Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Doctor Stuff

The last several days have been rough and today won't help. Later today we will be going down to Medical City Dallas Hospital and basically wasting our time and money because insurance is being massive stupidly. Aetna and their third party agent Med Solutions have again this month refused to allow Sandi to have her needed PET Scan here.

This is the same PET Scan she was supposed to have late last August down at Mayo on Jacksonville, Florida. That was her 100 day point. It was approved to be done there as it is  part of their standard post stem cell evaluation and treatment plan. Unfortunately, thanks to the blood clot in her neck that they sent her home with as well as the pneumonitis that quickly presented itself here requiring Sandi to be hospitalized last summer, she can't fly. She remains totally dependent on oxygen delivered by machine and portable canisters. Her need for those canisters means she is not cleared by her doctors here or the TSA to fly.

So, since she can't go there, Aetna and Med Solutions won't let her have it here. Instead, they will make her go through a CT scan and await for those results before they will consider the much needed PET Scan. We have zero hope or faith in anything that comes out of the CT Scan as that test has never once shown anything cancer related. She has had several since November 2011 when she was hospitalized most of the month while the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. While it was later determined, thanks to the PET Scan, that Sandi had cancer everywhere but her eyes, brain, and jawbone, the CT Scans showed nothing.

Not only is the CT Scan worthless, the PET Scan would be happening if she were at Mayo. The reality is that they are not denying the test. They are denying this location which is necessary because of the treatment decisions and complications they previously imposed upon her.

To say this is frustrating does not begin to cover it. It is a horrendous waste of time, money, and equipment in addition to needlessly doing something to her that does nothing to help her in her fragile medical state or assess anything. When the CT scan comes back negative, we all know that we still won't know a damn thing.

2 comments:

Maureen Harrington said...

I am so ashamed that we allow corporate America to rule any portion of our lives. Give Sandi my love.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Will do and thank you.