Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Day two...much better

This will be a short one as today was much better than yesterday. Got the 2nd shot, this time in the left cheek. Thankfully, nausea was at a minimum. It came and went throughout the day, so it was not a major concern. Thank you for your prayers. I followed up with the hospital, and tomorrow I head to the Nuclear medicine wing at Presby and get to glow again, although this dose will only run a refrigerator or two as the dose is very low. Sorry, you won't see me glowing like last time. Thursday will hold no visit to any doctor or hospital, yahoo! Friday will be the scan and blood tests, so maybe next week I'll will get the results from the doctor. Thank you again for your prayers and encouraging emails, notes, etc. You have all been a great blessing. I will write more after the treatment on Friday.

Blessings,
Jeremy

Monday, May 24, 2010

Day One...what will tomorrow bring?

Day one down and four more to go...I didn't quite know what to expect other than an appointment at the doctor or hospital everyday this week. So today began at my doctors office to get an injection of a drug called thyrogen. I didn't do my homework like a usually do and read up on the drug I would be on, so this morning about an hour after the injection, I started getting nauseous. I then decided it would be a good idea to read the information the nurse gave me on the medicine, and yes...one of the side effects of the medicine is nausea. It stayed with me all day. But what was odd was if I was active, I didn't have nausea. We had a meeting this morning and it started late, so, as any good recreation major should have on hand, I got a frisbee out and started playing frisbee with my co-workers while we waited outside, and no nausea until about 10 minutes after playing. Again, the rest of the day nausea would come and go. This evening I joined my volleyball team and played, and just like the morning, the nausea was gone. Now I tell my story like this, please note the sarcastic humor...I just spent $900 on medicine to make me nauseous. And tomorrow I guess I get to do it again! Oh what fun! In all seriousness, I am sure this will help with the treatment. I must say that I have been very blessed for this to be the worst I have felt during this whole journey! God has been faithful to walk through this with me and to keep the pain at a very low level. So, we'll see what tomorrow will be like! Keep praying for a easy treatment!

Blessings,
Jeremy

Friday, May 14, 2010

Nearing the End...

I never realized how much time it takes to maintain a blog until I got busy with life and as I ran into people who asked me how I am doing and that they were following the blog, I then realized I was not writing like I should have nor keeping folks up to date on the latest.

It seemed like the next phase in this 'journey' was to end this past week. I saw my endocrinologist in March, and we had scheduled my treatment for Monday, May 10. Last week as we approached the end of the week, I started to wonder why I had not heard from the hospital about the treatment, so I called them. I spoke to the person who had originally scheduled my treatment. My treatment was to consist
of two injections, one each day starting on Monday. Wednesday would be a small dosage of radiation followed by a scan on Friday. When I asked about the injections, the lady on the phone said that my doctor would know about the injections. I called the nurse at my doctors office and asked her about the treatment. She stated, "I'm sorry but your insurance has denied your treatment." I was like 'WHAT"! I asked her to explain. She said that she had contacted CVS Caremark and they denied my treatment.
They had appealed the the denial and had written a letter of medical necessity for the treatment and were waiting for a decision. I immediately said, "CVS Caremark is not my insurance. That
is my prescription plan." I told her I would get back with her. I immediately called the insurance people at work, and they had no idea that I was scheduled for a treatment. I told them about the doctors office calling CVS, and their comment was the same as my thought. I immediately connected the doctors office with my insurance. This whole story happened within an hours time. I was praying this whole time for peace and that this situation would be resolved. I was at a loss of words and was in a bit of shock. About an hour after this story, I received an email from the wonderful case workers at my
insurance that they had talked with my doctors office and would process the procedure through my insurance. I was overjoyed! I then figured the treatment would then have to be rescheduled.

It has been rescheduled to the week of May 24-28. It will take a little time after the scan on the 28th to know the results, but the doctor feels pretty sure that all will be well.

Since the last treatment, I have been adjusting to the medicine and seem to be at the correct dosage. I have exercised some and traveled on two trip, one to Guatemala and just recently to Kenya, and I seem to be doing great! I will post a couple of photos from the trip to Kenya. It was a great trip full of great ministry to kids!

I'll try to write more when I get a chance!

Blessings,
Jeremy