Serum Drops - Cost?

[shanku]

My local resource for serum drops preparation costs $315 ($40 for blood draw & serum preparation + $275 for eye drop preparation) for 12 days of supply(total 12 ml) of 80:20 concentration in 1mL vials. Is it in the range of what usually others are paying here in USA. Wondering if there is any cheaper alternative.

Thanks!

[PotatoCakes]

I pay about 175 for a 8-14 week supply (we've recently upped my concentration so I'm getting fewer bottles). The cost includes the blood draw and the preparation. The lab is in my community so I don't have shipping fees. It takes about 1-2 days for my drops to be ready for pickup after my draw.

[shanku]

Thanks! I would love to find that kind of arrangement/lab around here. How much blood you have to draw at one time to obtain that many weeks of supply? do you collect the blood over several days? For me, they currently draw blood for an amount of 3 blood collection tubes and prepare serum out of that. That way apart from expense, I have to repeat the process ever other week...not good. Does your medical insurance cover any part of it?

[Trac]

My serum is $200 for the blood draw, that was after a $50 discount. The blood gets drawn at the doctor's office. Then $17 per vial of serum regardless of the amount in the vial. Plus shipping. The first time it cost $500 for 13 weeks worth. The second time it was a little less because I got less vials. Now I have an insurance that covers the cost. I get 5 ml in a vial and each vial lasts 2 weeks, although the instructions say to throw it out after 7 days. I hate to do that and the doctor said if I was careful about keeping it cold it should be okay to keep longer than a week. But it seems to me that it works better the fresher it is, perhaps it is my imagination. When I first went up to 100% it felt great, almost like an ointment, now it does not feel like that. I would like to get less serum per vial and have it be fresher. Did you have to request 1 ml vials?

[PotatoCakes]

Trac - The doctors at the research hospital that I go to told me that serum seems to lose efficacy after 7 days once opened and approx 3 months when frozen so it would make sense that you wouldn't feel the effects as much.

My insurance does not cover the cost of serum drops. I get 10 vials of blood drawn, at 50% serum, I get about 13-14 bottles of drops (each bottle lasts about a week), at 75%, I get about 8-9 bottles. I drink a lot of water the days approaching my draw which increases the amount of serum in each vial drawn and it also supposedly makes it less painful and easier to draw blood. They draw 10 vials in one sitting and it goes pretty quickly -- I'm in and out of the facility in less than 30 minutes. They call the next day when the drops are ready and I usually have my drops before my daughter gets out of school.

[Trac]

PotatoCakes,
Thanks for the info. My new insurance takes 15 vials for the serum, plus I had two more vials drawn for tests. I felt light headed and drunk all day even after I ate. I did drink a lot of water before hand and the draw went very smoothly and I was done in 20 minutes. I was hoping that next time I could go during lunch and work the rest of the day, but now I am not sure I can do that. The time before when I had 13 vials drawn I almost passed out after the first 7, but I did tell them because I thought they might stop the draw and at $200 to draw the blood I did not want that to happen. I got 10 vials, 5 mL each, of 100% serum from the 15 vials of blood I had drawn. The blood has to be frozen and then shipped to Leithers in San Jose. It takes about 3 days to get the serum made and then they have to ship it to me and they will not ship it if there is not someone home. It is a complicated process, but so is dry eyes.

[shanku]

I felt light headed and drunk all day even after I ate.

I had a similar experience on my most recent serum drop blood draw. Blood draw amount was 140ml for serum prep. in 3 pricks; 12 ml of it got coagulated and had to be discarded. The serum from it was good for a 30 day supply of 80:20 drops.

From that night of the blood draw, I started feeling dizzy/headache/lightheaded and pain on my right hand where I had multiple pricks which continued next couple of days. I am under 150lbs and 5'5''. Ate and drank well couple of days prior to it. Not sure if drawing that much was a good idea. Probably I will not repeat that much blood draw at one time in future.

[Grace2]

eye drop make eye worse.

[PotatoCakes]

Grace2 - Serum drops are made of serum (from your own body) and saline (which your body also has). Unless there is a contaminent, there is no reason serum drops would make your eyes worse that I can tell.

Re: dizziness. Not sure why that would happen but I would ask your doctor. I'm quite thin at 5'7 and just over 110 pounds and have never had dizziness with my draws. I am terribly afraid of needles and have always kind of wished that I would pass out but generally the only things that happen are me getting nauseated or my veins collapsing. Thankfully, the nurses who have done my draws for my serum drops have been so great that neither of those things hve happened.