Today was Katie's picture day and we had fun last night picking out an outfit for her day. It was a great opportunity to go through her clothes and get rid of the things that are too small. Tom and I were able to see Kyle in the band last Friday during half-time. I never saw that child step so lightly before! Cody will have his first football game tomorrow and he is totally into it!!! I believe that they have him in offense, defense, and special teams so he will be on the field more than off.
I called Tom's primary doctor today asking about the PET Scan. Their office manager is on maternity leave so things are running a little differently there. Dr. Divic called me back and said the scan shows normal in the neck and chest. He is still perplexed about the Calcitonin numbers. He said that we should be back to monitoring the blood and waiting for another 4 to 6 months to see what happens. He inquired about seeing the Oncologist, either Dr. Campbell or going to the U of M. I explained that at this point we do not have any appointments as we are waiting for our insurance company to approve switching out of network doctor in Ann Arbor. It was funny that he had to ask me what I talked about to his Office Manager before she left. She is truly missed by more than just her staff.
We turn back to daily focusing on "life" again for a while. I believe that both Tom and I felt relief when we got the news. However, we are still all keeping that number in the back of our minds. Life is so fragile and we all need each other to hold each other up and accountable for our actions while we live. We are not given the understanding today to know why things happen and what purpose this bears unto our lives but I believe this verse from Ecclesiastes 7:14
"Enjoy prosperity whenever you can, and when hard times strike, realize that God gives one as well as the other - so that everyone will realize that nothing is certain in this life."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
What happened?
The first day of school is officially done. The kids all survived, and the boys found their classes with little incident. Ready or not, we are getting into a routine. However, miss Katie will be exhausted tonight as she awoke at 5:00 am and was too excited to fall back to sleep!
Tom has his PT 3 days a week starting Wednesday of this week. He will hopefully get into a better schedule because they have his appointment times all over the board this week. With Tom's schedule it is hard for him to make early morning and middle of the day times. It would be nice if this one thing would work smoothly.
Today I received a call from the Grievance Coordinator. He stated that Tom's PET Scan has been approved and that the Oncologist would be receiving the Authorization number soon to schedule it. He could not tell me what had been done to change this to an Approval. However, I did get a history lesson on who is making this decision. In the past it was our insurance company who approved them. It changed hands to an outside approval company in November of 2008. The criteria is different for each company. The PET scan criteria had not been met since the change of companies. There is no explanation as to why they approved it in December and it sounds like this is the last time that it will be without the Criteria being met. Tonight I had a few minutes to talk with Tom about the authorization and he said that he does have a PET scheduled for Wednesday, September 16 @ 9:00.
I have a light heart tonight as I thank God. I had so many verses pop into my head that I could not write them all down. I will share this one:
"Bless the Lord who is my immovable Rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle. He is always kind and loving to me; he is my fortress, my tower of strength and safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield." Psalms 144:1-2
Tom has his PT 3 days a week starting Wednesday of this week. He will hopefully get into a better schedule because they have his appointment times all over the board this week. With Tom's schedule it is hard for him to make early morning and middle of the day times. It would be nice if this one thing would work smoothly.
Today I received a call from the Grievance Coordinator. He stated that Tom's PET Scan has been approved and that the Oncologist would be receiving the Authorization number soon to schedule it. He could not tell me what had been done to change this to an Approval. However, I did get a history lesson on who is making this decision. In the past it was our insurance company who approved them. It changed hands to an outside approval company in November of 2008. The criteria is different for each company. The PET scan criteria had not been met since the change of companies. There is no explanation as to why they approved it in December and it sounds like this is the last time that it will be without the Criteria being met. Tonight I had a few minutes to talk with Tom about the authorization and he said that he does have a PET scheduled for Wednesday, September 16 @ 9:00.
