Since moving to Ohio five years ago, sometimes it seems like the cosmos is against me.  Not only did I suffer having a major university hospital lose all my scans, and then two weeks ago have incorrect dosages administered, plus myriad other little problems, but today, I got another slap in the face.  Last Tuesday, my oncologist called me and told me that my tumor markers were up and I needed to start on Abraxane, which I could start as early as Friday of last week,  "just as soon as your paperwork goes through insurance." 

My doc works in two other offices other than the one in which I see him.  I realized right after he called me that I forgot to ask him if I needed to have a port put back in (he had had my 9 year old port removed a couple of years ago).  So, I called his medical assistant and left a message.  I heard back from him when he went to my office again.  We talked about the port, and he said that my treatment was probably being hung up in insurance when I asked if he had any firm dates for me. 

Today I called back to get the details on my port and asked the person I spoke with where we were with the insurance.  She looked and said "Oh, it doesn't look like it has been submitted to your insurance yet."  !!!  I then called the medical assistant again to see if she could look into it, as I was pretty sure that that was the only way that the oncologist would ever learn of this screw up.  I then called my insurance company to see what was happening and the human resources person at my husband's work.  It's now after 5:00 pm and I'm still waiting to hear. 

This is frustrating as I certainly want to know when I'm going to start, and can get things set up for me (drivers at least for the first treatment until we know how I react to this).  I know that the only way that this will be resolved is to keep in touch, nicely and with no rants on my end, at least to the insurance and medical office, but I have to say, it is certainly frustrating.  I live near Dayton, a fairly large city, and I can only wonder at how people deal with things who live in areas which have even less coverage than I do.  It just shouldn't be this hard. This isn't a headcold but a second round with stage IV cancer.

Thanks for letting me rant, and hopefully, if you have a similar circumstance, perhaps you can know what to check for.  I have said over and over again, either we must be very pro-active in our treatment, or we need to get one of our friends (preferably someone who can stay neutral) to act as our medical advocate. 

Lisa Quintana

http://michigoose-longtermbcsurvivor.blogspot.com

Lisa Quintana