LAB RATS UNITE!

Hi faithful readers!  New adventure - clinical trial!  I'll be testing a new drug that carries chemo directly to my specific cancer cells.  Next week I'll be in Bean Town for four days for the first cycle of the trial - hotel paid by the trial!  I'll use the time to get back to my expressive arts work and to write write write.

So I'm a guinea pig.  or a Lab Rat.  At least my cancer will contribute to the effort to seek new more effective treatments.  From what I understand, this new drug targets so called "receptors" enabling the chemo drugs to get through to the cancerous cells.  It is still an assault from outside (chemo poison) but hopefully for stage 4 folks like me, these kinds of drugs will send my cancer cells into apoptosis without too many side effects (happy crossing over, you destructive little buggers)!
Hope they don't make me wear rat ears - but whatever it takes!!  Still working on my insurance research... will keep you posted!  And RI is about to pass same sex marriage -at last!  Homophobia is a cancer that needs to be eradicated NOW!  And thank you President Obama- yes we do want to live in the land of the FREE!

VICTORY AND NEW BATTLES!

Dearest Loyal Readers!   The great news is that finally I have succeeded in reversing the denial of my insurance coverage for radiation.  It took me 15 months, countless phone calls, e mails, faxes, etc. to finally get Unicare to recognize that they need to pay the $107,000 for my treatment!

I am starting a campaign to enact legislation that will require hospitals to pre authorize with insurance companies for any treatment that costs more than $500.  As I have written in the past, Women & Infants always checked for me, but RI Hospital did not.  I think of patients who have limited formal education, limited literacy, limited English, or are too sick to pursue this grueling task.  Cancer patients don't need the added stress of fighting their insurance carrier!!

I said with each contact that if I didn't get satisfaction, I would go to the media.  I still plan to see if anyone if interested in the story even though I eventually succeeded.  In this time of fighting for a functional national health plan we need to put the insurance giants in their place - they are private profit making enterprises that earn their profits by collecting premiums and NOT paying for claims. 

So that's one burden out of the way.  Friday I travel to Boston for a CAT and a dr. visit to see if indeed the big C is still hanging out in my system.  Think SHRINK and REMISSION!!  Ta Ta for now...xx