06/22/08 - Medical Update

Well, the last post about health insurance problems was intended to be this one, but grew into its own monster... So here is my medical update, in which some items may now be repeated.

I had a big medical appointment last Tuesday. Laura and I left home at 9:00AM and returned around 5:30PM. I had appointments for a check of my blood counts, an MRI of my head, an MRI of my spine, a spinal tap, and a meeting with my doctors to discuss the test results.

First, my blood counts. They were slowly headed up (good), but now some are heading down again (bad). My doctors think (hope?) that they will soon get on the right track and head upward. I updated the plots at the link to the right. The rightmost points are my most recent test results.

My liver counts had been high, and have returned to a more normal level, which is good news. Apparently, the chemotherapy was the cause of the high counts. Once again, they are updated at the link to the right.


My brain tumor, pre-op.
Above is an MRI image of the brain tumor that I was diagnosed with. Now, my doctors are using MRIs to make sure the tumor doesn't grow back. They are checking both my head and spine because my type of tumor typically only spreads (metastacizes) to CSF (Cerebral-Spinal Fluid) which is found in the brain and spine. The MRIs of my head follow, with the tumor location highlighted in green. These MRIs were clear.


MRIs of my head, 6/17/08 (click to enlarge).
The MRIs of my spine are below. Since the spine is long, they divide it into three separate MRIs : the cervical spine, the thoracic spine, and the lumbar spine. Once again, the MRIs were clear of any regrowth. I'll take their word for that because differentiating between tumor regrowth and normal tissue will likely remain somewhat of a mystery for me...


MRIs of my spine, 6/17/08.
My doctors said that since my MRIs were clear, they didn't need to perform a spinal tap. I had a spinal tap shortly after my surgery to check for tumor mestastatization. A crude analogy is tapping a maple tree for sap (to make maple syrup). Some pictures of the initial (November 2006) spinal tap are below.


This is a spinal tap...
To summarize, my tests showed no signs of tumor regrowth. My blood counts are still too low, and some have even headed downward from my last blood test three weeks ago. They will be monitored until they come back up. My next major medical appointment, pretty much the same as this one, will be in three months. Until then, I should post about other topics...

06/21/08 - Insurance Problem

I had a big medical appointment last Tuesday. Laura and I left home at 9:00AM and returned around 5:30PM. I had appointments for a check of my blood counts, an MRI of my head, an MRI of my spine, a spinal tap, and a meeting with my doctors to discuss the test results.

First, a quick word about my medical insurance. They have been great up to this point, paying for the bulk of my medical needs. Monday, I got a call from the hospital saying that my appointments for the next day were not approved by my insurance. I was very stressed and spent most of the next 23 hours on the phone, trying to get the appointments approved.

To make a long story short, all of my records showed that I had paid for health insurance through the end of June. I had even called my insurance in early May because they had sent a letter saying my insurance would expire on 5/31/08. Their representative said that my insurance was good "for the indefinite future" and that the letter was sent in "error." Luckily, I have learned to write important phone calls down, and I had documented these.

A lot of insurance company employees were at a training session and were pretty much unreachable that Monday. When I finally did get through, someone at the insurance company was supposed to fix my coverage quickly. The person I spoke to at the hospital had to leave at 3:00 on Monday, and any progress after that was supposed to be reported to them by the insurance company at 8:00AM Tuesday morning. Well, it was just 15 minutes before Laura and I had to leave when the coverage, and the appointments were finally approved.

I would say that the insurance company was very negligent. I had paid, in full, and I had also called to verify that my coverage was good. Through same error on their part, they said my coverage was invalid. Surprise, they won't tell me what that error was. When everything finally was resolved (at the last minute), I asked them if I could have done anything different, to which they said, "No."

So much for making a long story short, although this post is short compared to my four pages of phone notes from this event. This situation should make you think - what if I couldn't talk, or were otherwise incapacitated? What if the appointments were delayed and so was a negative diagnosis that could benefit from a timelier response? - Caused by someone typing something wrong at the health insurance company? No sweat off their backs...

06/21/08 - General Update

Yes, it has definitely been a while since my last update. I have been busy and one of the first things to lose priority in my mind is updating my blog. Medically, appointments have slowed down and generally went well, so there have been no changes to "desperately" report there. Although I will post a separate "Medical Update" to bring everyone up to date...

What kept me so busy? The most recent thing was a new shed. Hopefully, it will help to de-clutterize our house (which would make Laura happy). I would like to post a picture of it, but it has been raining most of the day today. I looked at a lot of sheds and ended up spending a lot more money than I had planned, but for that I got a substantially upgraded and well-constructed model. I half-joked with Laura that if a hurricane ever came, we would be safer in the shed. Probably true.

For the shed, I had to choose a model (shop), clear out a level site (remove "trees" and roots), and other various tasks... Not so difficult for a "normal" person, but hard for someone who doesn't get around or effectively move well. Very time consuming...

I've also bought some things for a kayak trailer I would like to build - for my tricycle. I will post a picture of it when that happens. First a bike (trike), next the open sea - conquering these tasks is a great way to get physical therapy and exercise at the same time. For a while, I was riding my bike a lot, but I haven't beem recently due to my involement with other tasks...

I'm also trying to experiment with electronics. It's one thing I used to do with my "day job" and I have some projects in mind now to try to gauge my abilities. For example, a few weeks ago I tried to solder a few LEDs to a wire and make a crude keyboard light. "Crude" being the key word. I used to think that I soldered pretty well, and it was depressing to see what I did now. Really, I try not to get down much, but that experience struck a nerve with me...

Well, I'm going to go work on my medical post. Hopefully, I will get it online today. That's a good probability, because the weather has definitely gotten worse outside...