First let me say 'waaaaa' everybody went to the Cardigan Nationals but me! Ok, maybe not everybody. . . but still wish I could have gone. Next year's not looking so good either, since I will still be paying off dental work in May of next year. Let me repeat 'waaaaaaaa'!
Next, Holly has been gimpy on and off since the cardikids stormed my parents backyard a couple of weekends back. Same front leg that she hurt playing with Mikey months ago. I'm not too worried about it for the moment because she mainly seems to be sore right when she gets up from laying around, and it works out quickly. However, I am worried about her looking toward the future. The dogs didn't really do anything that strenuous at my parents, just typical rough and tumble play. I would hate it if this old injury is so sensitive that I might have to curtail her agility career before it even starts. I've been 'treating' her with 1/2 an aspirin once a day as needed, and keeping walks to a minimum. Obviously she won't be going to agility class tomorrow.
Final order of business; my bloody Enbrel prescription. Got a letter from Unicare Monday stating that they will not cover the Enbrel at all. Folks, this is a $1500 a month prescription! Their stated reason was because I have not 'failed' other forms of treatment first. The two other standard treatments are a chemotherapy drug and a malaria drug, both with more possible side effects than Enbrel. However, there are a couple of options.
First, I found out that the dr didn't have a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis on the pre-authorization form that was sent to Unicare; she still had a 'diagnosis' of chronic fatigue and polyarthritis (arthritis in multiple joints). After calling the drs office early Tuesday, her nurse assistant called me back and said that the dr had updated the diagnosis to rheumatoid and they would resubmit the paperwork to the insurance company. Not holding out a lot of hope for that, since the stated reason for not covering Enbrel didn't mention the diagnosis, but not trying other (cheaper) treatments first. Also, I know that Unicare covers Enbrel with a copay of 20%, 30%, or 50% and originally I paid 20%. You do the math. While paying off the dental work (which still isn't finished) there is really no money left over to pay the 20%, much less 30 or 50%.
Another option is to get help from the makers of Enbrel (Wyeth). Funny, because I worked for Wyeth years ago. But I can't really pursue that option until I know what, if anything, Unicare is going to cover. I took the last dose I had tonight, so it would be nice to get everything worked out in the next week so I can continue with out a break in treatment. It's really all soooo ironic, because through the later part of last week and this past weekend I really felt like the Enbrel was starting to work, both on the joint pain and the fatigue. Oh, and based on the injection tonight, it's always going to burn like he!! when I inject into the left leg (I'm supposed to alternate injection sites). [Update: My mom says that she always has one leg that burns more than the other when she does her Enbrel injections, so it's not just my imagination!]
Here are some pictures of the great storm clouds from yesterday evening.
Currently reading 'The Protector's War' by S. M. Stirling
Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.
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