I am officially an old fart now and I have a card to prove it

I put my medicare card in my wallet today. I go on medicare on December 1, 2016 and I honestly eight years ago after getting sick with cancer never thought I would make it to medicare. As I watch TV, the number of ads for Medicare supplemental policies floods the air way. Erectile pills, heart pills, constipation, and this ache and this pain.......to think I bought into the illusion of our golden years.

I had my lung surgery and feel like somebody took a baseball bat and gave me about five good swats to the chest and stomach. Not terrible pain, but the lips and tongue are again all screwed up from probably spilled radiation or the freezing agent used to debulk my lung tumors. I got my three days of Octreotide specialized scans and I will see if I am eligible for the PRRT trials which have started in about five US hospitals. Northwestern is one of the hospitals.

It involves three injections and and overnight over three months. I doubt Medicare will cover, and in Houston the procedure is costing 60k. However, the Europeans have been years ahead of American medicine and in Holland, Germany, and in Geneva they are doing the PRRT treatment for about 20k plus airfare and hotel. There is some talk if you qualify for the US trials the injection series will be free in the trials. My doctor ordered the scans which ended last friday and were a royal pain in the asz with three hour scans on each morning followed by two half hour scans. I sleep usually but 2.5 hours a day is a bit much. I got the procedures covered while I still had my private insurance and had met my deductible......after December 1, I will probably go into steep decline without the second shot. We will see, but I will play the cards dealt, and if the doctor says I qualify, I will consider a trip to Holland for treatment because I doubt I will last the three years it will take our wonderful slow system to get PRRT approval by the FDA.

All good in this journey.

2seaoat wrote:I put my medicare card in my wallet today.  I go on medicare on December 1, 2016 and I honestly eight years ago after getting sick with cancer never thought I would make it to medicare.  As I watch TV, the number of ads for Medicare supplemental policies floods the air way.   Erectile pills, heart pills, constipation, and this ache and this pain.......to think I bought into the illusion of our golden years.  

I had my lung surgery and feel like somebody took a baseball bat and gave me about five good swats to the chest and stomach.   Not terrible pain, but the lips and tongue are again all screwed up from probably spilled radiation or the freezing agent used to debulk my lung tumors.  I got my three days of Octreotide specialized scans and I will see if I am eligible for the PRRT trials which have started in about five US hospitals.  Northwestern is one of the hospitals.

It involves three injections and and overnight over three months.  I doubt Medicare will cover, and in Houston the procedure is costing 60k.  However, the Europeans have been years ahead of American medicine and in Holland, Germany, and in Geneva they are doing the PRRT treatment for about 20k plus airfare and hotel.   There is some talk if you qualify for the US trials the injection series will be free in the trials.  My doctor ordered the scans which ended last friday and were a royal pain in the asz with three hour scans on each morning followed by two half hour scans.   I sleep usually but 2.5 hours a day is a bit much.   I got the procedures covered while I still had my private insurance and had met my deductible......after December 1, I will probably go into steep decline without the second shot.  We will see, but I will play the cards dealt, and if the doctor says I qualify, I will consider a trip to Holland for treatment because I doubt I will last the three years it will take our wonderful slow system to get PRRT approval by the FDA.

All good in this journey.

Glad to hear

Oh, PRRT treatment if successful can add up to five years to survival rates, and one of the rumors on the endocrine cancer boards are that big Pharm is dragging their feet to stop the approval because they will lose billions if folks can pay 20k and get five years, while my shots are costing 20k a month......Mr. Markle and his BS denial of the reality of where the problem is in American health care really is......unbridled and unregulated profit....whether it is an aids drug, an epi pen, or my shots. The Europeans are light years ahead of us, and the biggest fallacy from forty years ago, is that America is cutting edge. Sorry, but the world is cutting edge, we just pay twice as much for the same.