4/22/2010 In, out, in and then out of DRMC ?

Thursday morning, Dr. Te came by to tell us the news, the biopsies were confirmed, I definitely have Multiple Myeloma, the most painful part was him taking the bandage off my hip to look at the biopsy location (hairy back). He had some good news, the only bone damage they had been able to find in the X-Rays and the CT Scan was a couple of small holes in my T-9 vertebrae. We talked about how the treatment would go forward and they started making plans to switch us over the Multiple Myeloma program that is up to the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. The case workers had supposedly called and it would be covered under my insurance. Then he left for a minute, when he came back, he had got us cleared to go to Huntsman and were were just working on the logistics of how to get there. He then told us we had to do something that seemed a little weird at the time, but still being in shock, we did it. They told us to temporarily leave the hospital to go the the office of Dr. Ahee an Ophthalmologist so that he could check the pressure in my eyes, from talking to Josh later, we figured that if too much protein had spilled, some could have made to the eyes causing potential eye sight problems. We went over there and found that everything with my eyes were OK.

On the way back to the hospital we stopped and got some lunch.

When we got back they were working on getting us discharged, it got pretty crazy during this time, I think we went from being life flighted to being sent home and multiple other types of transportation in between a couple of times. They brought in the discharge paperwork that had us released to Huntsman's care and we were suppose to get a call from them within a couple of hours. Then just as we were about to leave, they came back in to say we couldn't go to Huntsman, it wasn't on our insurance. The case worker down the hall came in and verified she had called, I then started calling my insurance and confirmed the Huntsman Cancer Institute was not on my provider list. I think the confusion lies with the fact that Huntsman is also in partnership with IHC hospitals for some cancer treatment centers, but the actual Cancer Institute is associated with the University of Utah Medical Center. That is when the final decision was made to pursue the treatment at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. They have a very similar program to Huntsman that has been going for just about the same length of time with very similar results.

We called mom and dad and told them not to come to the hospital, as we would be leaving soon - although due to problems, it was longer than we thought it would be. We made arrangements for them to meet us at Coral Canyon later that day.

At this time we still thought we would be leaving for Salt Lake either Friday morning or the following week to begin the out patient procedures that had been discussed with us when we were still going to Huntsman. That too was changing, when I talked to Dr. Te again, he said we would be going to do all of the out patient procedures with his office in St. George, he talked a little about it, but said that we'd meet at his office the following Tuesday morning at 9:00 to begin. We left the hospital and went back to Coral Canyon. A while later we got a call from Dr. Te's office for us to come by his office on Friday to get the insurance started and authorized so we could be ready for Tuesday.