I Hate Health Insurance Companies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received a letter on Saturday from my health insurance company.  They have decided  not to approve my Humatrope.  This is a drug that is very important to me, because I have Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency.  The letter was signed by some dude named Mark Rubino, R.Ph, M.H.A..  He is the Chief Pharmacy Officer with Aetna Pharmacy Management.  Why can a pharmacist override the decisions and directions of a doctor?????????????  My doctor thinks I need the medicine!  My doctor went to Medical School.  Then she completed specialty training in endocrinology.  Did Mr. Rubino?  No, I think not!  I also went through a 4 hour L-dopa/Arginine test that proved that my body does not produce growth hormone.  I did not sit there for 4 hours having substances I.V.ed into my body, and having my blood drawn every 30 minutes for the fun of it!!!  @#!*%$#@  I did not undergo closed MRIs that lasted what seemed like forever to just entertain myself!  *&^%$#*@ Who are these people that make these arbitrary decisions about my health????? 

 I am sure they will get their bonuses for turning down patients who need help!  Michael Moore’s movie Sicko was right on target.  If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. 

I feel right now that I am in a battle for my life.  I want to live a better quality of life, a normal life.  It has taken seven years to find answers to the problems causing the deterioration of my mental and physical health.  Now that I have a big part of that equation solved, I can’t get the medication anymore that was helping me work towards obtaining the life I once had, and the life I dreamed about.  The medication I need is Human Growth Hormone, and now with baseball players, and possibly other athletes misusing the drug, it is going to make it harder for people like me to obtain it.

I have a somewhat rare disorder called Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency.  What this means is that my pituitary gland does not produce Growth Hormone.  In adults, Growth Hormone Deficiency can cause the following list of problems:

• weakened heart muscle contraction and heart rate
• increased arterial plaque and blood pressure
• elevated lipids or fats in the blood:
 - cholesterol 
 - low density lipoproteins (LDL)
 - triglycerides
• decreased exercise capacity due to decreased cardiac output
• decreased energy due to decreased metabolic rate
• abnormal body composition:
 - increased abdominal obesity (waist to hip ratio)
 - decreased bone density due to decreased synthesis of bone
 - increase in fractures and osteoporosis
 - decreased muscle strength and muscle size
 - decreased lean body mass
 - increased fat mass
• low blood sugar:
 - dizziness or fainting
 - weakness or tiredness
 - headaches
 - poor concentration or memory
Physical Symptoms
 - lack of energy or fatigue
 - decreased sexual desire
 - muscle weakness
 - sleep problems
 - weight gain
Psychological Symptoms
 - shyness
 - withdrawal from others
 - nervousness or anxiety
 - problem with sleep quality
 - decreased social contact
 - sadness or depression
 - feelings of hopelessness
My Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency was caused either from some sort of head trauma (I had a very physically and sexually abusive childhood,) or from a prolactinoma or small pituitary tumor that has damaged my pituitary gland.  This has also reeked havoc with my hormones causing me to lactate (produce breast milk), and problems like having my period every two weeks.  It also might have caused my Hypothyroidism as well.  According to the Pituitary Network Association, 1 in 5 people have pituitary tumors.  In most cases they go undiagnosed unless a person develops some of the symptoms, and like in my case, once they start producing symptoms they can go misdiagnosed for years.

I went over 7 years battling the symptoms, going from specialist to specialist, and each doctor telling me to “just exercise and lose some weight,” which is hard for people with this disease to do because it causes enlargement of the heart, physical exertion intolerance, and causes your body to convert muscle to fat faster.  Doctors also told me that my symptoms were related to the sexual abuse I received as a child, or because I was on anti-depressants.  Depression, isolating behaviors, and apathy syndrome are also symptoms of my illness.  One endocrinologist, rated as one of the top in the Dallas area by D Magazine, without any testing looked at me, listened to my symptoms and simply told me quote “you are just too fat.  Exercise, lose some weight, or have a gastric bypass.” Endocrinologists are the specialists that are supposed to diagnose this problem!  All the while both my physical and mental health were declining.

It started for me at the peak of my professional career.  I had been working in Telcom/Technology for eight years, was making more then $80,000 dollars a year, and was looking forward to hopefully one day also having a family in addition to my career.  Back then I never dreamed I would be where I am now, alone, fighting a mental and physical illness that has destroyed my life and my body.  Without Humatrope, the Growth Hormone that I have been on, my life is not worth living!  I have been on the medication for about a year and a half and the improvement in my physical health has been tremendous!  I can now exercise, walk my dog, and even walk into the grocery store from a far parking spot without collapsing in exhaustion, all of which I used to not be able to do.

Now my new insurance carrier does not want to cover the drug, and even if they do the percentage I will have to pay will go up significantly.  Since this is a costly drug, it will be a struggle for me to afford it.  It is a catch 22 situation.  I want to have my life back, and the main drug that will help me to do this, I can not get!  I am at a loss for what to do, please help!