Monday, April 28, 2008

Simple Miracles............

After my last entry about the miracle help in getting my chemo, I just wanted to share a few more miracles that have happened to me since being diagnosed. Having the chemo covered was a big one for me, because between my insurance coverage and the "Chronic Disease Fund" I paid ZERO for my chemo. It was sent to me monthly, on time and no postage charges. To know that there are organizations out there that provide that kind of help is just overwhelming. Another miracle is that I received a phone call from my Transplant Coordinator of my insurance company. (That's not the miracle...........hee hee). A very nice woman called to tell me that she would be in charge of EVERYTHING related to my transplant and my insurance coverage and proceeded to go over what all my co-pays would be and what services they could offer to me. She told me she would keep in contact with me (which she has) and that she would be the one to approve each and every thing. I've never met this woman, but I can tell no moss grows under her feet, because everything that has been submitted to her thus far as not only been approved, but approved within 2 days! The cost of a Stem Cell Bone Marrow Transplant is close to $300,000.00!!! And, here's where the real miracle comes in......she told me that my insurance covered my stays at hotels when it was related to my cancer treatment. So far, I have been to Tampa for my initial evaluation in March of 2007. (2 days) Then in January of 2008 I went for another evaluation because the prior one had happened so long ago and they wanted to determine if I was still a transplant candidate. (2 days) Then I had to go to Moffitt for 2 days of testing (4 days all total) and tomorrow I'm leaving for a 7 day stay for my pre Bone Marrow Transplant procedures. She told me my insurance covers $70.00 a night. So I have made sure we stay in a decent hotel for all these visits and I haven't had to pay anything, AND the icing on the cake is for the actual transplant itself the Moffitt Cancer Center has arranged for me, my mom and my sister to stay in one of their 3 bedroom/2 bath apartments close to the hospital for the entire 30 or more days we will be there for the cost of.........guess........$70.00 a night!! HOO WAA................how's that for divine intervention? Last, but not least............I had been up for a few hours one day about 2 weeks ago now, reading the paper and drinking a cup of coffee when the most outrageous, stabbing pain shot through me, I almost dropped to my knees. It literally took my breath away. The pain continued and continued and didn't let up. Fortunately I had my regular Dr. Nair appt that day. I've been driving on my own for awhile now, but I called Mom to see if she'd drive me because I was afraid I would lose control driving with the pain. I see Dr. Nair and he asked where the pain was and it was in my right rib area and it "traveled".....the pain wasn't always in just one spot. So he asked me to lift up my shirt so he could look on my back and side and I hear him say to mom....what are these? She says she's never seen them before. It was an ever so light trail of little red dots.......the biggest on the bottom, kinda looked like a bunch of dots all gathered together and the rest were spaced and it was like they followed a path. In like one nano second, he said it looks like shingles. We finished the rest of what we usually do and I filled my prescription on the way home. I was dreading his diagnosis because my Mom had them about 6 months ago and she was in horrid pain especially from the neurological pain you have in your nerves. She was in absolute horrible horrible pain EVERY DAY......24/7 non stop. She went through hell with them. He prescribed an anti viral, a pain patch and told me to double up on my pain meds and that should help. I look up shingles on the computer when I get home and it said that if you take the anti-viral Acyclovir within 24 hours of the outbreak it will make it a WAY milder case. My case was so mild because I started the anti-viral in less than 24 hours when it started and that was the last I heard from shingles. Never took the meds.....never had any more pain......gone...fini......nada. I think I had the shortest case of shingles ever!! The dots remained for about a week or so then they disappeared. Any more questions about miracles?

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