Family and Friends, Sorry it's been 10 days since my last post. Things here have been hectic but good. The good news first - Bob has been doing fantastic on his blood counts - White blood and platlets are back in normal ranges and his hemoglobin is at 9.6 which is pretty high for him. Bob has been very tired and spends most days sleeping on the couch. We are working with his doctor on tweaking his pain medication which causes him to twitch -especially at night when he gets tired. They are trying to wean him off the pain patches first. Bob is still having issues with his tracheotomy site. At one point it looked like it was getting better, then we decided it would be a good idea put neosporin on it, and now it's getting worse. While Bob is in the hospital next Monday for his next round of chemo, they are going to have the surgeon look at it. I don't know how well that's going to go seeing as Bob won't let them look up his nose to get to his throat, but we'll see.
I'm still fighting for Bob to get long term disability. They have approved it finally after a month, but won't disperse until I get a letter from one of his doctors from 2008 stating he was receiving muscle relaxers for his back pain and not for cancer. It's just ridiculous. In addition, I received a phone call last week from Bob's work advising me that they laid off Bob. THANK GOD my company offers domestic partner medical and dental benefits, or Bob would be screwed. Cobra wanted almost $600 a month for medical alone. In addition, Bob has racked up over $1,000,000 in medical costs (yep, that's a Million with a capital M!) It's pretty screwed up- the insurance company tells you that you have a $5k co-pay, but then once you've reached that then they tell you they'll only pay 90%. So Bob's portion of the medical bills for the last 4 months is $100,000 out of pocket. Nice. I think we're better off living in Canada or Switzerland or something, but Bob won't have any of that. Sorry for the complaining, but it gets very frustrating fighting with these companies. At least Bob has Aetna now. I'm hoping they are much better.
Please continue to keep Bob in your thoughts and prayers. He'll be in the hospital Monday October 26 and get out on Halloween afternoon - just in time to watch Christopher trick or treat!!
Love and thanks,
Michele
PS. I'll make sure to post some pictures of Bob soon.
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I'm so overjoyed to hear that you made it through this round without incident. God is good!!! Yay! :)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you are still struggling with LTD--it's so ludicrous. For what it's worth, I have had Aetna before, during, and after treatment. For the total 2008 calendar year, my AML hospital expenses were $1.65M, and I only paid a little over $3800 out-of-pocket. Maybe that can be a ray of sunshine that brighter financial days are ahead. I actually just talked to Aetna the other day about a sticky point, and they assured me that they never deny coverage for any "pre-existing conditions" situations. Assuming that your policy is similar through your employer, I would guess that you will both be pleased with the coverage for the duration of Bob's treatment.
I am in the middle of a campaign for LLS, but, as my energy permits, I'd love to organize some kind of specific fundraiser to help with Bob's expenses (if you wouldn't mind). It probably wouldn't be until after the first of the year, as I'm still in recovery from my own complications, but I'd very much like to help. I give thanks everyday that I had the insurance that I did, and I like to give back in any way that I can.
Best wishes on Round #3--focus on that finish line!!!