Chris should be getting released within the hour. His oncologist, Dr. Kampe, saw him around 7 this morning and said he could go home. The hospitals policy is that one of their internal medicine doctors have to release Chris so we had to wait nearly 5 hours for that to happen. Chris slept most of the morning and the delay gave me time to clean and sanitize the house.
Chris will probably be going into the cancer center tomorrow for a shot to boost his white blood cell levels.
A person from MD Anderson called me this morning to discuss a consultation with them. Here is some information I learned:
- The initial consultation will be 3-5 days and all outpatient tests/procedures. This means we will need to arrange our own lodging and transportation to and from the facilities in downtown Houston.
- They can't do the consultation while he is getting chemotherapy so they will try to make him an appointment between the 3rd (when he will be getting outpatient chemo at the cancer center) and the 14th (when round 6 would be due to begin).
- Chris only has Medicare insurance. He receives Medicare insurance because of his medical disability from his brain injury. Medicare will cover 80% of the costs for MD Anderson. We will be billed for the initial 3-5 day consultation. However, before he would be able to receive any additional care from MD Anderson we would have to pay the 20% of that initial consultation bill. The odds of us being able to pay 20% of a bill up front are slim to none - these procedures and tests cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
I will be asking for more information about his financial options. As of now the best option seems to be that he gets the consultation from MD Anderson and then any recommendations they have could be carried out thru Texas Oncology here in Austin.
- The next step is to wait for the contact person at MD Anderson to call us back with the appointment date. Whatever the date may be there is always a possibility Chris will be back in the hospital with neutropenia and it would have to be rescheduled.
Here are Chris counts from the past few days:
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