Here We Go

It's that time again. Friday I have a follow-up MRI of the head and some blood work, and then Monday I'm scheduled for a CT of the chest, abdomen and pelvis. We're hoping to have results by Tuesday afternoon. And then we'll meet with my oncologist next Thursday.

I'm feeling pretty confident going into the tests. Most everything I seem to feel seems to be related to side effects from the chemotherapy, and not tumor growth. But we'll go with the flow and hopefully put these tests behind and get on with another three months without reading old magazines in doctors' offices.

At least for this round of tests we've scheduled everything into less than a week rather than across a month like last time. It cuts down the anxiety period.

Barb and I are so thankful for everyone's continued prayers and support. It means a tremendous amount to pick a fight (with cancer) with 100 people behind you than to take on that fight yourself.

On another, repetitive note - Aetna actually called me back yesterday. That was a first! And they were only two-days past the three-day window they said they would call within.

Unfortunately it was still the same old run-around. I may have been born at night - but it wasn't LAST night.

I was pretty firm with my case manager, who is obviously trained to try to make people feel good about Aetna, and make them go away. I was convincing enough to have her talk to her supervisor and her medical director, at least that's what she said. And she did call me back with a follow-up, another first for Aetna.

The case manager even went as far as to call Bayer to inquire about my status in receiving Nexavar, and my continued hopes of receiving Nexavar from Bayer. When she called me on the follow-up she told me that I'll be continuing to receive Nexavar from Bayer so she doesn't understand what my problem is.

I told her "you sold me lobster and served me a peanut butter sandwich. Right is right. Honesty is honesty. Aetna made a mistake and I believe they should owe up to that error."

"How would you feel if this happened to you?" I asked.

Silence.

That's always the question that seems to draw no response, asking people to put themselves in my shoes.

"OK. I'm going to look into this some more. I will be back in touch with you," she said.

We'll see.