SleuthSayers: Flash Fiction– The Gamble (A Mention Of My Wife)

SleuthSayers: Flash Fiction– The Gamble: by Leigh Lundin Imagine a game I invite you to play. Here are the rules: You put down $1. Me, nothing. We flip a coin. If you win, y...

I Should Be Writing

I should be writing and have been a little bit lately. The gears are stuck and barely moving. It seems foolish to be even trying with everything going on here. Still, I have been working just a little.

Not that much on that front will happen today. I will be spending the majority of my limited time I can sit up working on collection letters. Some moron at Medical City Dallas Hospital, despite getting a small monthly installment payment on each of Sandi's many accounts,  decided to once again turn her over to collections. Despite the fact it did not do anything to magically create money for us on two other accounts they turned over late last year, they have now gone and turned over another half dozen accounts.

Turning us over to collections changes nothing. All it does is massively upset her.

The Chemo IS WORKING!!!!!!

Finally home so I can post the news.....the results of the Pet Scan are that the chemo IS WORKING!!!!! Sandi still has a long way to go to get to any possibility of remission on a temporary basis, but this Pet Scan showed that there has been "marked improvement."

So, because of that and the fact her blood numbers were just good enough, they started chemo at Texas Oncology before sending her over to the main hospital. Admission there took four hours plus before they finally got a room for her. She is now admitted and they should be starting the second chemo drug late tonight.

She probably won't get out again until sometime late Monday.

Denied for Texas Medicaid while being Harassed by RADIOLOGY CONSULTANTS OF NORTH DALLAS

About a week ago I signed paperwork for the MASH Unit on behalf of Texas Oncology to concoct us to see if we qualified for Texas Medicaid. I already knew we didn't as we have never qualified since Scott turned 18. Once your child turns 18 the parents don't qualify for anything even when a terminal illness is involved. But, Texas Oncology needed the denial to see if we could possible qualify for any nationwide charity situation.

It took them the week to call, but they finally did. It took them about a minute to determine, solely based on what Sandi and I receive via Social Security Disability that we do not qualify for anything. Though our income is less than 18k a year, under state law, we make too much. They will be notifying Texas Oncology that we don't qualify. No surprise there.

But, the revolting surprise of the day comes by way of RADIOLOGY CONSULTANTS OF NORTH DALLAS and their collection agency D/B/A RS CLARK AND ASSOCIATES, INC working out of a PO BOX in Dallas. Not only is the letter not signed by anyone, the letter does not a physical location for the business which is required under both state and federal law. Despite paying what was owed and providing proof of the actual amount owed month ago, and sending them proof every time they tried to fraudulently bill us for money we did not owe, RADIOLOGY CONSULTANTS OF NORTH DALLAS has done it again by way of RS CLARK AND ASSOCIATES, INC.

 Obviously, I will be sending their collection agency  the standard cease and desist letter which will put them on the thirty day clock to comply or risk my bringing it to the attention of federal and state authorities.

Normally, this kind of stupidity especially with RADIOLOGY CONSULTANTS OF NORTH DALLAS which has had a long history the past three years plus of screwing up bills, losing payments, filing false stuff with collections, does not bug me. I am used to the nonsense and none of it matters because our credit is trashed and Sandi is terminal. We are not buying a new car, a house, or going anywhere so threatening our credit---credit that we don't have anyway---  as today's unsigned form letter does from the collection agency is meaningless. And I have learned over the past several years that none of these collection agencies ever bother to check out what the creditor is claiming. If these fools had, they would have known not to take the account and attempt to bill us.


But, the timing today serious sucks. We have gone through hell the last few weeks and I am very tired of those who should be doing their best to help us deliberately making things harder than they have to be. While many want to blame the ACA for rising healthcare costs and everything else, the real problem is medical providers that can't handle their billing systems properly, can't correct their errors, and have no idea what they are doing while causing needless stress and harm to the very customers who need them the most.

Sandi Update

She is a little better blood work wise. Her numbers were just high enough to justify waiting to see if she needs another transfusion. Her white blood cell count has climbed up off the floor too. So, though she is still very weak and tires quickly if she tries to do much of anything, there is a little positive news today.

The plan is for us to come back Tuesday morning for more blood work and a doctor visit. They are planning for transfusions and infusions of various types--at the office as well as at the hospital--should that be necessary. One hopes none of that will be needed.

They are also planning to do another PET Scan as soon as possible to image her cancer. This is to see if the new chemo that she has had for the last two rounds is actively doing anything against her cancer. It is hitting her body very hard. The real question is if the chemo is doing anything at all against her cancer which is extensively scattered everywhere throughout her body from head to toes.

