nickysfight's Cancer Blog

March 3, 2007

APPETITE HAS RETURNED!

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Hello All,

It’s been a few weeks since Aim or I have added a new blog, mainly because there haven’t been any real significant changes. My mom finished her first cycle of FOLFOX on the 21st of February. A cycle consists of two doses spanning approximately four weeks. She will need to complete at least one more cycle before her surgery is scheduled for, we are hoping, sometime in April. Her appetite has been much improved over the last few weeks, which has been great. It is hard to tell if it is because of the MEGACE ES or if it is due to her being administered a lower dose of the FOLFOX (after the first, very rough, session my mom asked to be given a lower dose of the FOLFOX).

I think that the hardest part over the last few months has been the fact that my mom does not live by any family. It has been a real struggle for everyone to be able to take enough time off as she does not want to spend even one night alone. If she lived here in Colorado or closer to Aimee in Houston it would be very easy, but unfortunately she doesn’t and although the Family Medical Leave Act allows for up to three months off, if the illness is a family member, it is unpaid – which is a real bummer!

For those of you that know Aimee, please be sure to give her a big pat on the back the next time you see her. She has taken over the medical billing and tracking for this whole ordeal and let me tell you – it is a tremendous amount of work! You can not even imagine the amount of paper work that comes with a cancer diagnosis and you really have to be on top of it. Even with Aimee tracking everything we had two bills, totaling over $3000, that were paid erroneously. Once this happens, and it was very easily done when a doctor’s office is threatening to send the bill to collections if it doesn’t get paid, you then need to stay on top of the repayment! Then, we had a survey come in the mail, and while the insurance company was waiting to receive the survey, they rejected all of my mom’s claims. The insurance company has been very good once we call and/or resubmit, but all in all it is still a lot of work.