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Chelee · 11-11-2009, 02:07 AM

I feel like someone beat me...I am just exhausted. Thanks to all for the good suggestions and advice here. I made calls to the HMO, Benefits office, COH nurse, case manager, cancer center & my primarys office to leave him a note of what's going on! The case manager realized I was not going away nor was I buying her story about how I had to proceed in order to get these pre-op tests done! I had the everyone calling the case manager to find out what is going on! By the end of the day she finally calls me & says she talked to my onc and I can have my Herceptin on the 16th. (But onc refuses TM'ers that were promised.) I wanted to make sure my markers didn't JUMP up after all this time with no chemo...that would change things!

The case manager was blowing alot of smoke up my a$%. She was trying stall and delay things by having me run all over to see strange doctors to ok the pre-op tests...instead having my oncologist work with the COH Ortho and coordinate my care like she is SUPPOSE too! There is NO special authorizations needed for this. They know the Ortho doctor doesn't even walk me walking at all on my right leg. But yet send me on a while goose chase for something my onc can do in a few minutes! So it was around 4:30 PM when the case manager called back & said someone from the cancer center would set-up my pre-op appts today. So the girl calls me at the end of the day to set-up these appts. That's when MORE problems came up. The case manager did not give this girl the right information so we could get these appts set up. So now this girl said she'd have to call me tomorrow when she got this mess straightened out.

There goes ANOTHER day I could of been handling these appts. I should of had all these pre-ops done by now. I still have to get up to COH again for a pre-op appt and to sign papers. Let alone go back again for the actually surgery on the 18th. So I'm going to play heck getting all these appts done by next week. Even the gal the sets the appts said she didn't know how we could make this work. So it starts again tomorrow. I had actually chest pains today...they are going to kill me before the cancer does.

Lani I have called the Dept of managed care before. They can help but it is time consuming. I have to file a complaint...or they will take one over the phone...then it goes through a process. Which I will do when I have time...but at present it's impossible with what I have going on right now. But I appreciate your help.

Joe I've also called "CLRC" before. That too is time consuming...but they do try to help. But you only get to talk to an "intake" person...once they have all your information they say they will call you back in a few days. However I do remember they sent me out a big packet of information a couple yrs ago with organziations to call. I might look for that.
I will still try to put a call in to Dr. Slamon's office tomorrow and see what they say about this situation? I'm curious why I can't have Tykerb while doing surgery? (Chrisy...I WILL revisit that!) Thanks to all of you for the advice, and ideas! Not much got accomplished today so we will see what the morning brings. I'm still open to idea's...because this still isn't done yet.

Chelee

11-11-2009, 02:07 AM	#11
Chelee Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Southern, CA Posts: 2,511	Re: Who do I call, what do I do?!!! I feel like someone beat me...I am just exhausted. Thanks to all for the good suggestions and advice here. I made calls to the HMO, Benefits office, COH nurse, case manager, cancer center & my primarys office to leave him a note of what's going on! The case manager realized I was not going away nor was I buying her story about how I had to proceed in order to get these pre-op tests done! I had the everyone calling the case manager to find out what is going on! By the end of the day she finally calls me & says she talked to my onc and I can have my Herceptin on the 16th. (But onc refuses TM'ers that were promised.) I wanted to make sure my markers didn't JUMP up after all this time with no chemo...that would change things! The case manager was blowing alot of smoke up my a$%. She was trying stall and delay things by having me run all over to see strange doctors to ok the pre-op tests...instead having my oncologist work with the COH Ortho and coordinate my care like she is SUPPOSE too! There is NO special authorizations needed for this. They know the Ortho doctor doesn't even walk me walking at all on my right leg. But yet send me on a while goose chase for something my onc can do in a few minutes! So it was around 4:30 PM when the case manager called back & said someone from the cancer center would set-up my pre-op appts today. So the girl calls me at the end of the day to set-up these appts. That's when MORE problems came up. The case manager did not give this girl the right information so we could get these appts set up. So now this girl said she'd have to call me tomorrow when she got this mess straightened out. There goes ANOTHER day I could of been handling these appts. I should of had all these pre-ops done by now. I still have to get up to COH again for a pre-op appt and to sign papers. Let alone go back again for the actually surgery on the 18th. So I'm going to play heck getting all these appts done by next week. Even the gal the sets the appts said she didn't know how we could make this work. So it starts again tomorrow. I had actually chest pains today...they are going to kill me before the cancer does. Lani I have called the Dept of managed care before. They can help but it is time consuming. I have to file a complaint...or they will take one over the phone...then it goes through a process. Which I will do when I have time...but at present it's impossible with what I have going on right now. But I appreciate your help. Joe I've also called "CLRC" before. That too is time consuming...but they do try to help. But you only get to talk to an "intake" person...once they have all your information they say they will call you back in a few days. However I do remember they sent me out a big packet of information a couple yrs ago with organziations to call. I might look for that. I will still try to put a call in to Dr. Slamon's office tomorrow and see what they say about this situation? I'm curious why I can't have Tykerb while doing surgery? (Chrisy...I WILL revisit that!) Thanks to all of you for the advice, and ideas! Not much got accomplished today so we will see what the morning brings. I'm still open to idea's...because this still isn't done yet. Chelee __________________ DX: 12-20-05 - Stage IIIA, Her2/Neu, 3+++,Er & Pr weakly positive, 5 of 16 pos nodes. Rt. MRM on 1-3-06 -- No Rads due to compromised lungs. Chemo started 2-7-06 -- TCH - - Finished 6-12-06 Finished yr of wkly herceptin 3-19-07 3-15-07 Lt side prophylactic simple mastectomy. -- Ooph 4-05-07 9-21-09 PET/CT "Recurrence" to Rt. axllia, Rt. femur, ilium. Possible Sacrum & liver? Now stage IV. 9-28-09 Loading dose of Herceptin & started Zometa 9-29-09 Power Port Placement 10-24-09 Mass 6.4 x 4.7 cm on Rt. femur head. 11-19-09 RT. Femur surgery - Rod placed 12-7-09 Navelbine added to Herceptin/Zometa. 3-23-10 Ten days of rads to RT femur. Completed. 4-05-10 Quit Navelbine--Herceptin/Zometa alone. 5-4-10 Appt. with Dr. Slamon to see what is next? Waiting on FISH results from femur biopsy. Results to FISH was unsuccessful--this happens less then 2% of the time. 7-7-10 Recurrence to RT axilla again. Back to UCLA for options.