So yesterday I got the good news that I was accepted into a patient program that will cover the cost of one of the chemos I am on. YAAAY!! Thank goodness, because my "insurance" company is saying that the drug is not proven to help my kind of cancer, so they aren't covering it. Right. Good reasoning there. Currently there aren't ANY protocols for Triple Negative cancer, so all we have are new approaches. By new I mean within the last 5 years...since 5 years is "new" to insurance companies they reason that they don't have to support a drug that MAY be doing good, because it MAY be doing harm. Dizzying isn't it?
Then 24 hours later I get the news that my "insurance" has officially DROPPED me from coverage, and is retracting coverage of all my treatments since October...which is a little funny because they weren't covering anything but radiation anyway, but still. My radiation bill could feed a small country for a year. Why you ask? Why can a company whose sole existence is to provide support to people in need would find a way to drop a member that is currently undergoing treatments for a serious illness? Well I'll tell you...a technicality of course. Some auditor found some paper that wasn't filed in a timely fashion, so my "insurance" has full legal ability to say that the "insurance" was never in place to start with. Nevermind that it took them 3 months to unearth this technicality. I'm sure some newbie accountant just got a big Christmas bonus for saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars on a "non ideal" member.
siiigh...not to worry. This, as with everything will be resolved one way or the other. Thankfully I will not be denied treatment in any way, and my dad and step-mom are working feverously to play at this paper pushing game. You think that when you get the news you have cancer, that must be the bottom of the barrel. Life can't get any worse, only to go up from there. Well, you go up, you go back down. Then you get kicked when you are down, and helped back up again, then you slip on a mossy rock and fall again, then you stick you hand in dog poo on your way to get up again, then you hit your head on a low hanging branch while you are up, then you notice an apple hanging on the low branch and sit down to take a bite while some fire ants crawl up your leg. But boy, is that apple good...and so is the worm you took a bite of that was living in the apple.
Not smooth sailing, but I can't question why these things happen, and I can't waste time getting angry when they do. I just have to look forward and work on how to get around these obstacles, and have a good time doing it.
love,
nise
About Us
- Nise and Brian
- Hilo, HI, United States
- Denise found a lump in her breast in Aug 2008, and was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer on 9/11/08. She went through 16 cycles of chemo, a lumpectomy, and radiation ending in June 2009. In July 2009 Denise was given the news that the cancer had metastasized to her bones and liver. New chemo was started Aug 2009, then radiation Dec 2009, but the cancer continues to spread through the liver and bones. Today Denise and Brian live in Denise's hometown of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii and live each day as it is the best day ever.