MD Anderson Visit - Day 2

Friday was filled with Diagnostic tests.

I had a Bone scan, CT Scan (Chest/Abdomen/Pelvis), and a chest x-ray.

I was also scheduled for an MRI, but they had me down for Friday - 6/3 so I'm hoping it can be done here in NC.

On Thursday, Dr. Tannir said he would see me Friday to discuss the protocol once they heard from the insurance company.

I didn't hear back on the scheduled time of the appointment, so left voice mail with the scheduler ~10:30 AM.

I didn't hear back, so had to follow emergency scheduling path on the phone menu to get through and was told that Dr. Tannir didn't see patients on Friday, so they had to confirm with him that he wanted to see me. I had to run during the hour I had to drink the barium contract drink before being taken in for the CT scan.

Once I got in to see Dr. Tannir I was told that the insurance company needed to approve the clinical trial and that the approval could take up to 1 month.

Dr. TAnnir feels the cancer is too aggressive to wait that long, so he wanted me to start taking "Votrient". This is his favorite kidney cancer drug and should have some affect on the common kidney cancer and hopefully on the sarcomatoid as well. We will take it for 2 months and then I will return to MD Anderson for repeat tests to see if it is working. If it seems to be working we will continue it, if not, we will start the clinical trial protocol.

In an attempt to get the drug right away, I rushed down to the hospital pharmacy to fill it ( I was worried it would not be carried at my local pharmacy). Unfortunately, I was told the prescription was denied because it was approved for mail order only. I then called the prescription plan to see if I could get an override to fill the prescription. I then returned to get my CT scan. When done, I had a voice mail from them and called back to find that they said the override had to get approved by another review board and would not likely get done before End of business Friday. This means that best case, I will get the drugs on Tuesday.

I know that God is in control, so I trust him that I don't need the drugs until then.!

As of now, MD Anderson has not been able to review any of the scans to verify the diagnosis from Wake.

I will now be pushing for both the drug approval and the Clinical Trial approval from my insurance company.