This morning Aj showed me his hands when he was washing his hair and there were lots of little hairs in the palms of his hands. I keep staring at his head to see if I can see any difference and today we could see it thinning more in one area by his left temple. Other than that it might look a little thinner but still, there is a lot more to come off. Maybe in a week or two all of it will be gone.
Kind of good that it comes off slowly, we all get time to get used to it. Especially the girls, but then again, they didn't even bat an eyelid when he shaved his head this time. They are used to his little stunts here and there.
We drove to the clinic which is close to Seton hospital. Sat in the waiting room for a short while and then they called Aj back and dad, Olivia and I went to Central Market to play which is side by side to the clinic. So I could see the building from the playground. This was about 10 am.
At noon the doctor called me to say that everything had gone really well and that Aj was awake and he was feeling good.
He told me what to look for if something should start looking bad and I would need to call them. They took an xray to make sure it was in place like it should. I asked him if they had put it up the neck just like we had seen on Pam, the super sweet lady at Dr. H's office or across the chest. He said he'd put it across his chest and it should be a comfortable spot to have it. Its called a Power Port - the latest in ports. They can draw blood, inject radioactive liquid for CT scans through it, which is not possible with any other ports. That is pretty cool :)
I went over to pick him up and he was very alert and said he was feeling great. Very cool!!!!
Went home and he has been taking it pretty easy this afternoon, took a snooze and then had dinner with us all. Aj just told me it hurts a little (which is totally normal) but he can't tell wether its the skin where the port has been placed that hurts or where the actual 'cord' is in the vein, its just sore he said. He got good painkillers to take care of that and I finally got one of those pill dividers today. So many pills to get out every morning so this is a lot easier!
Another fun aspect of this whole situation started a little bit today... :S - Insurance!
I called our insurance broker (who happen to know Aj from the gym) I told him that I have a stack enough to make a book of EOB's and I need to know what to do in the end. Since all of them have claimed with the wrong department in the insurance company. Which according to Chris, they should know better. Anyway, I am going to just collect the EOB's and then Chris and I will sit down and go through it all in detail. He said we have at least 3 months before we need to really start looking at it and pay. Feels great to have Chris to help out with these things. I hate dealing with insurance companies and I am not convinced yet that this will be pleasant.
About 15 min after I had spoken to Chris, the Oncologist office called, it was James - the financial advisor - talk about timing!!
He just wanted to collect a 'small' deposit while we are waiting for the claims to get sent to the insurance company. 'yeah right' - like that is going to happen, I asked him if theoretically he shouldn't claim via insurance company and we can just wait and pay until that happens. Why the need of deposit or payment plan which was his next subject. He gave me a ton of reasons why it would be good to do this but I wasn't convinced... so I called Chris when I got off the phone and asked if I had to pay anything to them now. He said absolutely not, there is no reason for doing that and they are just trying to get cash where they can. ... well... they are not getting it from us... not yet anyway. I don't have a problem paying for what they do, not in any way. They can just wait like the hospital and all the doctors there, claim then get money :) Oh well, I can tell this is just the beginning of this carousel! :) :) :)
I asked James, just out of curiosity - If I didn't have any insurance at all.. and had to come in and get the CHOP and Neulasta shot that Aj gets, how how much would that cost.
He said, CHOP, Neulasta and lab work costs around... $10 000 - 11 000 per treatment... times 6 or 8 - its a lot.. wow... can you imagine not having insurance and have to do this, it would be impossible!
Tomorrow Aj has chemo in Dr. H's office in the morning and then at Seton on Friday as well as Neulasta shot.
Aj is a trooper, I am so proud of him. He is so fantastic - the way he is handling everything and being positive and strong. All I can do is support, but he has to do all the hard work - treatments and medicines and god knows what.
Time to get some sleep...
No comments:
Post a Comment