Thalidomide to break the bank

Jennifer, Dr. Tricot's nurse, came in to the consultation room Wednesday to talk about my medication regime. She had talked to Dr. Tricot about a new prescription for thalidomide and told me that she would check with my insurance carrier, Humana Choice PPO, to determine how far along I am in getting through the "donut hole". When I saw her yesterday during a routine visit for my Velcade shot she presented me with the prescription and told me that I will be charged about 32 hundred dollars when I fill this prescription, which is for 28 pills that I take one of every night until I see Dr. Tricot again in mid-December. I was on thalidomide last Fall for 48 days and then Dr. Tricot stopped the thalidomide and had me start taking cyclophosphamide. The first package of thalidomide (28 pills) cost me about 46 hundred dollars, but for the refill, of which I still have 6 pills, I was charged 5 percent of the cost of the thalidomide and paid $261 for the refill, which is more than 5 percent of what I had paid for the first prescription. I guess the first prescription had been discounted some by Humana. I decided to wait until Monday, which will mean an extra trip to the clinic, to have the prescription filled so that it will show up on the American Express bill in November instead of in the next few days. I will still have to pay it but maybe a miracle will happen before then.



There is one beneficial aspect of taking the thalidomide, it causes drowsiness and, along with the 10 mg Ambien I take on nights that I have taken dexamethasone in the morning, I sleep soundly and wake up only a couple of times during the night. This morning I woke up at 9:12 and had to hurry breakfast because Emma had an appointment with Dr. Kuo that she wanted me to attend with her. Both of us are feeling good and the doctor seemed pleased to see us and only made minor changes in Emma's drug regime. He told her she should take her own blood pressure here at home frequently and keep track of it. He thought the blood pressure was a little high today.