I have a light heart tonight as I thank God. I had so many verses pop into my head that I could not write them all down. I will share this one:
"Bless the Lord who is my immovable Rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle. He is always kind and loving to me; he is my fortress, my tower of strength and safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield." Psalms 144:1-2
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Decision Time
We are at the last stretch of summer vacation. The youngest is the only one excited to be going back to school. Since the boys are starting new schools I wonder if they have a little apprehension about what their days ahead will look like. We enjoyed watching the WMU vs UofM yesterday with family at Swan Lake. Our family was all in WMU but it was good to see Michigan having a much better start to the football season. It was a beautiful day for just being outdoors and enjoying company.
Last Thursday we met with Tom's Oncologist. The morning started with receiving news from his PCP that Tom's calcitonin levels jumped to 536. If you recall in July his last count was 395 so in a month the increase was 141. This was not encouraging to hear. I decided to bring along the 300 plus page report that I had been going over to to discuss the Denial and Appeals with his doctor to see how we could get this Approved or if we need to concentrate on a different type of scan for now. At the beginning of our consultation Tom and I were shocked to hear the doctor proclaim that once again his numbers were jumping to indicate the cancer is definitely growing and that he recommended a PET scan as our next step. I replied that I am sure he was aware that Tom had been denied the PET scans twice before. We were shocked and disappointed that Tom's doctor did not appear to have any knowledge of the Denials & Grievance's. His response was that he would make a phone call to the insurance company and get this through. We waited out in the lobby to hear that the Oncologist did get through but nothing was resolved. We were also assured that they would get it resolved on Friday and they would call us. In short we felt that we were shuffled through his office. Friday came and went with no phone call.
That evening Tom and I had a long conversation. This is his life that we are dealing with and we are not satisfied with the current level of care that he is receiving. We decided to follow the advise of his Surgeon 2 years ago and move his care back to the University of Michigan Hospital. Tom discussed this with his Primary Physician on Friday who agreed that he needs to return to the U of M where they have a team of specialists who can deal with this rare cancer. His office has started the paperwork. We do not anticipate any prob elms with our insurance company switching our Oncologist.
While we feel that this is the right decision, it will not be an easy one. This will mean Tom will have to start making trips back & forth to Ann Arbor at a time when school is starting and we are in the midst of Band, Football, Cheer leading, and I have now returned to working full time. Maybe this will force Tom to slow down and not work so many hours. Thanks for continuing this journey with our family & your support. We can't do this alone.
Last Thursday we met with Tom's Oncologist. The morning started with receiving news from his PCP that Tom's calcitonin levels jumped to 536. If you recall in July his last count was 395 so in a month the increase was 141. This was not encouraging to hear. I decided to bring along the 300 plus page report that I had been going over to to discuss the Denial and Appeals with his doctor to see how we could get this Approved or if we need to concentrate on a different type of scan for now. At the beginning of our consultation Tom and I were shocked to hear the doctor proclaim that once again his numbers were jumping to indicate the cancer is definitely growing and that he recommended a PET scan as our next step. I replied that I am sure he was aware that Tom had been denied the PET scans twice before. We were shocked and disappointed that Tom's doctor did not appear to have any knowledge of the Denials & Grievance's. His response was that he would make a phone call to the insurance company and get this through. We waited out in the lobby to hear that the Oncologist did get through but nothing was resolved. We were also assured that they would get it resolved on Friday and they would call us. In short we felt that we were shuffled through his office. Friday came and went with no phone call.
That evening Tom and I had a long conversation. This is his life that we are dealing with and we are not satisfied with the current level of care that he is receiving. We decided to follow the advise of his Surgeon 2 years ago and move his care back to the University of Michigan Hospital. Tom discussed this with his Primary Physician on Friday who agreed that he needs to return to the U of M where they have a team of specialists who can deal with this rare cancer. His office has started the paperwork. We do not anticipate any prob elms with our insurance company switching our Oncologist.
While we feel that this is the right decision, it will not be an easy one. This will mean Tom will have to start making trips back & forth to Ann Arbor at a time when school is starting and we are in the midst of Band, Football, Cheer leading, and I have now returned to working full time. Maybe this will force Tom to slow down and not work so many hours. Thanks for continuing this journey with our family & your support. We can't do this alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)