Day 100, or Look Ma, No Tails!

Friday marked the 100th day since I received my donor's stem cells (which is technically considered the day of the transplant). Since then I've lost my hair, had complications from graft vs. host disease (GvH), swollen up from steroids, and been on doctor's restrictions (aka house arrest). But I've also gotten the GvH under control (mostly), slowly reduced my steroid dose, and continued eating, breathing, and spending time with Brynn. It hasn't been the easiest hundred days, but it's been one hundred days I might not have otherwise seen.

To mark the occasion, I had a PET/CT scan, which will show whether the cancer is regrowing or not, AND I had my "line" taken out. I won't know the results of the scan until next week, so we can all wait in (sc)anticipation. Getting the line out was a long awaited moment of relief though. For those of you who aren't familiar, the line I'm referring to was my triple lumen Hickman catheter. It was "installed" in my chest the day I checked into the hospital for the transplant...all the way back in April. Since then I've had what amounts to an open wound just next to my shoulder! It's like a friendly invitation to germs, "Just come right on in, the blood flow is fine." Thanks to a great team of nurses who changed my dressing (which I called my "sticker") and flushed out the line twice a week, I was able to stave off getting an infection. But it meant careful showering, daily attentiveness, not yanking the thing out accidentally (it was over a foot long!), and always having "tails" poking under my shirts.

Having the line installed was a big deal. I was anesthetized, taken back to surgery, and billed out the wazoo. So I was surprised when I overheard a nurse telling another patient not to worry, because even a monkey could take out these lines. I was even more surprised when I was sent, not to surgery, but just to my surgeon's office to have it removed. He snipped a couple of stitches, numbed the area just around the line itself, and slowly pulled it out. That was it. It took me ten times as long to drive home from his office as it did to actually take the line out. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll still get billed out the wazoo. It was well worth it though. When the surgeon saw me looking at the line laying limply on his instrument tray, he warned me that I couldn't take it with me. I told him I had no such intention and that if I never see another Hickman catheter it'll be too soon.

The future home of yet another visible-when-I-wear-a-strapless-dress scar.

Day 100 also marks the loosening of my restrictions. I still need to avoid crowds and germs, but I can go more places and eat more things. My doctor suggested carry-out instead of dine-in, but either is a big improvement over having to cook every night for months. And of course I'm going to be smart about where I go and what I do. While I very much want to just get back to "normal," I know that taking any ill-advised risks could put me back in the hospital or worse. My immune system is still a puny weakling. That means it's  easier to avoid germy situations and stay healthy than it is to get better. So I'll continue to follow most of my restrictions, but that doesn't mean I won't be hitting the road. After 100 days of house arrest, a road trip might be just what the doctor* ordered.

(*metaphorically only, my actual doctor would have me live in a bubble if at all reasonable)

Obamacare in Action...Already!

Today my insurance sent me...(wait for it)...a CHECK! Technically it's Brynn's insurance, which is a private policy I took out for her through HumanaOne years ago. She's been covered under this policy since 2005, and the premiums have crept up each year, to the point where I now pay $267/month just for Brynn's insurance.

Now I understand how insurance works (trust me on this one, because to be honest I wish I had a lot less experience dealing with insurance). I know that while you're healthy some of your premium goes to cover those who are sick and then if you get sick (like I did) others' premiums go to paying your bills. I also realize that insurance companies have employees and operating costs and yadda yadda yadda.

But in 2011 Humana reported a *profit* of $1,099,400,000. That's just profit. And they were ranked #79 in the list of America's largest corporations (source for profit and rank: CNN Money).

Thanks to the new Affordable Healthcare Act (aka Obamacare), I just got a tiny bit of that back.

Since Brynn is an unusually healthy child, we usually only go to the doctor and dentist for well visits. Of course there's the occasional sneeze, sniffle, or ache, but usually no more than an extra visit or two a year. So the $3,200 I pay annually for her insurance did seem a little steep, but no one wants to see their child un- or under insured.

The health care legislation also thought this was a little pricey for someone who uses their insurance so little. It contains an 80/20 rule, which basically says 80% of the premium I pay to Humana must then be spent on medical care. They can use the other 20% for overhead, but 80% has to actually cover medical care.

So when I opened the letter from Humana today I actually did a little happy dance. Here's the exact wording:

If for some reason you can't read that in the picture it says "Enclosed is your health insurance premium rebate check which is required by the Affordable Care Act -- health care reform -- and the Medical Loss Ratio provision. The purpose of this requirement is to lower the cost of health care coverage."

This is the first face of Obamacare I've experienced in person, and so far I like it just as much as I thought I would.