My last cat scan wasn't good. It showed growth in the tumors that are in my liver. We counted a dozen tumors and stopped there. Liver re-section is out of the question because of the amount of tumors I have and their location. So basically unless there is a miracle, I will just continually be on chemotherapy.
Once the chemo stops working I am a candidate for Y-90 radiation (I think I explained this in an earlier post. But if you are interested you can look up the information on it here: http://www.sirtex.com/us/.
When I first started chemo I brought home a fanny pack full of chemo that pumped into my body for 48 hours. This time I am going that again, except it is in pill form. I still go in every other tuesday and get an infusion of avastin. Then the pills (called xeloda) are 7 days on, 7 days off. My insurance (whole story in itself) was being a pain in the butt, but I finally got them (can we say expensive?). They aren't too bad. I take 3 pills in the morning and 3 with dinner. They make me tired and nauseated but that's it. I can take anti-nausea pills and usually I'm fine. (I did get sick once.)
So my insurance was Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oregon. Awesome insurance. Premiums were $520 a month, but they paid 100% after I met my deductible (which I did after my first appointment in January). Then come July 1st I got forced to switch to some federal pre-existing condition insurance. My premium dropped to $417 a month, but this insurance sucks. They only cover 70%. When your medical bills are over $10,000 a month this leaves a mighty chunk left for us to pay. Not gonna happen. We would starve. So I do my best to ignore the bills. (Not the best way to deal with it, but at this point I don't know what else to do.) Plus I had to re-pay the deductible. It's total crap. Luckily the insurance stuff changes come October 1st. I'm hoping to get back with BCBS. But that also means re-paying my deductible. (That will be 3 times I've paid my deductible in 2013 if you've lost count.) It's just crap that people with cancer have to worry about all this financial BS when we should just be focusing on fighting this nasty disease.
On a better note, I am going to Washington D.C. and Florida in October. Mostly paid for! (Colon Cancer stuff, more info later) I am so excited! I will need a little money.
I am thinking about selling a few quilts to help out with the costs. I have a blog, where I have pictures of some of the quilts I have made/sold in the past. (You can see them here :http://raggedyanniequilts.blogspot.com/ If anyone is interested get ahold of me through facebook, or emailing me: lisaanniepants@gmail.com, or you can send me a text (541) 212-0606. They make great Christmas presents!
I'd like to thank everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers.
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