip XL (Ropinerole ER).  This drug is the same as the drug Requip (Ropinerole), except it has a time release capability which means the drug company that created it, could keep it from going generic, longer.  The advantage of taking the time release version is that you get a little bit of the drug over the whole day as opposed to large doses that taper off.  The good news is that the drug just went generic.  The bad news is that my prescription plan through UHC has not yet approved it for generic pricing.

Nevertheless, my pharmacy, OptumRX, in their infinite wisdom as a generic pharmacy sent me the generic version of the drug.  They also charged me the same rate as it would have cost if I they had sent me the brand name of the drug.  I called them and asked since I was paying brand name prices, I wanted the brand name drug.  They basically said, tough.  They sent it out and there was no indication on the prescription to fill as ordered instead of using a generic version of the drug.

Now understand this, I would prefer to have the generic version of the drug, but for generic prices.  The fact that I called them immediately upon receiving the medication and they did not call me back is indicative that they knew what they were doing.  I called back a few weeks later, and after discussing with a customer service representative and her supervisor, I asked to talk to the pharmacist who was in charge of making the decision.  I was told by the supervisor that the pharmacist would not speak to me and the decision was final.

The problem is, I have no recourse and the pharmacy knows this.  They are the only mail order prescription service that my health plan uses and they are on the whole much less expensive then going to the local drug store.  Nevertheless, I will probably be transferring this prescription to a local drug store, because then I will be able to see what I am receiving and quickly be able to determine whether the generic brand has been accepted by my health plan and the price will go down.

For reference, my plan offers Tier III drugs such as Requip XL for $170 for a three month supply, while a generic brand will cost $20.