Health Update #33: Insurance Snafu, etc.

Some of you received text updates and will be familiar with the struggles over the last month, so possibly nothing new. Basically, we're doing ok, taking one step at a time. 

June was a long month.  Corrine and I finally got back to Chicago from Louisiana after delays over 24 hours, multiple airports, and an overnight stay in Atlanta. 

In terms of treatment, unfortunately, there was an insurance snafu and I am temporarily not covered for treatment in Illinois. I had to cancel all upcoming appointments at Northwestern. Corrine spent a lot of time on the phone with Priority Health and Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Financial Services at Northwestern and HR at OU and finally worked out a one-time exception for the pain pump surgery at Northwestern; I was not able to work out exceptions for further chemo at Northwestern or palliative care or radiation or pain doc treatment despite her best efforts and hours upon hours on the phone. Priority Health is claiming primary provider-ship and declined out of state coverage. BCBS as secondary provider can’t cover it if PH declines So I am back in Michigan until I can get my retirement pushed through and drop PH as a provider. It's ok, though. We can get similar care in Michigan within an hour drive through Corewell health where I started. They've been very helpful to accommodate. 

Luckily, the pain doc waived fees for my post-surgery follow-up and my former oncologist in Reed City has agreed to expedite the same chemo treatment as NW would have proved -- weekly infusions of Gemcitabine. We’ll talk about radiation to that shoulder metastasis this week and hopefully start 5 days of radiation on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, I had surgery to install the pain pump and while I expect to get much relief from that, for now I’ve had such an excruciating spinal headache and nausea afterwards that I can’t quite get out of bed or do anything much, even texting, but put myself to sleep with pain meds. I’m starting to pull out of it and hopefully be back to normal or better soon.. My first round of chemo was rough, but we managed those side effects in the second round with anti-nausea drugs and steroids and are continuing with similar meds that combat side effects.

We drove back to Ludington and it was a pretty rough ride. But I went in for bloodwork and wasn’t too debilitated. We drove bach to Chicago afterward for the post-op consult on Wednesday about the pain pump surgery, grand baby time over the 4th of July holiday, then back this week nto Ludington for more chemo -- probably in Ludington the rest of July and maybe later. The headaches I've been having are slowly getting better. 

In family news, Mom was transferred by ambulance to a facility near New Orleans so that she could go through diagnostics in a center near Mandeville, but while staff was kind and helpful, there really wasn't much that they could do for her there because of possible disease and metastasis. Mom’s back at home in Monroe now in a hospital bed on the back porch  so she can watch the hummingbird feeder. Gus trimmed the hedges so she could see better. She seems happy by all reports and, but unsure of where she is much of the time. In end-of-life care most likely. She could have days,  maybe weeks, or possibly longer. Dad's been taking good care of her -- reading to her and playing guitar for her now and then. 

New news: We’ve only told a few people, but Corrine had a colonoscopy a few weeks ago and was diagnosed with colon cancer. There’s no evidence of metastasis so far, which is good news. Corrine is having colectomy surgery on July 14th where they will remove some of her colon and resection it, so we’re working on a lot of logistical challenges with both of us in treatment at the same time.  We'll know more about staging after the surgery and biopsy. The CT scan came back as malignant but so far no metastasis. If it's stage 1, it has a very good prognosis -- 90% 5-year survival rate. 

It'll be hard to be away during Corrine's treatment. For now we're in separate cities, but as she's discharged next week, she'll have Connie, Catherine, and Donna around to help take care of her while she recuperate. She's asked for no visitors during her hospital stay and will travel to Ludington once she's recuperated enough to make that trip and stay here through the following couple of months at least while she continues to recuperate at home on leave. 

The lake house is a nice respite. My headaches have subsided a bit and the house is peaceful and I've been able to drive myself to appointments so far. It's actually easier to drive than ride with the headaches. It allows me to sit upright and crack my neck every few minutes and let driving be a welcome distraction.

So, that's the status quo for now. I'm looking forward to Rebecca and Cornelia come up to visit this weekend. Hopefully there will be good food and possibly some time on the water.