I can’t believe my last post was nearly a month ago. Forgive our absence from your lives and rest assured that we have been enduring.

Last Friday was Ken’s radiation simulation. What should have taken about 2 hours, ended up taking about 5 because Ken’s labs showed that he was dehydrated again. More than two and a half hours of our visit were dedicated to giving him intravenous fluids. (We had the honor of being the last patient/caregiver in the office.)

The radiation oncologist met with us for about 30 minutes to discuss what we should expect (pain like a bad sunburn about 3 weeks into treatment and lasting about 10 days after treatment) and to tell us his approach. He explained that they will use the results of the simulation to prepare for treatment. Apparently it takes approximately a week to determine the treatment plan, code the treatment into the computer, test it on a “dummy,” evaluate the tests, and repeat until the doctor is happy with the approach. They will call us later this week to give us his start date and to discuss what time he’ll need to be at the hospital every day.

Ken will also be receiving chemotherapy daily during radiation. We’ve been trying to get approval for the chemo pill since the beginning of June so Ken won’t have to wear that stupid chemo pump (with its infusion noise every 77 seconds.) After a week of trying to navigate the system to get the approvals, the doctor’s office called to ask for help.  I was on the phone with our insurance customer service area for more than an hour. Even the customer service rep had to call three separate departments within United before she got an answer. “Approved,” she said.  Two days later, I received a denial letter stating that his “BSA” needed to be above 1.92m^2.

Seriously, what the heck does that even mean?! When I called the doctor’s office, the nurse said that the insurance company had made a mistake. They had the wrong height for Ken and miscalculated his “Body Surface Area.” She called them and, finally, the chemo pill is approved, though I won’t really believe it until we get the approval letter. Ken will need to take 6 pills daily, Monday through Friday, for approximately 6 weeks.

What more is there to say? To quote DH Lawrence, “I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” Self-pity? What would be the point? It will not change the path we must walk.