Friday, September 11, 2009

Cancer aftermath

Even though I am finished with treatment, the aftermath of my treatment remains. Today I received a threatening letter from UM for the unreimbursed x-rays: Pay up in 10 days or it goes to a collection agency and your credit will be impacted. Put a call in to remind them that the charges are in appeal. We have since enrolled the help of the corporate plan administrator who is finding out exactly what we need to do to file a successful 2nd appeal. Again called the physician to see what help they can be in explaining why I needed more port checks than what Aetna believes is necessary. They presumably never ran into this problem before.

And if that wasn't annoying enough, it seems that Naomi got a speeding ticket while we were in MA in exactly the same place she's been warned repeatedly to slow down in. I guess she figured since Dontae paid the ticket, we wouldn't find out about it. Also she found out it will cost an additional $500 in insurance.

Triple Negative in Black Women: I read today that the 5 year survival rate for Black women with TNBC is only 14.5%, which is unbelievably low. I am not sure what it is in white women but I assume its higher but less than the 70% for BC in general. In Ghana, 60% of all BC is TNBC vs 15% here. They are assuming there is some nasty genetic component besides BRAC1/2 that makes it so deadly.

I did go to the support group for BC survivors today. More ladies than usual. One is fighting possible recurrences with a macrobiotic diet that appears to have no protein in it what so ever.
I do like the social worker who also has travelled quite a bit in Italy so we talked about that at the lunch they gave us.

Serenity now.

4 comments:

Renee said...

I am sorry to hear of having to worry about bill collectors for medical reasons on top of having to deal with cancer.

Renee xoxo

Sara Diana said...

Oh dear, what a pickle! So sorry to hear about your problems, being through cancer and treatment, you just dont need this hassle.

As for Naomi, well, she will learn the hard way.

To answer your question from my blog. Sadly, I no longer am fluent in welsh. I live right next to the English border so Wrexham has become very diluted. My family from the welsh villages have died and over a period of 20 years I have not exposed to my tongue apart from my mum. Funnily enough though one of the auxiliaries at the chemo unit always talks to me in welsh and I respond. The other day, she questioned me about it and I told her to carry on, it took me back to happy days and I still understand most of it.

Sarah Sullivan said...

Ackkkk..like BC alone isn't enough - geesh - so sorry hon!! I hope things look up!! Hugs, Sarah

Katie said...

That is truly an awful thing to have to deal with on top of breast cancer. I hope that you're having a better day today. I would like to share a heart-felt video with you called “Stand Up To Cancer”— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9avVoQB2_rQ> . This video highlights the importance of managing your cancer treatment and avoiding infection. Please watch and share with all your loved ones.

Best of wishes,

Katie

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