Round 2 ICE treatment days 1 and 2

Sorry for the delay in getting an update out for day 1 of this treatment round. As it turned out, things got going very late in the day yesterday, in fact, I was not in a hospital room until after 4 pm. Then today was full of computer issues that have shown its really time for a new laptop PC.

Anyway, here is the news, first off after several phone calls and quite a bit of waiting, we have learned that this round of ICE is approved and will be covered, hence that's why I am here (in the hospital). The big issue has to do with our first round of the ICE treatment. As it turns out that first hospital visit and treatment never did get authorized. It is still a mystery as to how the hospital did not notice that there was no auth: but that has to do with the first round which was in 2011 and observably we are now in 2012. We learned that my insurance has changed their contracting/approval company. So the first company (2011) says this procedure is experimental and is not covered in my plan. While the second company (2012) needed a bit more documentation from the doctor, but was OK and understands the medical necessity for the procedure. In fact, there records do no even show ICE as an experimental treatment. In the end, we still need to work with getting payment for the first round but at least we will have something to stand on. It just doesn't make sense- if one pays, why wouldn't the other?

I know this has been 2 post with a lot of ranting about insurance, but its what has been going on. The chemo stuff has actually been easier than dealing with insurances and doctor offices. Now as far as this ICE treatment goes... We once again got off to a late start. With not getting a hospital bed till after 4, I knew things would be getting started late, but I would not have expected the first drop of chemo to not start until midnight. Its not like you have places to be or really things to do, but this is not a treatment that they just put on autopilot. Remember its midnight and all you want to do is get some sleep. The treatment requires a lot of nurse intervention. Things start with a 15 min IV bag of premeds, followed by 1 hour of chemo. This dose of chemo must be watched very closely as it can lower your blood pressure to dangerous levels. So every 15 minutes they stop in to check you blood pressure. Once the chemo is done they hook you up with a IV fluids that must run continuously for the remainder of your stay. The great news is that these additional fluids are just enough to fill you bladder every 2 hours, thus you are up for a quick trip to the bathroom just as you begin REM sleep. Oh they also stop by to draw blood at 4AM every night so that the results will be available for any early doctor rounds. All in all, I got about 4 hours of sleep and never more than an hour at a time. Aren't hospitals fun? To end this, I will say that I am doing OK and am happy to say that my body is handling things well, all good news.