(no subject)

[vicarz]

I'm pretty digging my boss right about now. He let me work from home during the ice storm, let me go home at lunch yesterday for WAH (he loves my acronym for work at home), and today I...WAH. Someone call me a wahmbulance. He's bucking the one-day-a-week unofficial WAH rule, at least for the ice crap. I'm going to make damn sure everything I can do is done over the 3-day weekend.

I took advantage of going home during lunch to blow lunch at Ikea & home depot. Painting and moving do not look scary at all - usually more time consuming than I expect, and I'm lucky I had this ice-storm-time-bonus, but I'll be done in time. Heck, the painting is clearly the easy part and may take what...an hour? Floors - went with murphy's oil soap for now.

Dad - they readily admit the imaging is not perfect, and were surprised to find the tumor was higher than expected and may be wrapped around the pulmonary artery. Poor guy is the the awful "Washington Hospital Center" and the place blows. The nursing staff are all apparently on their cell-phones socializing all day in lieu of doing patient runs - this was more obvious to my dad and his wife when the phone intercom was left on and they were treated to a long conversation of the nurse they couldn't shut off. Now the treatment recommended may be targeted radiation therapy, but there is no way in hell they are going to that horrible "Washington Hospital Center" again.

If you don't have insurance, or like me and my dad have crappy insurance with Kaiser or some other dump, spend the money necessary or switch jobs or do what you have to do to cover your ass with insurance. Get diagnosed early. Get treated fast.

Comments

[kelowna.livejournal.com]

My heart is holding tight for you my friend :(

Hopefully in all the muck of a center there is a special doctor. It only takes one to help.

--kelowna

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Muck! He's actually got a good doctor, the problem is getting procedurs approved through the HMO (whose mission is to save money for ok care, not give good care). Our arguments are these procedures have good reasons to be done - they're not long shots.

[telie13.livejournal.com]

so this means they can't remove it?
I'm sorry.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Not with knives it seems, but there is this targeted radiation therapy to investigate.

[pennan.livejournal.com]

Egads, that's just plain awful. How's he doing mentally with all this news/crap treatment?
My old neighbor has been dealing with a horribly invasive Glioblastoma, but the upside is that he's found all sorts of treatment options that have kept him going years beyond what they gave him in the original prognosis, so don't let the narrow mindedness of one doctor make you give up hope. He had to be pretty aggressive in seeing different doctors and did a ton of his own research onto treatment options.
As an aside, Cancer.gov has done a reasonably good job on their newly reworked site for providing info, and have reasonably informative patient information, like radiation therapy .

[vicar.livejournal.com]

He is doing shitty, and I don't blame him. He did tons of research on the issue as he has done throughout his treatment. He had to fight and get a threatening letter from the doctor to Kaiser to approve the tests to view the tumors, saying he would not indemnify them if they failed to approve the requested tests. He wanted this procedure a year ago - it took this long to get it, and the delay may be in part or full why he's in the jam he is today.

He's already past his expected life expantancy by years, but this was a specific hope for a specific possibility. There was a range of possibilities, but this was not within the forecast range and it sucks.

[pennan.livejournal.com]

wow. Crap upon crap upon crap for him to deal with. I'm really sorry.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

thanks. I'm frustrated with him - reading what I wrote I want to make sure you understand none of that is directed toward you.

Actually, the theory of HMOs is that you sacrifice quality for price. It's just in the US court system that we have demanded the same level of care from HMOs as we do from PPOs, which is why they are in financial trouble. It's easier to be a cold calculating fiscal conservative when you parents aren't poor and sick. If he dies, Kaiser saves money and the shareholder benefits.

[cweaselle.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry about your dad. I'm glad you had these days off even if it called for an ice storm.

[end-fate.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how insurance works. :(