Updates

When the first group from Katrina was still here I had an appointment with my oncologist. At that time he told me there is a chemo drug (avastin) used for colon cancer that has recently been found to be effective in preventing the recurrence of cancer in breast cancer patients such as myself that are not HER2 positive. This is good news as there really hasn't been an adjuvant therapy for us hormone negative gals. The catch? Not FDA approved for breast cancer, just yet. He told me to see if my insurance would pay and if not we'd have to decide what to do.

Long story short, insurance co. said no. We decided we'd have to pass and planned to have the taxotere as scheduled. When we showed up for the chemo, all pre-medicated, he said perhaps he could, with the assist of the hospital pharmacist, convince the insurance company to pay or short of that, get the pharmaceutical company to supply the drug. This is what is so frustrating about this doctor. While I appreciate the extra effort, why in the world does he let me pre-medicate, take off from work and drive to Shreveport thinking I'm going to have chemo and then tell me to wait and let him try to get approval? He couldn't have told me before this that he might be able to secure the drug?

And communication with him isn't getting any better. When, in an effort to clarify what he was saying, I repeated his suggestion that the insurance might pay after all, even though they had turned me down, he took my question as refusing the new treatment. I resisted the urge to yell at him and maybe pop him on the top of his little head, even though he was asking for it. I find myself taking deep breaths before speaking to him.

The good news is the pharmacist was able to convince the insurance company to approve payment for the new med by sending them the literature supporting use of avastin for breast cancer patients. Basically, if they pay for this drug now, maybe they won't have to pay for more treatment later.

Okay, so the following week I had the two treatments together. And tomorrow I'll have another one. I believe I already talked about my reaction to it and there's no reason to rehash that.