Flexibility

It appears that one must remain flexible in getting treatment for cancer. Our instructions were to come to M. D. Anderson every evening at 7:00 pm for an infusion of Ambisome, an anti-fungal medicine. The process would take about 3 hours each time.

But everything has to be pre-approved by our insurance or there is a chance I would have to pay the full amount for the treatment. So we started following up on the pre-approval process Thursday afternoon. The person helping us was on top of it, and submitted request right away. On Friday afternoon, the person helping us called and said that the request was sent for investigation by the insurance company, but Friday was a holiday so everyone was out of the office. Therefore no approval would come before Monday. We started calling everyone we could think of to get help. Finally we called the nurses station in the ward where I had been for the last three weeks. They knew how to get in touch with a doctor. They called back in a few minutes and said the doctor had ordered a pill to be taken orally, that insurance would definitely pay for it, and we could pick it up at the M. D. Anderson pharmacy. We drove up to the hospital and picked up the pills, and went by the place I was to take the infusions and told them I would not be coming in for any of the appointments they had me scheduled for.

This method of treatment may not be as effective as the infusions, but it surely is more convenient. Now I take a pill in about 5 seconds instead of driving, infusing, and driving for about 4 and 1/2 hours. We should find out Wednesday when I finally see the clinic doctor how much damage has been done by this change, but I an expecting there to be NO damage. I think the doctors were just being very cautious. We shall see.

At any rate, one must remain flexibile. Monday I will have some blood tests to see how my counts are doing. In the meantime, I am doing some walking, and trying to get back to a more normal life. It sure is nice to walk from one room to another. We are really enjoying visiting with Tinker and Betty.

God is good.