Very Good News
After a weekend at home, I arrived back to Chester's loft this morning as his weekend companion was leaving. We thought we were expecting his Physical Therapist for a 9 am session, but when we called at 9:30 it turns out there was a mix up on the schedule and there was no session planned for today.
Chester and I sat and talked for a bit, over a breakfast of sliced apples, goat cheese and slices of his brother's cured deer meat (yum!). Then we walked to the bakery for scones, enjoying the walk together as I pushed his wheelchair down the bumpy sidewalks. We got home just as it was starting to rain.
The phone rang shortly after we got home, and we were graced with excellent news! Chester has been approved to receive FREE chemotherapy drugs! After paying for the first month of his at-home Temodar treatment, at $2500, we applied for a program through the pharmaceutical company. A week ago we received a letter telling us we could get a %20 discount (a little help, but not much), and then today the representative I spoke to let us know that they had continued negotiations with the insurance company and had approved Chester for free drugs! The news came as a bit of a shock to us both- sometimes we are unaware of the tension a financial matter is creating until it can be released- and whoosh! lifted!.
So we are celebrating, and are staying hopeful that Chester will get approved for Medi-Cal in the coming weeks. But for now, we are enjoying today's good news and sending thanks to our social worker angels who helped us apply for the program. Over and over again, we get unexpected good news from the health care bureaucracy. It feels more humane than we expect sometimes, and still I pray that someday we'll have universal health care and everyone will have access to compassionate and wholistic medicine.
Three Cheers for Free Drugs!
Chester and I sat and talked for a bit, over a breakfast of sliced apples, goat cheese and slices of his brother's cured deer meat (yum!). Then we walked to the bakery for scones, enjoying the walk together as I pushed his wheelchair down the bumpy sidewalks. We got home just as it was starting to rain.
The phone rang shortly after we got home, and we were graced with excellent news! Chester has been approved to receive FREE chemotherapy drugs! After paying for the first month of his at-home Temodar treatment, at $2500, we applied for a program through the pharmaceutical company. A week ago we received a letter telling us we could get a %20 discount (a little help, but not much), and then today the representative I spoke to let us know that they had continued negotiations with the insurance company and had approved Chester for free drugs! The news came as a bit of a shock to us both- sometimes we are unaware of the tension a financial matter is creating until it can be released- and whoosh! lifted!.
So we are celebrating, and are staying hopeful that Chester will get approved for Medi-Cal in the coming weeks. But for now, we are enjoying today's good news and sending thanks to our social worker angels who helped us apply for the program. Over and over again, we get unexpected good news from the health care bureaucracy. It feels more humane than we expect sometimes, and still I pray that someday we'll have universal health care and everyone will have access to compassionate and wholistic medicine.
Three Cheers for Free Drugs!
posted by Chrys Curtis-Fawley at 12:27 PM
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