May 13, 2006
Away with the twice daily self applied injections of blood thinner! Hallelujah! (Four Coumadin pills after supper instead) Away with the extra injection of Aranesp! Hallelujah! (Latest blood draw had my Hematocrit reading above 40) Amen and Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
Yesterday was the bone marrow aspiration day, and we were in the oncologist’s office by nine AM. I prepared for the event by ingesting two Oxycodone tablets, so by the time I arrived, a mellowness was settling around the edges. In addition, I was given Ativan under the tongue and a Demerol injection in my left hip. All of the above meant that the bone marrow aspiration was barely noticeable except for thumps against the hip and a twinge or two that went down the leg. I had to be wheel-chaired out to the car, and the rest of the day passed in a stupor. This AM I am back on the planet with small wisps of unclear thinking. (I see nerve synapses reaching out and not quite making the connection and subsiding with an “ah well, better try again later”). Now we wait a week for the readings taken on the bone marrow, and at that time we will find out the status of the disease. Such questions as “Did the chemotherapy actually assist the white blood cells to mature?” and “Are there more blasts than ever?” will be answered. We have been looking forward to these answers for quite some days, since it makes a landmark statement regarding the future.
A story about drugs: Last week, I ran out of the anti-nausea pill Zofran, which if you recall, costs almost $40.00 a pop. We had been getting 12 pills at a time from the local pharmacy for a payment of $40.00, but this time, since it was the sixth pharmacy renewal, Charles was told that after five refills, the secondary insurance no longer covered, so the cost would be $212.00, or half, for the twelve tabs. Neither ourselves nor the pharmacist knew about the cut-off time prior to this date. It was suggested that in order to receive a better deal on the Zofran, we immediately get our doctor to fax the order to ExpressScripts, our company that provides the long term drugs via the mails. We did this, of course, and yesterday I received the information that 180 pills of Zofran would be arriving in the next few days. (Probably should be by armored car rather than by UPS) The cost to us would be 45.00. A tiny bit of math says that we save $3523.00 while dealing with exactly the same drug. There surely are murky waters in which all this money flows; one can but hope that it is purchasing someone something useful and fine.