Another Problem–What a Surprise!

Monday the doctor told us he was going to send a prescription to combat Mr. Fixit’s nausea to our pharmacy. We waited all day for a call telling us the prescription was ready. No call. Tuesday morning I went to the pharmacy to see if the order from the doctor had been received. It hadn’t been. I came home and called the doctor’s office. Of course, I had to talk to a machine instead of a person. No one called me back to acknowledge my call or to explain why the order hadn’t been sent.

Ben called and the receptionist said she would transfer his call to someone, and he said he wanted to speak with a real person, not someone’s voice mail. He found out they had sent in the order after my call.

We waited and waited and waited. I called the pharmacy in the afternoon. She said they had received the  order, but the insurance company wasn’t going to pay for it. I said, “How much is it?” I was planning to pay for it. After all, how much could a medicine to ease nausea be? Pepto and Kaopectate aren’t that expensive. She said, “$285.” After I rose from the floor and made a comment as to the exorbitant price, she said she would tell the doctor that the insurance had refused to pay. She said it is possible for the doctor to approach the insurance company to ask for reconsideration.

Here it is the next evening and Mr. Fixit still doesn’t have the medicine or even an indication of what is happening.

But the good news is his $5.00 bottle of Kaopectate is working fine. His nausea is almost totally gone. I have to find out if there is any conflict with any of his other meds, how much he can take daily, and how long he can take it.I’ll call again tomorrow and talk to the machine again. Maybe I’ll have an answer before our appointment in a month.

Good News!

Yesterday the doctor reviewed Mr. Fixit’s latest scan with us. The new was great! Some of the nodules have completely disappeared and the larger ones have decreased in size considerably.

The doctor said that only 20 per cent of patients taking this drug have results like this. He made an appointment for Mr. Fixit in a month, and said he needed another scan in four months. He even talked about that maybe after a year, we could discuss taking discontinuing the medication completely.

I thought the news would ease Mr. Fixit’s depression, but it doesn’t seem to have helped it much. He is still down when it’s just me with him. When other people are around or he talks with his family on the phone, he is his old self. The doctor said that he was going to send in a prescription to our pharmacy for the nausea, but something happened and we don’t have it yet. Maybe that has something to do with his bad mood, or maybe he’s sick and tired of me and bland food.

But what a load off my mind! I was so scared; I was running through scenarios that would allow me to skip this appointment. But that was just my little fantasy; I went and heard the wonderful news in person.

Side Effects

Mr. Fixit still isn’t feeling well. He is still having nausea and digestive problems. I think his depression is getting worse. He noticed that his hair is thinning, and I noticed that his eyelashes are disappearing. He’s lost more weight.

Tomorrow is his appointment to hear the results of the scan. I hope it’s good news.

Mr. Fixit went for his scan today. Of course, there was a problem. It seems there is always a problem for him. He had an allergic reaction to the dye. He's has had these scans before without a problem. I wonder if the chemo could have changed his body chemistry or something.It wasn't bad, but he was more than a little nervous. The upshot is that he won't be able to have the scans done at an outpatient facility. He will have to go to the hospital. Now we wait.

Not Such Good News

Mr. Fixit hasn’t been feeling well since they halved his medication. His heart problems have been regulated, but there are still some side effects that are bothering him. He seems to be very depressed. I was hoping he would be feeling better by now, but he naps twice a day and doesn’t feel like doing anything. He has been losing weight also.

The scan is this coming Wednesday. I hope it shows good things. I wish he had been able to tolerate the original dose of his meds. Maybe there would be enough improvement that he could stop the chemo completely. He just couldn’t take it. The weird thing is he seems to be feeling worse now than he did before.

I don’t know how to deal with his depression. There is nothing I can say that will make him feel better. He gets a little testy when I try to be upbeat, and I can understand that completely. I don’t know how to walk the line between being annoying Miss Merry Sunshine and being supportive without the syrup as it were.

We won’t get the results of the scan until July 7. The appointment had been made for two days after the scan, but they called and rescheduled. The doctor will be out of town. Waiting won’t be easy on him.

Good Check-ups

Mr. Fixit has now seen the oncologist and the cardiologist and has had the echocardiogram and more blood work.

The cancer guy (as we refer to him) cut his chemo med dosage in half. He said it should help with the side effects. I questioned whether it could lessen the effectiveness, but he said something to the effect that I shouldn’t worry about it. Uh-huh. Mr. Fixit also talked to him about the neck/throat pain he has been having. The doctor said he had never heard of that particular side effect with his medication. (I am more than a little worried about this. He has hoarseness and a cough.) He (the doctor) didn’t offer any suggestion as to what it might be. Mr. Fixit has a scan later this month to check on the lung lesions. (Lesions? I have this weird aversion to saying the dreaded “C” word. I had a hard time naming this journal.)

We saw the heart guy yesterday. He said that everything looked good. In fact, he said that the “echo” looked better than it did a year ago. He wasn’t too concerned either about this unstable  heart rate (which has, since the digoxin, has settled a bit) or the possibility of stroke. The nurse practitioner at his office was ready to admit him into the hospital when she saw the heart rate jump. Big difference of opinion, I guess.

All in all, things seem to be going a little better although Mr. Fixit is still uncomfortable with some of the annoying digestive system problems. He gets a little depressed and testy.

Tip of the day: Keep copies of all paperwork including appointment cards an memos. When they tell you to bring your meds and insurance cards, drop the appointment info into you pocket even if the appointment has been confirmed.

Update

We were able to see the nurse practitioner at the cardio’s office. She didn’t have that much to contribute towards answering my questions during the consultation. She prescribed digoxin to help control the pulse rate, and she suggested a heart monitor  be worn for 48 hours. As they were attaching the monitor, his pulse rate soared to 165. The NP was called into the tech’s office, and her  reaction was immediate hospitalization. By the time she explained the admitting procedure, the heart rate took a dive. She changed her mind and said to use the monitor. We turned it on Tuesday, the day after the holiday. (We have not heard any results yet.)

An appointment was made for him to have an “echo” something or the other, blood work, and a return appointment for July 6. After we arrived home, I noticed the appt. card had the wrong name. When we returned to monitor, we brought the error to the scheduler’s attention. She didn’t know what was going on. She wouldn’t just change the name. She moved his appointment back to July 10. Another one of aggravating little staff errors that make me crazy.

The digoxin didn’t work immediately as I thought it would; we had a couple of days of the accelerated pulse and other uncomfortable symptoms for him and extreme worry for me. He now seems to be doing better. The episodes have subsided a bit.

Friday we had an appt. with the oncologist. He cut the dosage of the oral chemo meds in half. Mr. Fixit has been on the reduced dose for two days. He was scheduled for another scan to check on the status of the tumors toward the end of June.

Some of his family from Connecticut came to visit. They were in Myrtle Beach for a few days and made the 4 1/2 hour trip to see him. We had no problems during the visit, but they only stayed a few hours. He did have a problem shortly after they left.

We were also notified that his potassium levels are back in the normal range. This info came from the blood tests done at the cancer institute before his appointment—same day service. We still haven’t heard from the test he had done at the family doctor’s office; I’m surprised and a little disappointed that they didn’t let us kmow something. Perhaps I expect too much.