Friday, May 07, 2010

“Each of us may be sure that if God sends us on stony paths He will provide us with strong shoes, and He will not send us out on any journey for which He does not equip us well.” Alexander Maclaren

I guess it’s time for another update…actually I should have updated this sooner, but I didn’t know what to write. More about that later…

Let’s first go back to my consultation with the radiation oncologist…I had an appointment with her on April 26th. Basically, she took my history, did an exam and explained the radiation process and side effects to me. The plan is that I will receive radiation for six week….every week day, except holidays. The radiation sessions are not long, but I will have to go to Edmonton for them. This won’t happen until about four weeks after I have surgery.

On May 4th I had another appointment for blood work and an exam. My blood work came back good, it was back up to where it was supposed to be. I was scheduled to have my next chemo, the next day, but because of my infection, my PICC line was removed. My oncologist sent me to a chemo nurse to see what she thought of the possibility of getting my chemo through an I.V. The nurse looked at my veins, and determined that maybe she could get one treatment in, but there was no way she could get three in. (I need three more treatments.) My doctor then determined that I would need a central line inserted…it’s the same idea as a PICC line, but they put it through your chest. Of course this needed to be scheduled…so my chemo treatment for the next day was cancelled.

Also, because of my infection, my white blood cell count had gone down to basically nothing. My oncologist didn’t want to see this happen again, so she suggested that I have a prescription for Neulasta in the form of a needle that I give to myself 24 hours after my chemo treatments. This drug keeps your white blood cell count higher. It is also a very expensive drug…she said around $2,500 each. I understood I would need three….one after each of my chemo treatments. Of course, she wanted me to make sure that our insurance would cover this…which meant I would have to contact the insurance company to find out. Of course…that takes time too…the second reason my treatment for the next day was cancelled. So I went home on Tuesday, not having any appointments booked anymore, and not knowing when they would be booked.

I phoned the insurance company, and I was told I would need prior authorization for the Neulasta. Forms had to be filled in….I received the form, filled in my part and immediately faxed it to my oncologist so she could fill in her part. She had it faxed to the insurance company by the end of the day. Now we are waiting to hear back from the insurance company.

I did get a call today to book the insertion of the central line…I need to go to a teaching class on May 12th and my central line is scheduled to be inserted on May 13th. Yeah, progress! I also received a call from my doctor’s office, asking me to phone there as soon as I hear from the insurance company regarding the drug, and they would book my next chemo then.

Because of all this, when I had my appointment with the oncologist, she did give me the option of quitting the chemo. She said, because I had responded so well to the chemo, maybe I didn’t need more chemo…her advice was to continue with the treatments because she would rather over-treat than under-treat. I decided to go with her advice, and continue with the treatments.

Basically, that’s all the information I have for now…have a great weekend everyone!