Updates, Thank Yous, and More Insurance News!

So, first of all, let me just say how overwhelming and humbling it has been to have so many people stepping up to help us financially. We hope that we won't need it and will be able to return it, however, it gives us such peace of mind to know that we have such a nice starter fund in just 24 hours! What amazing and generous friends and family we have! 

Secondly, we are hoping the donations will all be returned after the insurance and the state choose to do the right thing. A well connected friend gave us some advice on who to contact and how to proceed. We need to focus on contacting some key individuals: 1) Chancellor Duncan 2) local state representatives 3) the ERS board of trustees. The ERS board of trustees can be found here: https://www.ers.state.tx.us/About_ERS/Board/Overview/. There may be some names that some of my colleagues recognize. If you scroll down to the list and click on the names, you get a full bio. If any of you know any of these people, please consider asking them to talk with us about my situation. These people seem to be key in changing the master insurance plan for state employees. We were also told that media and social media are our friends. We've already posted a few things on social media. I'm holding off a bit on traditional media because I want to see if my direct approach serves us better for now. As a marketer I know how to use media to my advantage and I think I should allow the state some time to do the right thing before going on full aggressive attack.

Now, for a treatment update. The chemo pill is going well. Each evening I eat something, then a bit later I take my nausea pill. At some point later, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour later, I take 3 chemo pills. Then I usually sit up reading for a bit and then go to sleep. I've done 4 nights of the chemo routine with no issues. Again, this could change but for now all is going well. The proton therapy resumes today at 2 PM. Mom & I were up bright and early for labs at 7:15 that actually never happened, then ate at the MDA cafeteria, then showed up for my proton therapy at 10 AM as instructed. The labs never happened due to some mix ups with the new medical records system. The proton center had an equipment issue earlier today that led to a backup of patients so instead of waiting an hour, we just let them reschedule me for 2 PM. The new medical records system is called Epic and it is causing all kinds of issues. Therefore, we are referring to these glitches as the "Epic Fail," which the administrative staff and nurses love! The Epic implementation has definitely thrown MDA into a tailspin and yet the staff are able to roll with it and remain pleasant. I'm pretty sure if this were happening at Rawls people would be throwing chairs down the hallway in full blown Bobby Knight style!