Linda661 Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 Mom just got Rx'd Procrit yesterday for anemia (she only had 1 Taxol/Carbo treatment at the time of this news) -- I dropped the prescription off at the nursing facility yesterday and the pharmacist called me just to give me a "heads up" that our copay will be $1,000.00 for the drug (per month). I asked him about possible substitutions, and he said that they are twice as expensive. I can cope with the expense, I just hope it's a solid approach to dealing with her anemia. Are there other effective ways to address anemia that I might ask the doctor about? We do appear to be continuing with weekly chemo treatments and won't see the doctor again for two weeks. Unfortunately, so far, I am still not getting "heard" -- I got the brush off, I thought, yesterday when I got to my 8 pages of questions. Could just be overwhelmed me though, but I still don't have answers to lots of stuff and that will stall mom's ability to come home anytime soon. Doc doesn't seem to have any problem with things mom is exhibiting that are alarming to me over the last few weeks, so maybe it's just my inexperience with this particular situation (the nurses at the facility seem to be on my side with what I am seeing). So far, mom is OK with where she is at, but she's bored -- the reinitiation of some therapy should help that.....things sort of went flat on her therapy attention when we were put on private pay (prematurely I thought, but I chose not to fight that particular battle at the time). At least I know why her oxygen needs went up since treatment #1 now -- fewer red blood cells to cart oxygen around her body! Any suggestions for me to check out would be appreciated. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ry Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 You can give her iron supplements (folic acid) which will help build red blood cells. Is the Procrit covered if the doctor gives the injection? For our insurance they cover it depending on how low the blood count is. Call the doctor's office and ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyanne Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 Hi - My mom's was covered my insurance if it was given at the same time as chemo (in the actual IV) -- ask about that. What type of insurance is she on? As far as the doctor's go -- can you make a separate appointment and take in all your questions? Or does the doctor have a patient advocate who can help with questions/answers? If you are not finding out what you need to make your comfortable, you may want to look into another onc. Ours was great, and always spent the time to explain the pros/cons of everything. Hang in there. You are doing a great job. Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay A. Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 Contact the company that makes Procrit and ask if they have any help for folks who have such high copays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyW Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 Aranesp supposedly does bettr than Procrit. Onc says Procrit is shorter term acting than Aranesp shot. I agree with everyone. I was asking about alimta avastin and told 10,000 each. Drs office called and it was covered under my insurance. Did not get to try it though. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda661 Posted February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 Thanks so much for the tip-off on the insurance issue. Turns out that it will be covered if she gets it with her chemo as it is seen now (I am waiting for one more phone call from the onc. billing department -- they have said yes, but are checking with the doctor; the doc's nurse had already given me a yes, so I am hopeful). The nursing home pharmacy was impressed that I even asked the question! (thank you, thank you for that!) The stickler is her being on private pay at the moment at the nursing facility. That is a whole story itself: the nursing facility declared her ineligible to continue with her Medicare coverage there a couple of weeks ago -- they don't seem to recognize the validity of the therapy the doctor wants her to have there, yet she has been assessed to need 24/7 observation and continuing daily therapy for now: I can't provide that to her myself and quite frankly it's safer for her to be where she is at the moment -- we live in the country and right now she is 5 minutes away from her docs and 1 minute away from the hospital if she runs into big trouble. And quite frankly, it's much more cost-effective too until we are much, much better prepared to handle all of this with adequate support help and know what to do ourselves: we'd have to private pay for intensive home help and that is much more expensive than doing what we are already doing. So what happened is that the nursing home can only direct bill her prescription plan whereas the onc center can bill Medicare directly! I also found out during this process, that the cancer center had her scheduled to get Procrit in her IV in a couple of weeks -- that was a potential double dose on that day from the order the nursing facility got -- not sure if they meant for it to be that way, but from the sound of it, it wasn't -- that scares me too as I fell on that bit of info. "by accident". I don't see the doctor welcoming any private time with me -- he didn't even honor mom's request not to go over side effect questions in front of her, although he didn't provide near the level of info. I was requesting either, so I was glad of that for mom. The level of non-information, in total, is so bad, it's downright scary....that goes all the way back to the primary care doc -- here's an example: we don't even know who RX'd mom's oxygen in the hospital (neither did the onc.) -- well, she's on such a high flow rate that has had to be adjusted at least twice by the nursing staff and yet we have been warned that it needs to be monitored as it can cause it's own side effects for her and create it's own dependence issues and that we shouldn't make changes on our own ..... well just who is responsible for that then? That was one of my Monday questions as well and it never got answered. I am sure it will all work out -- I am just gonna be patient and not rush anything until I am comfortable with this for mom's sake. Mom really doesn't want to know anything about anything right now and well, she does appear to have a diminished thinking capacity going as well (could be the action of the drugs, the disease, or both) -- so she's putting alot of trust in me to do what's best for her......I personally choose not to dwell on that part too much myself -- that's alot of load on top of what I am already carrying: and I don't tend to take caring for a life lightly either. Thanks for your help. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkerdoodler Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 When Jim was on Alimta his red count went way down and he had to have 2 transfusions... they gave him a shot of Aranesp with each treatment and said it was basically the same drug as Procrit but in a "one shot deal" format. He continued on Taxotere and is now on Navelbine, and gets Aranesp each treatment because his red count continues to be low. Good luck! Sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.