When her treatment plan was first given out the doctor gave us a hand out - a flowchart - with a right and left side. Kind of one of those in magazines where if you answer "yes" then you follow this arrow and "no" you follow that arrow. Well, in this flow chart you always want your arrow to follow the left-side of the page. That's the half of the page that you follow when you're responding to treatment well and it's the less aggressive side with the best results.
She's finished the first leg of treatment - that first crucial month - and been able to stay on the "left side of the page". They wanted her bone marrow to be producing 0% leukemic cells at this point - she's producing 1% but that still keeps her within expected range.
Now she starts the second leg - starting today the chemo doesn't include Prednisone but they are adding the drug that makes you really nauseated and dehydrated. So her moon face and some of the anger will subside over the next couple of weeks but she'll be sick alot more. There are no good side effects to any of this.
Some good finacial news - her dad had gotten laid off this past year and kept his insurance coverage with Cobra, he recently found another job with insurance and had sent in his Cobra letter ending coverage. They never received it. So she has primary and secondary insurance. So even though the insurance companies are fighting about who's primary in the long run the treatment will pretty much be covered. In addition, mom had taken out an Aflac cancer rider on herself this past year, she figured since she's a smoker it wouldn't hurt. She just found out that when she did that they automatically put her kids on it also. So she will get a large check with the initial claim and they will pay 900.00 for every chemo treatment. She's very relieved because she can hire a tutor for Kayla while she's out of school for these first 6 months. And even though everyone would wish that none of this had to be considered good news or needed it sure is a weight off both of their shoulders. Now they can just focus on Kayla and not worry about the mounting bills.
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6 comments:
Tummy: That is good news. My thoughts are with you all.
Great news about the insurance. FYI: I know this is probably all overwhelming right now, but the Aflac plan is a very good cancer plan, especially for long hospital stays and bone marrow transplants, etc. I could scan and email you a copy of my brochure. Maybe you could look through it and help her with questions, etc. There is another payment that comes when you have a bone marrow transplant - like $10k maybe? Plus, I think they pay the donor maybe. And if she is in the hospital, that's another separate amount. It doubles if you're in the hospital more than 30 days, etc.
Did she already have the bone marrow or is she getting it?
Boo - she'll only get a bone marrow transplant if all else is failing. A transplant for this type of leukemia basically just buys the pt time so we're hopeful that it's never needed.
Thank you for the offer. Do you have my email address. I think that one of her HR people are helping her with all of that but you can't ever have too much info.
Wow-what great news! Again, all "best possible scenarios." She'll greatly benefit from having a tutor.
Oh, good news, Tummy! I sure hope she continues to respond well to all her treatments, however unfun those treatments are.
So glad to hear this, Tummy. I hope she handles the next phase of treatment well and doesn't suffer too much from the nasty side effects. It's nice to get good news about insurance, too.
I'd think that the local school district would provide a home teacher free of charge.
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