b i r d d r o p p i n g s

I just ended my eighth six week Sutent session (4 weeks on, 2 weeks off), am in my break period now, and feeling pretty good about things. I am going for new CT scans tomorrow afternoon, and am confident that they will show, as they did the last time I had them done, that the metastasized kidney cancer tumors in my lungs and abdomen are not growing and remain the same or slightly smaller. That is the best news I can expect, but I’ll confirm this in a day or two.

[Update] Scans are back and the tumors are all smaller than they were 129 days ago. The best news I could have gotten.

The Sutent side effect update would be that things are never quite the same. The profound tiredness is with me 24/7, taste bud issues change as I get deeper into the cycle, and this time my feet got so sore it was difficult to walk. The heavy duty narcotics I use (Morphine and Vicodan) do a pretty good job of controlling the pain, and I am quite comfortable when sitting or standing still. Just don’t like to go in motion anymore, and that just sucks. But God works in mysterious ways… he decided to make my pinched spinal cord nerves problem (from too much football, skiing, and dirt bike riding when younger) act up just now, and I spent a week or two in either neck traction or hobbling around on a cane, and that pain was so intense that the cancer pain became a non issue, but at this writing I am three days into a totally painless no narcotic time, which is way good for me.

I feel like I am the poster child for the health care debate currently going on in government circles. My health care issues came to the surface on my 65th birthday when I went for my welcome to Medicare physical. At that time I was covered by what I have since learned to be a horrible insurance plan that had been in effect for the previous ten years. I am the luckiest man walking to not have had the kidney cancer problem while under my private insurance plan. I had been under the care of a Primary care physician through all of those years, forever really, but because I had high deductible insurance I always just paid my way and it was never more than $500 a year tops, plus the monthly Insurance premium of $450 a month. I currently pay approximately $300 a month for first dollar coverage, no deductable, no co-pay except for small ones for drugs.

Medicare has served me well and efficiently through the last two years. It irritates me that they insist on sending me postal copies of all of the charges when I can get access online, but other than that, the system seems to keep everyone in the loop (Patient, Doctor, Hospital, and Pharmacy) quite satisfied. It is a perfectly good system for handling healthcare reimbursement to service providers. The big problem with Medicare is the system is approaching insolvency and must be immediately repaired (by taxing additional revenue and raising eligibility ages or similar plans) or it will prove that a government sponsored plan will not work.

Once Medicare gets put on a solid foundation again, then, and only then start talking about what to do next. In my opinion I would want to see all children under 18 come under Medicare also, but some revenue would need to get dedicated to the system to pay for them. Tax junk food, do whatever, it has to get paid for.

Then put everyone else on a level playing field and let them fend for themselves. Carry insurance if you wish, buy into the Medicare system or buy from a private or co-op insurer, and if you get sick your bills get paid. Don’t carry insurance and get sick, plan on paying the bill or declaring bankruptcy.