Weddingbee Blog

I have a confession to make.

Ever since our wedding, I have been a complete and utter emotional wreck. I thought maybe it was because I was coming down from the wedding planning high. Or perhaps it had to do with the stress of losing my job at 8:30 in the morning the day we returned from our honeymoon. Or quite possibly, it was a combination of the two.

But I had a feeling it was something else. Something felt really different.

Finally, today, I have an answer.

I have been using the generic form of Ortho-Tri Cyclen for years. It is called Tri-Sprintec - it comes in a yellowish blister pack and each week of pills is a different, darker shade of blue until the last week, which are white. Mr Corn and I have always joked that I am always my most emotional when I am on the dark blue pills.

Tri-Sprintec

Because I apparently didn’t have enough on my plate, and Murphy’s law being what it is, my prescription needed to be called in to the pharmacy again around the same time as our wedding. I was very proactive in making sure that this happened so that I could pick up a three month supply right before the wedding and not have to worry about running out during our honeymoon or anytime shortly thereafter when I would be in the midst of the name change/insurance change process.

I picked up my prescription just before leaving to go to Newport and it wasn’t until I got down there that I realized that the pill pack looked different. The blister pack was greenish and all the pills were blue except for the last week. Also, it was called Sprintec, not Tri-Sprintec. I called my Doctor’s office and a nurse there suggested that it wasn’t something they were aware of and that I should contact the pharmacist. So I called the pharmacist and spoke with a younger sounding male who assured me that there was no real difference between the two.

I have been taking the Sprintec ever since. I realized the other day that the sadness and moodiness and depression I have been experiencing matches what I used to feel on my worst days on the Tri-Sprintec… but I was feeling this way throughout the month. I mentioned this to Mr Corn, and he suggested we start to consider other birth control options, since we assumed that the Tri-Sprintec no longer existed and was replaced by Sprintec.

In the meantime, I realized yesterday that I was about to run out of the Sprintec, so I called the pharmacy to set up a pickup. A few hours later, the pharmacist (a woman, this time) called me because my insurance had changed (I am now on Mr Corn’s plan). Since I had her on the phone, I asked her if she knew if there was a difference between the two.

And you know what? THERE IS!!! She immediately told me that there is a difference in the hormone levels in the two packs and that some women take the Tri-Sprintec because the regular Sprintec affects them too much emotionally!

In the end, I had to contact my doctor, have them call in a new, CORRECT prescription and then go and pick it up. It turns out, my doctor was out the day I called to have the prescription refilled right before the wedding, so another doctor called it in incorrectly. But I would have just continued to take the wrong thing, thinking there were no other alternatives, if the pharmacy hadn’t called because my insurance had changed.

I figured I would share this tale on Weddingbee for two reasons. First, because when I tried to look up information on the difference between Sprintec and Tri-Sprintec I couldn’t find anything, so I figured maybe this would help someone else who has experienced this. Secondly, because this entire situation got me thinking about how getting married requires so much more thought and consideration in other areas of our lives than is ever posted or written about in the magazines.

Odd as it sounds, part of our planning for the wedding included figuring out when my period was going to be and then choosing our wedding date and planning our honeymoon around it (in the end, I just ended up shifting my period by a week by taking an extra week between packs). I also had to plan ahead to have my prescriptions all in order so that I had time when I got back to change my name and insurance information and didn’t have to deal with a lag in my prescriptions.

But I know I can’t be the only person who has had to deal with all of this. What are some of the things that you have had to plan for that aren’t covered on The Knot or in Martha Stewart weddings? Any tips to share with the readers?