Days 49 and 50

Waiting for Chemo

Kennedy was doing great the past few days until the nausea and mouth sores took over.  I’m not sure if the nausea is a lasting effect of the hospital stay or if it is the 6mp pill.  The mouth sores are definitely a side effect from the stay and should subside in the next few days.  Doc called in some Tylenol with Codein and a Lidocain rinse, the latter has been a big help.

Finally finishing up.

Today was clinic.  Kennedy’s counts were 1,900 - a great level, especially considering the intense chemo.  She is not neutropenic and may avoid neutropenia completely during this course of treatment – YAY!!!!  My only complaint of today’s clinic visit with the length of time we were there.  We got there at 9ish and didn’t walk out until 12:40.  Over three hours for a 15-minute chemo drip!!!  I recently learned this is standard so we will plan our clinic days accordingly.

After clinic, Kennedy and I went to Build-A-Bear, Rainforest Café and did a little shopping for her.  It was a great Mom and K day.

"Pokey" my new dog-bear
and his friend

I did have a meltdown today right before clinic.  Blue Cross Blue Shield called yesterday and left a message to call back (no details).  Of course, my mind started racing about all the treatment they wouldn’t cover – all in my head.  When I returned the call, the caseworker that called me had a voicemail that said she was out of the office until April 5!  I left a message and a different (very young) caseworker called me this morning as I was running late to clinic and trying to park the car. 

I never would have answered but I was so concerned about the reason for their call, that I immediately picked-up – BIG MISTAKE.  The first question was IF I wanted a case-worker assigned to us.  I was told it wasn’t mandatory but I was getting the feeling I should accept, so I did.  She said she was calling about K’s history of Leukemia – “history of Leukemia???”.  I noted that if history means from February 2 – than okay.  She went on to tell me that she would call me every week (lucky me) to discuss her treatment.  I told her that her treatment is a pretty standard protocol so I wasn’t quite sure what we would discuss and if it was necessary.  So as I was trying to get Gene’s big beast of a car into a spot – running 15 minutes late, she proceeded to tell me that I would need to contact them with all procedures that would be more major, like tests.  I told her that the hospital has done that in the past and I often don’t know what is considered major.  She said, “well it is your responsibility to inform us to make sure the treatment is covered”.  Did I miss something? All of a sudden I was getting a lecture?  So I said, “Listen, I can’t talk – I’m late to clinic, I’m trying to park the car”.  So she said “I’ll wait”.  OMG!  So finally, as I am in tears – I told her I will do my best, I need to get my kid inside and she may be adding a psych evaluation to her list of about to be covered testing.  So she told me she would be calling me next week. 

Is it really necessary for BCBS to torture the insured every week?  Do I need to talk to this insensitive 20 year old?  I’m fearful if I reject a caseworker it may cause more issues.  I’m going through enough and getting a weekly lecture about something I haven’t done wrong is completely unnecessary.  Just blogging about it gets my blood boiling again.

When I got of the phone, K asked me why I was crying.  I just said that moms get sad too sometimes and people are ignorant.  She then went on to remind of the three times she saw me cry - thanks Kennedy :)