Wicked Bummah

In the mail on Saturday, mixed in with a whole bunch of catalogs, I got a letter from my prescription plan informing me that my appeal was denied. The plan specifies that they will not pay for pazopanib unless you have kidney cancer.

Wicked Bummah. (That's what Patsy and I came up with on the phone Saturday night to describe this new development. For those of you who can't hear my voice in your head, that would be "wicked bummer" or "very bad.")

I was pretty upset Saturday night. I had my heart set on what I assumed would have been easy chemo, based on the handout that they gave me at the clinic.  No injections, no nausea, no hair loss! But you know, I really have no idea if it would have been that easy -- or if it would have done any good at all.

I think part of my disappointment and unhappiness is just that I like to know what's coming up next, and I had thought that pazopanib was next. Now, I do not know what's next. Not knowing can be hard.

Just for the heck of it, at Lou's insistence, tomorrow I am going to call the specialty pharamacy to find out how much it would cost to get it anyway.  It's probably too expensive for us to pay for ourselves, but it can't hurt to ask.

Something else I was thinking about today: I really have excellent insurance, and they have paid for a lot of cancer treatment.  (I actually do not even want to know how much 5 different chemos plus fancy CyberKnife radiation plus all those CT Scans has cost.) So it's probably about time that they said no to something. 

I guess I need to call Dr R on Monday and see what comes next. Maybe we appeal again, or maybe we fall back on one of our other options. I don't really feel like listing my options for you right now. Suffice it to say, there are a couple of options.

I might chicken out and not make the call to Dr R on Monday. Thanksgiving is coming, and we would like to drive to Tallahassee to see Cindy, Mike, Brian, and Will. I would sort of like to hold off starting chemo till after that.

But I guess if I start thinking like that, then my next big idea might be to wait till the holidays are over. Start chemo in the New Year. Yeah! 

It's probably better to think about starting chemo sooner rather than later, so I can start killing some cancer cells sooner rather than later.