ICE treatment round 2 (delayed)

Well it has been a fun day (not really)! The issue this time has to do with insurance and authorization for the chemo treatment. As of yesterday, my insurance has notified us (via snail mail) that I am not authorized for this type of service and that they will not be covering my PREVIOUS hospital stay and chemo. Needless to say, we went into overdrive today trying to figure out what was going on. Seeing that I was supposed to return for my second round of ICE today, we wanted to get some answers before we got into even more insurance woes. So after several calls to my insurance company, may case worker (provided by my insurance), the hospital and a visit to the doctor office (with both the doctor and the financial office) we have a bit more confidence that this is all just an insurance hoop that needs to be JUMPED through. My case worker is trying to get the necessary documentation from the doctor to justify the services and help me get the authorization approved for tomorrow. It is not like this is a new treatment: ICE has been around at least since 2004 and its not like we have an option here. According to Dr. H and Dr. S (from Mayo Clinic,) I need this treatment in order to get ready for the transplant. So we have rescheduled for tomorrow and will hope for the best with the insurance.

As long as I have your attention, I should give a bit of an update. Last week really went well. Every day I felt better / stronger, my blood counts have been increasing steadily. We even added daily neupogen shots to help boost the growth of my bone marrow (which in turn boosts the blood count numbers). The only issue had to do with the last neupogen shot. To prove that I do not understand everything medical, the issue seems to stem from me missing taking Claritin (allergy medication). For some unknown (but well documented) reason, claritin helps with side-ffects from the neupogen shots. I quickly learned how much it helped as I couldn't even sleep Friday night. I just had a constant pain in all my joints and bones. You see the neupogen can cause such a rush of marrow growth that it literally pours out form your bones. As you might imagine, it really is not a pleasant experience, the Claritin was a life saver, but I just didn't know it. All in all, the pain lasted for about 24 hours. I am fine now, but I WILL NOT forget the Claritin even again!! To end on a positive note, I can report that I was able to go in to the office for a few hours today. It was not much but it was nice to see everyone and be back my desk.