Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I visited my Urologist today. Before we went in they took us aside to the billing office. They presented us with an $1,100 bill for Dr. Brutcher's services as a surgeon. My Mother-in-Law brought up a good point that the Anesthesiologists bill should be coming shortly after that. How fun! (yeah, right.) I'll tell you, I'm not looking forward to seeing those numbers on a bill. The Oncologist that I am going to tomorrow is self-pay, so that bill will be coming too. We have some agencies and things that we have in reserve that we'll bring out to help pay those bills, but every little bit will still help keep us out of debt because of these medical bills.

I try not to let myself get wrapped up in the financial aspect of the treatment, but instead on just trying to get better. That's the most important thing medically to me right now, then second would be being able to have children later in life.

He said everything was looking good. I asked him to refer me to the Anschutz Medical Campus, but neither of us knew how to do that. They tried calling, but were unable to get a real person. So they gave me the number to call. He told me I could take the clear plastic covering off the incision today. He almost said it like he was surprised it hadn't already fallen off or that I hadn't already taken it off.

I asked a few questions about my condition. I asked what stage cancer they found, first of all. He said it was Stage 3 Testicular Cancer. It is stage 3 because my tumor markers are so high. There is a test they ran on my blood where i was supposed to be <.07 and I was at 2,222.

They found 3 different abnormalities on my removed testicle: Embryonal, Yolk Sac and Teratoma. The biggest composition was the Embryonal at 85%. The other two were relatively small.

Because the cancer didn't penetrate to the Tuncia Albuginea, that means i am in relatively good shape.

So for me that basically means i have 3 different kinds of abnormalities, like the Urologist said.

After the Urology appointment I called The University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) to see if i could be admitted there as a patient in their Oncology section. I got transferred a lot and left a message for a woman named Karen who does the scheduling. UCH is in the Anschutz Medical Campus. Karen called me back at 11:50a and left a message saying that she's having an Oncologists Assistant looking into times when i can come in for a consultation. They are thinking in the next few days which will be just perfect! She mentioned that she would be in a meeting from 12p until 1p and would check her messages promptly after that. I called her back when i got the message, at noon. Now i am waiting on her call.

The CICP (Colorado Indigent Care Program) that I am signed up for is used at UCH. Also Chemotherapy is covered, that right there will save a pretty penny. We are so blessed to have all these facilities and programs available to us. The support we're getting from family and friends is pretty outstanding, i am saving every email i get from paypal saying i got a donation so i can send Thank You cards.

After the Urologist told me that I had stage 3 cancer, he saw my "Live Strong" bracelet and told me "you know Lance Armstrong had stage 4 cancer, right?" I was also told that he had kids 2 years after his treatments, without using in vitro fertilization. So i am pretty optimistic!

When Karen calls back and I get something set up, i'll post another update, but that's all for now!

The picture is from a website (http://radiology.rsna.org/content/227/1/18/F1.large.jpg), it's an anatomical picture with no real relevance to my pathology report except for the labeled terms.