The New Chemo Plan

After spending several hours at Texas Oncology having blood work, a doctor visit, and some chemo Sandi was finally admitted to the Medical City Dallas Hospital late this afternoon for further chemo. As we understand things now, they are trying a different drug combo of four or five drugs that relate to what was successful back when this nightmare started.

Obviously, the hope is that her body will respond to these drug variations. It damn well better.

She will be getting chemo around the clock the next four days. Depending on how things go she might be out Sunday, but more likely Monday.

Chemo: Round 3- Part 2---DONE

We are finally home after another long day. Round 3 is done.

Next up is Friday when she has a blood work, doctor visit, and a shot. Hopefully we will also learn the results of the CT scans.

Chemo 2: Part 1---Done

Today was a tough day and not just because the streets were dangerous from the ice. We had understood the CT Scan had shown the cancer in two spots. One being the middle of her chest in the wall and not lung related. The other being a pocket of stomach lymph nodes that were massively swollen and cutting off  return blood flow from her foot causing the massive swelling in her leg.

That is just partially the situation.

In fact, she has multiple sites throughout her stomach area and down into her legs that are cancerous. The most obvious one we knew about, but the cancer is pretty much everywhere else in the region. the obvious implication--though no one will go that far--is it is everywhere in her body.

As usual, Sandi took the news far better than I did. Her quiet comment when we got settled in the infusion room was, "I'm not surprised."

She has said since early last October that she thought it was back. Even after we were told otherwise  when she was in the hospital and they had determined it was back, she has been sure it was everywhere in her.  Why we just found this out today I don't know. I don't think we both had misunderstood what we had been told before.

While her leg had been slowly going down that reversed over the weekend and by yesterday the swelling was markedly pronounced again and obvious to one and all. This indicates that the stomach lymph nodes have again attained a size to start cutting off blood flow. The hope is that the chemo that started today will again knock them back down a bit.

Her blood work looked fairly decent today though the white blood cell count continues to decline at a slower rate. Her anemia is a little better so no transfusion. No drug changes at this point which helps.

The chemo today was on a drug she has extensive history with and handles well so they could do the infusion a little quicker than originally planned. It is back to the new stuff tomorrow so the pace will be very slow and it will take most of the day. While it would be far better to do part two tomorrow,  we could,  if the predicted winter weather event of tonight and tomorrow morning makes it necessary, push the second part back to Thursday.

The plan going forward is to do that tomorrow, doctor visit with blood work and a shot on Friday and again next Tuesday. Another CT Scan to make absolutely sure the chemo is working is going to be done before the next round of chemo in two weeks. That date will be determined later depending on how she handles this round.

In the meantime, we rest and try to recover from today.

The Cancer is Back

The stem cell transplant for Sandi has failed. One of the two very aggressive and advanced super mutated cancer versions she had before they did the stem cell transplant deal is now back. We were told that this absolutely could NEVER happen and yet it has. Of course, this one that is now back was the worst of the two she had before.

Sandi and I are both devastated by this news. We were braced for the confirmation of cancer. The idea that it would be one of the two that all involved here and at Mayo in Florida had sworn could not happen again is just unreal and inconceivable.

At least now we know.

They start the five day round the clock chemo in the morning. They are waiting till tomorrow as the chemo has steroids in it and if they start tonight they think it will agitate her too much. As it is it would not be surprising if she needs a sedative to sleep tonight.

Day 6--Sandi Hospitalized

Spent the day with her and just got home. There has been absolutely no change at all. The only plan right now is to have her undergo a CT scan for her entire leg so they can look for pockets of infection.

Very Long Day

Much of the day was spent down at Medical City Dallas Hospital. A routine visit to the cancer doctor for bloodwork and doctor visit escalated quickly once they took a look at her left leg. She definitely has a raging infection in the leg which has caused it to double in size and do other things. They cultured the wound site and those results should be back on Monday.

She also had to do an ultrasound on her left leg to rule out a blood clot. That meant we had to go over to the main hospital where it took them 45 minutes to verify the insurance. Once they did that, they demanded an immediate payment of far more than we had thanks to the misinformation they had supposedly verified. Clearly, even though we have been dealing with this same insurance for months and years now, we know nothing and can't be trusted to provide accurate information. They ran one bank debit charge through today and have backdated another major bank debit charge to the end of the month.  That is going to be ugly.

