August 10, 2007
Blogging on Steroids®
I am going to have to join the libertarians. I never use that appellation on myself except when stealing Milton Friedman's line about a little-l libertarian and a big-r Republican. Yet I have allowed my National Review subscription to expire and find myself very excited when a new Reason shows up. I called myself a libertarian a few weeks ago for the first time.
Pardon the navel-gazing but I am "Blogging On Steroids®" this weekend. My last batch cost me $400 for the meds and $350 for home nursing services. Colorado suffered from extreme blizzards that week and, as I was experienced doing my own infusions, I told the nurses not to brave the elements. (UPDATE: Needless to say, they did not respond with "Okay, keep your $350.")
Thinking I am a pro now, I investigated a self-directed plan for this dose. The nurse I see for my clinical trial agreed to put the IV in. I had a few needle/catheters and supplies from the last batch. I still have a stand, and a couple of tubes, &c. Walgreens pharmacy said they could hook me up with the drugs for $269 (something about a Barry Bonds Special, I didn’t catch all the details...)
After every dose, you wash the line with a saline syringe and shoot in some Heparin, to keep your line smooth, clean and free of gunky deposits. I asked the Walgreen's Pharmacist about getting these and he could not without a separate prescription. I have a prescription for home care or ER for the application. Either would supply me a gob of these (35 ml in a gob).
But Mr. Pharmacist would not. "Federal Regulations" he tells me. I decide now is not the time for a Ninth Amendment discussion.
I call around and look around, but there seems to be no choice. I go to the Urgent care clinic. They are swell folks and check me into a room, offer me juice and take superb care of me. As they will on the next nine visits. The care is superb, but I will pay $500 bucks in copays and I-don't-even-wanna-know how much for hospital prices on the prescription. It is probably going to cost me $750 because the Pharmacist is proscribed from selling me an IV supply with an IV prescription. Madness!
I get my first dose last night. At the end she flushes with saline and I ask "Aren't you going to use Heparin?"
"No," she says. "We don't do that anymore."
Prednisone? Ghaa ... hate the stuff. And that damn 'cyborg' catheter in the vein. You just cannot do anything without it snagging on something.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at August 10, 2007 3:08 PMSolumedrol (is that a Prednisone derivative?) Other than a horrid last-night's-stout-and-cigars taste in the back of my mouth, I don't have any real problems. Last time I got some very good results from it. They did not last long, but it was a welcome vacation from the worst bits of MS.
Posted by: jk at August 10, 2007 3:42 PMArghhhhhhh!!!
Madness is right!
Posted by: Terri at August 10, 2007 6:59 PMAn update: I think my point still holds, but before you all start crying on my behalf, I will point out that things are going well.
It turns out that the copay, like ice skating at the Y, is an all-day pass, so I can do two sessions on one. Had I known, I wouldn't have started at night, but...
The care has truly been stellar. These people are friendly and professional and I would be foolish not to put value on having professional care nearby in case of problems, expert opinions on the condition of the injection site, and new bandages and packing with each infusion.
I would still like the choice, and I think our health care system needs to move to be friendlier to self-directed care. But this is working out okay for me. Y'all can stop mailing the 10s and 20s...
Posted by: jk at August 12, 2007 1:27 PM | What do you think? [4]