It has been a very full and confusing week, where we ended up wasn't very close to where we started, but everything usually happens for a reason and so all this did too.
On Monday we traveled to Coral Canyon and spent the night, then we went to my appointment on Tuesday morning. Every thing happened pretty much like we thought it would. Dr. Te talked to us and we were informed I would be changing to the Revlimid medication. He also decided that because of changing it was time to do another bone and marrow biopsy to see what was really happening inside of me and it would give a good baseline for the progress of the Velcade and now the Revlimid. So we coordinated with Christi, Dr. Te's medical assistant to schedule the bone biopsy for next Monday and waited for the Pharmacy to call us about getting the Revlimid shipped to us. And then everything changed again.
We headed back for Vegas and got home in good time. I got a call from Christi letting me know the good news and the not so good news. The good news - my insurance will cover 80% of the cost of the Revlimid (there was debate whether they would). The not so good news - each cycle is 21 pills and they cost about $360 each for a prescription co-pay of around $1500 each month. She let me know the Pharmacy together with some cancer funds have access to some programs to help pay that but that it might take a few days to get everything sorted out. So a while later Dr. Te called and let me know he had talked to Dr. Petersen in Salt Lake and they both decided it would be better if I didn't go another week without any treatment at all - It had been my week off the week previous. So we scheduled a quick trip to St. George for Thursday to get a Velcade treatment since his office was closed on Friday in honor of Pioneer Day.
I got a call on Wednesday from the Pharmacy to verify the information that Christi had told us about the price of the Revlimid and she told me someone else from her company would be calling me to get information so they could submit my case to one of the cancer funds to see if we could get some assistance with the co-pay. This should happen sometime Thursday or Friday.
Thursday morning we got up, Patty had some work things she had to do until 9:30 or 10:00 so after that we headed for St. George. When we got up there, I decided I needed some food on my stomach before the treatment so we stopped into a place to eat. While there, I got a call from the Pharmacy to get my information to submit to the cancer funds to get the assistance. The lady sounded pretty confident that we would be getting some good help, so I gave her the information and we are suppose to hear by Monday whether or not we get the assistance. Thank goodness for my Canseco supplemental insurance, it will help with anything that doesn't get covered by the assistance.
We went to treatment and everything was good. They started asking about my schedule next week. I mentioned that it would be good if I could have the treatment on the same day as the biopsy (Monday) because Patty had some work she needed to do on Tuesday. They started working that out, but they finally figured out that somewhere Dr. Te had canceled the biopsy for Monday, he wasn't in the office right then, so we couldn't ask him why, but we will ask on Monday during treatment when or if the biopsy will be re-scheduled.
So, just to keep it straight in my own mind, we'll go to St. George Sunday evening to get labs done and then do a Velcade treatment Monday morning. Then sometime Monday or Tuesday we should get the word on the assistance and get the Revlimid shipped to me. I don't know when it will get here, so I'll go back up Thursday evening, get labs done and then on Friday have a Velcade and Arida (the bone medicine) treatment and then sometime after that begin the 28 day cycle (21 on - 7 off) of the Revlimid.
I've been feeling very good the last few days since all the medications are pretty much out of my system, so we've enjoyed that, but now were back on treatment and looking forward (being sarcastic) to everything that goes with that. I hope everyone has a good Pioneer Days weekend and is safe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment