wish I knew. If I figure it out I will let you know. Best wishes

Morgaine

I just have to ask - how is a chiro going to help your myofascial pain? maybe my fibro fog is gaining on me tonight -lol

When I quit work to file for disability, I found relief through organizations that help with the cost of prescriptions. You don't have to be broke to get help, they access what you pay or sliding scale. Most drug companies have some type of assistance programs and your druggist can give you the numbers to call.

Some that I will sing praises to is

Partnership for Prescription Assistance
ALpharma

Cost for medical care are hirendous, even the copays can wipe you out, then add the extra otcs.

And, I have not found a free doctor yet, so cant help you there. Hope this helps, your not working, but is your spouse?

Some workplaces have programs to help, such as "tax free dollar programs". Where you fiqure up what you have to spend, declare it at the first of the year, it is taken out of your check. You can include everything, glasses, all family medical expense including your otc's. Whatever, they average it out, take it out of your pay, but you get a debit card to pay for care.

And, you don't pay tax on that money. It helps, really does.
Think about how much you save, your cost is 525, add your childs care, husbands, sudden expense, otcs, glasses. Say, thats another whatever a year, think of all the tax money you save.

Check with you personnel office if you don't know. Hurts the first month, but well worth the effort in yearly spending.

Hope this helps someone.

One way I have found to cut prescription costs is to ask your doctor to double or triple the number of pills you can get a month. Say for instance that you recieve 30 of a certain prescription per month. Ask for 90.....that will last you for three months and you only have to pay for it the month you get it. This works; however, if you are like me and have a prescription co-pay. The way my insurance works, I pay a set amount for prescriptions depending on what they are, and it doesn't matter how many pills there are. I hope this helps you or someone out there :) IrisChrst

Try getting the drug manufacturers to send you their discount program info. Most have them. You could also go to your county for medical help. A pain specialist is paid about 60 bucks from Medicare, maybe your doctor will be willing to work for less. It never hurt to ask

Ouch

Even with ins I have a hard time paying. My husband works but is not enough. Even though my pm doc is mostly covered. It still costs me for testing, med and other things. I also make the otc suppliers happy. I don't know what to tell you I wish that I knew myself.

hi
you must be brave to let a chiro "adjust" your body. i went to one after a semi hit our schoolbus-changed-to-rv,square on in the backside. my ankle was broke in the three main bones. had to have screws put in but my body hates foriegn objects in it so it pushed the screw almost out with an invection so they went in and removed it. it hurts once in a while but what got me now is this accident in 2001. shattered my bladder, broke my pelvic ring in at least six places,both hips,two n back,both thighs damaged, three or four disk in lower back,severe head injury(was in a medically induced comma like state for around a week so i would not move and to keep brain from swelling) my butt in two places(which nothing could be done to fix it,makes it gard to sit for long) plus i have shbort term memory loss(i think it messed up my long term memories as well).
well i now get social security disability with medicare(150 out of pocket deductable a year after that my pm is 15 a month.) medicare does not pay for dental so i cant afford to get the problems done( over 20,000 dallors) nor do they do vision,mental. untill recently no rx but now it has a part d but i cant figure out the best program for the least amount. i cant afford to pay for medicare premiums plus,part d premiums plus a dental program plus a vision. i am finding it hard to work through all the different programs since i am not able to pay deductable for all the different coverages plus co-payments plus other proceedures. nor am i able to find my own place to lay my head down. i only get 604 a month when i use to get close to 2500 a month. i dont pay for food or rent or utilities but i hear about it every day. he says how lucky i am with him helping me as he does but he forgets that for the past 17 years i have supported him some in funds, some in mental and emotion support, encourging him to advance forward to better his own life and mental well being. but every time i tried to better my life he ruins it but in a way that no one can see it. so every one thinks i am lazy,leeching,good for nothing b---- who is a waste of good air.i have no family. nor friends that have room for me. so for now i must suck it up and deal.
so i dont have much wisedom in the area of where to look for halp with meds except as said before ppa, pharmecy personal,doctor/physicians assistant, nurse,nurse's aid,also most emergence personal knows who's who.
now here in austin texas we also have a number we may call for assistance in finding help. ours number is 211. maybe go through united way, shriner's, salvation army, and any other organizations in your area. also try looking it up in the phone book under social services,organizations,charities and so on.
i hope i have helped. i need to find someone to help me decipher medicares part d and all the lower cost dental programs. many blessings,
glenna

I was up to $300/mo for oxycontin at one point, but my answer is more in terms of life-cost of living in severe, intractable chronic pain, career wise it cost me a long-term career. The blessing and the curse is that my chronic pain ordeal is mostly over after an amazing procedure that was simple and cheap and took 4 days.

Many of the effects on my life remain. 12 years x 50k a year is over half a million dollars. I was a top-dog computer programmer during the dot.com boom, I was suffering and probably missed a zillion opportunities. I was able to struggle to work enough to not be eligible for any disability - yet no one could *see* my internal struggle. I had major medical insurance at first, but basically all my medical care for 12 years was lame, lame, lame. some 2 dozen doctors - nada.
I try to look at it philosophically, but I also realize that it happened and what the causes were and that it happened due to not only chronic pain, but moreso becuase noone in my famuly and medical support 'systems' could or would recognize the everity of it.

I'm not bitter, but it sounds that way to discuss it... hard to do so without it sounding that way. That kinda thing bums people out, but I know some of you have to deal with the same.. so out it came. I'll end with a big smile ;->

about $4000 a month in loss of earnings, my business, my mental health, and quality of life(priceless).
for medical expenses mostly covered, second rate help really. transport costs are my biggest burden these days.

Probably about $200 in copays for meds. This is does not include quality of life issues, what I have to hire someone to do that I used to do, or all of the other ephemeral stuff I took for granted while I was healthy.

used to spend $600.00 a month, then I started to cut back on certain things. That was a mistake! Walmart does have a list of generic that have a cost of $4.00 per script. I showed it to my dr and he has changed somethings to save me money. I just changed from relafen ( anti-inflamatory) which was $35.00 copay, to feldene $4.00 copay. I don't know if your walmart is doing this, but the ones in Missouri are, and Florida. Hope I have helped you.

It is time to contact the insurance ombudsman at your state capital and get him/her involved. Pain mgmt should be covered and your HMO is not doing right by you. Get them to intervene on your behalf. Usually a letter from them saying that you are seeking their help gets the HMO to start behaving.

Ouch

Well, now the insurance is not covering any more chiro. I'm not sure if it helped with the pain but definately range of motion in my neck. Today I needed about 5 trigger point injections. I'm not sure if I can get out of the cycle of pain and paying out the uno what trying to cope.

PS Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

It doesn't cost me anything now since i have Medicare. Previous to all this luxury that Social Security affords me.

I had my car repossessed
The house Pink and I raised our children in was repossessed.
I couldn't pay for my children's college like I promised I would.
I had to beg for food stamps a lousy 50 bucks a month for a family of four.
The State of California sued me for $3000 saying I wasn't disabled. They lost.
We used to be so ashamed of all the financial problems we couldn't go to visit friends near our old home.

To the better

The kids are wonderful adults.
Hey, I don't drive
We live in a wonderful home with a clubhouse and pool.
Our friends are still our friends.
We eat good now that it's just us we cook for. I love my fruits and veggies.

Things can get ugly, but if you hold it together, your life can improve, if I did it, anyone can. There is nothing special about me, I just finally got fed up and fought for myself.

Ouch