This month's scan survey says...

If you are keeping up with the class readings, you know that Wednesday was scan/ check up day at MD Anderson and you'd be much better at keeping up than are my students in my class. We flew into Houston late Tuesday night and were up at 5 am to get to my 6:15 scan. Of course, when we got there we found out that there was a flag on my account that was ambiguously related to the insurance approval. I had received a letter a day or two before we went that said the MRI was pre-approved. Of course, I forgot to take it with me because I assumed that MDA would also have been notified. I was wrong, as not only did they not have the pre-approval letter, the insurance was also claiming that there was no referral from my PCP. When BCBS took over as the overseer for the state of Texas medical insurance, I was required to have my PCP give another referral for MDA. This was done and I have not had any trouble from January until this week. So why did the insurance claim there was no referral? I have no idea. Luckily, I have the best PCP ever and we were able to find him via telephone and he immediately had his people make the necessary referrals. MDA did the scan because they could see that the insurance has been covering me for all of 2018. Of course, since BCBS has outsourced their claims department and the claims department has been rejecting approximately 80% of claims (even after the medical side pre-approves procedures and tests), I'm sure the claim will be rejected when they get it. I still haven't seen any payments for the proton therapy even though we have plenty of evidence in both writing and recorded conversations that those procedures were all approved. Since claims won't pay anything, I can't get reimbursed for the cash I laid out. I guess the strategy is to hang on to the money for as long as possible. This is fine because after I've gone to the media, I will just make sure my attorney sues for lost interest, stress to a cancer patient, and consulting fees for my time writing up my insurance appeal. Has no one told these people to never mess with a smart, determined person with little to lose?! 

While waiting for the hospital to work out how to get the scan going, I was sent to the blood lab. I made Jason walk up 7 flights of stairs, only to find out that they've moved the blood draw lab to the second floor. It used to be on the second floor but they moved it temporarily (maybe a year) to remodel the original space. I assume that I will still walk up the 10 floors every time until I finally start remembering that they've moved permanently to the second floor. Any bets on how long it will take me to get that right? 

Our next stop was Brain and Spine to see Dr. No Naps. We met a new medical student and a fellow that we'd never met. The fellow laughed at all of my jokes, had several hilarious jokes of his own, and I think if there wasn't an ethical issue we'd all be pretty good friends. When he was asking me mini mental status questions, I just belted out, "I'm not answering the president question. I don't want to think about it!" He stated that he gets variations of that answer all the time. 

Somehow the scan and the blood work results were already in the computer, which rarely happens when things are delayed. Blood numbers were a little droopy, and by that I mean they were down some from the last blood draw. Weirdly, my white blood cells have been so consistently low that I should be extremely susceptible to illness. However, I've not even had as much as a cold or a rash in all of the months that I've had these issues. I'm still going to be careful but I'm starting to think that this is my superpower, the ability to stay healthy with zero immune system. Also, my platelets were a bit lower than last time but not so low that I will bleed to death unless that's the intention. I don't expect anyone to have that goal anytime soon.

Concerning the scan, We were told that the two spots that were radiated are still there, although they are stable and there is little to no radiation inflammation. Stable is good news, it means that any bad cells in there are not taking over or propagating. I did expect to hear that there was some radiation damage, but if it is there it wasn't obvious on the scan. Another super power? The ability to transform the brain into a radiation processing machine! Jason teased the doctors that they "missed."  

Sometimes at night I meditate on how the body can heal itself. I realize that meditation didn't seem to help with getting the white blood cells up, but maybe I was doing it all wrong. After all, I'm new at this Zen Buddhism thing. Maybe I just suck at it. I suppose there's a reason it's called "practice." I will keep trying.

We got out of there in record time, picked up my chemo, and got to the airport early enough to fly back to Lubbock. So happy to be able to get back to work and close out the semester. I also look forward to spending some time with my boys before going back in a few weeks to find out what's next. For now I am going to take chemo at home 5 days, then be off for 23 days, then take it for 5 days, off for 23 days, etc., until they decide to try something else. The day before my appointments on Wednesday, I got a call from a clinic I'd never heard of that turned out to be a clinic in charge of various clinical trials. The woman said they couldn't get an appointment for Wednesday but they could talk to me on Thursday. I just didn't feel like I could turn things around that quickly and I didn't want to cancel my flight since Aidan is about to go on a school trip. Therefore, it was decided that I will go talk with them the next time I have a check up. Unfortunately, we have no idea yet what clinical trials they might have for me. Likewise, we have no idea when I will go back for my next check up and/or scan.

For now I will just take the chemo pill and keep doing what I've been doing. I will enjoy being with Jason, Aidan, Pancake, and Colonel. OK, maybe I miss Colonel less than the other three when I'm gone, but I can't really leave him out. He can't help it if he's the dumbest dog that ever lived. He was probably born that way. Do they have an IQ test for dogs? This is a dog who can't find a way into his kennel if it's moved into a different orientation than he's used to. He also runs off randomly and never finds his way home and he reacts like he's under attack when any other animal wants to play. Pancake has at least 50 IQ points on his older canine brother. It must be a lonely place in Colonel's head.

Hopefully we will know soon when I go back to Houston. I hope to see the neuro-opthamologist when I'm there next so that I can get the ugly glasses. I'm tired of running into strangers, walls, door jams, and metal poles. I'm tired of not being able to find things and doubting my ability to be sure whether it's not there or if I'm just missing it. I'm tired of having to reread words and sentences because I missed letters and/or words on the left. I'm tired of no one trusting me to drive. I mean, come on. Being able to see is a prerequisite to driving, apparently. Since when are my husband and friends such rule followers? I hang out with a bunch of killjoys!