Finally, they decided they could do the ultrasound. Thankfully, there was no blood clot.

Then it was way back over to Texas Oncology where they had to await results from the scan before they could finally send us home. We had been told already at the time of the scan, but they had to wait till the information arrived over at their office. They finally got that and turned us loose.

She has to be back Wednesday morning so they can asses the leg. It is in bad shape and the fact that she is a diabetic makes all of this much worse to deal with as things don't heal. The leg is to remain elevated as much as possible and she is to stay off it and take her antibiotic.

So, it has been a very long day. She is out cold right now which is most likely the best thing for her.

Cancer Doc Tomorrow

Sandi has a blood work and doctor deal at Texas Oncology tomorrow. Hopefully all will go well.

FFB for tomorrow is set up.

I will try and update how things are with Sandi when we get back. Please keep a good thought.

Donate to the Terri and Spider Robinson Cancer Fund via YouCaring.com

Terri's Stage 4 Cancer Fight

Back Home From The Cancer Doctor

Sandi has had her blood work and visit with the cancer doctor today. Her numbers were stable as compared to last month. In fact, a couple of things showed a little bit of improvement. She remains classified as "medically fragile, but stable" which is about the best we can hope for with this deal

For financial reasons tied into our mounting debt with them as well as from a medical standpoint, it has been decided to hold off on IVIG for now and see how she does. Our next appointment is in mid December.That will also be a blood work and doctor visit only deal.

In the meantime, they will be processing paperwork to see if she can qualify for any financial assistance that might be available. Two assistance programs have opened up and it is possible we may get a little help on the money side of things.

Sandi's iOffer Store

Despite some recent setbacks in how she physically feels Sandi decided to try and keep her iOffer store open through the holiday season. What she has at her iOffer store is in addition to what she has available at the Tapir and Friends Animal Store for direct shipping from there. In January Sandi will see how she feels and how sales were and go from there regarding iOffer.

You can check out her current offerings here.

Remember, what she makes there goes mainly to her cancer treatment costs. While she does have medical insurance, what is being covered is much, much less than 100 percent despite the fact she went far beyond her assorted deductibles by late February of this year. While I rarely beg here and elsewhere we are on the hook for literally thousands of dollars. Everything and anything helps.

Finally Back Home

This was supposed to be another infusion Friday but thinds did not go as planned. IVIG infusion was cancelled as they have some blood work questions and are doing additional blood work.

CT Scan came back with nearly identical results to the last time. Of course, that is fairly meaningless because those scans have never showed her cancer. AETNA has flatly refused to allow her to have a PET SCAN so we will remain in limbo with no idea if Sandi is in remission or not until some time next Spring or so when she goes on  Medicare.

Via Tapir and Friends Animal Store--- Sandi's Chemo Hats and Walker Caddies

Sandi's Chemo Hats and Walker Caddies

Sandi Update

Finally back home as they were running way behind. At this point, things seem relatively stabale so they have cut back her dosages on the steroids and a couple of other things. By doing this, it should help with her diabetes numbers so that just maybe--assuming insurance does not cause more issues--she can finally have the much needed PET Scan.

Extra blood was taken from her today so they can run some extra tests to look at various issues. The IVIG infusion went well once it goits started so that was also a good sign.

As it stands right now, we wait to hear on the PET Scan and her next appointment is a month from now on October 17 when she will have another full workup and IVIG infusion.

Sandi also got a real kick out of the fact that all of her hats she donated have again been taken and according to the nurses they were a huge hit.

Via Tapir and Friends Animal Store (Realistic Stuffed Animals and Plastic Animals): Very Special Teddy Bears

Tapir and Friends Animal Store (Realistic Stuffed Animals and Plastic Animals): Very Special Teddy Bears

Back Home

Back home from the hospital as Sandi had an appointment with her endocrinologist today. While better than she was, Sandi is still nowhere near where she needs to be numbers wise not just for her health but the long delayed Pet Scan.The overall trend of her blood sugar numbers lowering seems to have basically leveled out as we thought. So, the insulin dosage is being raised a little more, but Sandi is having weigh gain and other issues related to the insulin.

Under consideration is the idea of adding some new medications to the mix in the hopes of lowering her numbers. However, that is being delayed for now as Sandi has an IVIG infusion Friday and a ton of blood work as the cancer docs plan on doing the tests to see if the IVIG is working. There were concerns that adding new drugs to her cocktail could throw off those results.

So, for now, she keeps doing what she is doing and fingers crossed that the downward numbers trend will start again.