Asking for a little prayer...

[indysteel]

Well...I just spoke with my sister. She and the rep from her HR department have been on the phone most of the morning with BC/BS to see if there was some way around this "loophole". Unfortunately, she was told "no". She will not be able to switch her insurance plan from "basic" to the "standard" plan, which DOES cover a portion of out-of-network costs....as opposed to her basic plan which does not. She feels like we are "spinning our wheels" here, and doesn't want to waste anymore precious time. So...CTCA is no longer an option, and we are on to "plan B"...which is back to Northwestern for the standard line of treatment. She is calling them today to set it all up and we will go from there and hope for the best.

Linda

We're all hoping for the best, too, Linda. We're here for you no matter what.

[mudmucker]

I haven't been on the forum much and am late to this thread. I wish you and your sister strength and peace through all of this.

[nscrbug]

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted an update to this thread, so here goes. The last time I posted, my sister's insurance had been rejected by Cancer Treatment Centers of America and we were moving on to Plan B - back to Northwestern for standard line of treatment, which consisted of a fairly new but extremely aggressive 3 chemo "cocktail" called Folfirinox. It required a chest port to be implanted so that the "fanny pack" pump she would have to wear for 46 hours could easily be attached for the treatments. Well...right before she was to have the chest port implanted (last Thursday), she decided that she didn't want to go through with the Folfirinox treatment. This regimen is considered very tough and only offered to the healthiest of patients due to the very harsh side effects. She basically had decided that she didn't want to spend her last few months here in misery and agony from the effects of the chemo...so she declined. But before we left the hospital, our NP called us back in to talk about another option. That option would be the old, conventional chemo treatment - gemcitabine. It's not as effective as the Folfirinox regimen, but it is much better tolerated by most patients. This is the treatment that Patrick Swayze underwent initially after he was diagnosed back in 2008. After taking the weekend to think it over, my sister has decided to give the gemcitabine treatment a try. She is tentatively scheduled for her first treatment on July 7th, but they are trying to get that date moved up sooner. She has been feeling nauseous and not eating much lately and is working with a nutritionist at the hospital. Naturally, they want her to maintain her weight as much as possible, so they are encouraging her to eat small, frequent high-protein, high-fat snacks/meals. Hopefully, she will have a positive response to the gemcitabine chemo and be willing to stay on it long enough to see if it helps.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers...it is very much appreciated.

Linda

[PamNY]

Thanks for the update. Your sister sounds like an admirable woman. Still wishing the best for all of you.

Pam

[shootingstar]

Be with her.

Stay healthy yourself, meaning don't get a cold and expose it to her. Her immune system will break down with that chemo treatment.

I feel for you.

[OakLeaf]

Keeping you both in my prayers.

[indysteel]

Thank you for taking the time to update us, Linda. You and your sister have been on my mind and in my prayers a lot. I'm sorry that she's facing such hard decisions, but I'm glad she's being honest with herself, her family and her doctors about what's most important to her.

[solobiker]

I am very sorry to hear about this. My thoughts are with you and your family.

[wackyjacky1]

Keeping you both in my prayers.

Same here.

[nscrbug]

So it's been well over 2 months since I posted an update on how my sister is doing with her stage IV pancreatic cancer...so I thought I'd bring you all up to speed on what's been happening.

So she has completed 3 chemo cycles (3 months) and was due for a new CT scan last Wednesday to see how the tumor has been responding to the treatment. She went in for the scan in the morning and later that afternoon got a call from the hospital saying that she needed to go directly to their ER because the scan detected 2 pulmonary emboli on both sides of her lungs. I took her back to the hospital that afternoon. Before starting her on anticoagulants, they had to do a brain scan and MRI to determine if the cancer had spread to her brain (it hadn't). So they gave her an IV drip of Heparin and kept her overnight to monitor her. The next morning, they ran tests and noticed that her platelets had dropped quite low. They thought that perhaps she was having a negative reaction to the Heparin (many people are allergic to it) so they needed to figure out what was going on before sending her home with injections that she will have to give herself for the next 6 months. They tried a different blood thinning agent to see if that invoked the same reaction...it did. So they went back to Heparin (actually Lovenox, which is in the Heparin family) and after spending 3 nights in the hospital, her platelets finally leveled off and remained stable. I brought her home this afternoon...she was so happy to be home. So the good news is...the blood clot issue should be controlled with the self-injections of Lovenox. Apparently, it's a fairly common issue among cancer patients. However, the bad news is...the chemo is not working and the cancer has progressed. We don't know exactly how "progressed" it is...we find that out in greater detail on Thursday when we meet with the oncologist again. It looks like they want to try a different (more effective/aggressive) chemo regimen if she is willing. That is all we know for now. Thanks for the continued prayers and good thoughts!

Linda