painkillers,knee aches
please excuse me if this seems scattered at all...i am lots of pain killers because I have had some knee pain today. This morning i woke up and i could not walk on my right leg. it was very difficult. i know that my joints can start to feel pain because of the neupogen (bone marrow stimulating medication) but this was just one knee. Throughout the day it was checked out. Some doctors were scared it was a possible infection, I had fluid in the day, but luckily, nothing was found. I did also take an xray but I will not know the info on that until tomorrow. But pain killers are helping this situation out.
Today I got a disturbing phone call from hackensack hospital letting me know that the case manager of my insurance called to inform them that my insurance had been cancelled at my college since january 14, 2005. So here I was, hooked up to a blood transfusion, on these pain killers, steroids, benadryll, barely staying up, being told this information. I sprang from my bed. This was so frustrating. I had been talking to my college since the end of November and my student advisor said she would take care of the exit form. I also spoke the the lady in charge of medical health insurance to make sure I could keep it even in the event of a medical absence. She said she was 99% sure that it was okay to do that and once Leah filled out the exit forms and they were sent through-everything would be fine. I was assured everything would be taken care of in NOVEMBER. A week after January , I did try to email my senior advisor but did not hear anything but assumed this was such a critical situation that everything would be okay. BUT TODAY on February 1st, sitting in my hospital bed after three weeks with my bald head and serious medical condition I had to do deal with this. I called my school-Eugene Lang-The New School -and I started to cry to the Student Health Insurance Manager, Jeanette Krupinski because i was overwhelmed. And honestly, I was hurt by the fact that after three months of this and the critical situation I am in, I do not have time to waste. This is a half a million procedure and that is not including the pre and post transplant costs.
Jeannette did get on this right away and I did have to fax some things tonight. I will see how things go. At Hackensack, the case manager said she would look into next week. So I have a week,to clear all this up. I thought it was really great Jeannette put herself out there right away.
The fevers have slowed down. I am waiting for my counts to go up so I will be able to leave. Everyday seems like something and if I do not write, it's usually because it has been quite a difficult day for me. My WBC is only a .3 today but yesterday it was a .2, so we are inching.
My nights are sometimes difficult. I usually wake up every hour or every other hour to use the bathroom. Sometimes the nurses are now letting me off the ivs to sleep and i tend to sleep longer then. At around 530 am, i am woken up to get blood taken. Then at 6am, I woken up again to take my vitals (blood pressure, oxy level, heart rate and temperature)-at 7am i am woken up to take a nexium to help my stomach lining. Then at 8am, vitals are taken again-and then there is also the morning nurse that needs to come in and hang a prescription bottle iv and then usually we will talk about the day. I sometimes try to sleep longer if i can. By 9am, I am usually shown my blood counts and we see how my WBC is doing, how my hemoglobin is doing and how my platelets are. Then the doctor will decide if I need a transfusion. In the morning/early afternoon-I typically get my transfusions as long as my temperature stays down.
I am so drowsy now. Please ask me any questions if you think of any.
OH____Hackensack called tomorrow-I am scheduled to be admitted on february 14th and then have the transplant after 7 days of chemo-February 21 will be my transplant-a day after my birthday...
i have been a little hesitant because i really want to have a few days to recover from this and just be able to eat indian food or do the things i haven't been for 5 months.
I want to thank everyone for emailing me and for coming to see me. I love you all...
COUNTS GO UP!!!!
Today I got a disturbing phone call from hackensack hospital letting me know that the case manager of my insurance called to inform them that my insurance had been cancelled at my college since january 14, 2005. So here I was, hooked up to a blood transfusion, on these pain killers, steroids, benadryll, barely staying up, being told this information. I sprang from my bed. This was so frustrating. I had been talking to my college since the end of November and my student advisor said she would take care of the exit form. I also spoke the the lady in charge of medical health insurance to make sure I could keep it even in the event of a medical absence. She said she was 99% sure that it was okay to do that and once Leah filled out the exit forms and they were sent through-everything would be fine. I was assured everything would be taken care of in NOVEMBER. A week after January , I did try to email my senior advisor but did not hear anything but assumed this was such a critical situation that everything would be okay. BUT TODAY on February 1st, sitting in my hospital bed after three weeks with my bald head and serious medical condition I had to do deal with this. I called my school-Eugene Lang-The New School -and I started to cry to the Student Health Insurance Manager, Jeanette Krupinski because i was overwhelmed. And honestly, I was hurt by the fact that after three months of this and the critical situation I am in, I do not have time to waste. This is a half a million procedure and that is not including the pre and post transplant costs.
Jeannette did get on this right away and I did have to fax some things tonight. I will see how things go. At Hackensack, the case manager said she would look into next week. So I have a week,to clear all this up. I thought it was really great Jeannette put herself out there right away.
The fevers have slowed down. I am waiting for my counts to go up so I will be able to leave. Everyday seems like something and if I do not write, it's usually because it has been quite a difficult day for me. My WBC is only a .3 today but yesterday it was a .2, so we are inching.
My nights are sometimes difficult. I usually wake up every hour or every other hour to use the bathroom. Sometimes the nurses are now letting me off the ivs to sleep and i tend to sleep longer then. At around 530 am, i am woken up to get blood taken. Then at 6am, I woken up again to take my vitals (blood pressure, oxy level, heart rate and temperature)-at 7am i am woken up to take a nexium to help my stomach lining. Then at 8am, vitals are taken again-and then there is also the morning nurse that needs to come in and hang a prescription bottle iv and then usually we will talk about the day. I sometimes try to sleep longer if i can. By 9am, I am usually shown my blood counts and we see how my WBC is doing, how my hemoglobin is doing and how my platelets are. Then the doctor will decide if I need a transfusion. In the morning/early afternoon-I typically get my transfusions as long as my temperature stays down.
I am so drowsy now. Please ask me any questions if you think of any.
OH____Hackensack called tomorrow-I am scheduled to be admitted on february 14th and then have the transplant after 7 days of chemo-February 21 will be my transplant-a day after my birthday...
i have been a little hesitant because i really want to have a few days to recover from this and just be able to eat indian food or do the things i haven't been for 5 months.
I want to thank everyone for emailing me and for coming to see me. I love you all...
COUNTS GO UP!!!!
posted by Jenn at 8:39 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Jenn - So sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time right now. We know how frustrating dealing with insurance can be on top of dealing with your illness. We hope you have others you can lean on to make some of he phone calls for you. Your not going to believe this but Aiden is due to get his transplant on the same exact day as you ... Feb 21st will be day 0 for him as well! Aiden's bday is March 6th but we are celebrating early so he can be with his twin sister. Happy early birthday to you. We are thinking about you.
Hi Jenn - So sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time right now. We know how frustrating dealing with insurance can be on top of dealing with your illness. We hope you have others you can lean on to make some of the phone calls for you. You're not going to believe this but Aiden is due to get his transplant on the same exact day as you ... Feb 21st will be day 0 for him as well! Aiden's bday is March 6th but we are celebrating early so he can be with his twin sister. Happy early birthday to you. We are thinking about you.
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