"I found my anchor to be my wife Jeanette. I hooked my line up to her and she pulled me up out of the hole I had fallen into."
Okay, I took a wrong line on the obstacle and I took a hard roll off the trail. I received some bumps and bruises, but now it was time to recover from the shock of it all and get back on the trail and start the rebuild.
It takes a strong winch line to get a Jeep back on all four wheels during a recovery after a roll. But once you get back up you got to dust yourself off, check your fluids, and start it back up. It may sputter a bit and blow some smoke, but you can still drive a Jeep off the trail and get back home safely after a roll.
I found out my winch line to be my family and friends. Without them I'd still be out there on my side just rotting away in the desert sun as the vultures circled around waiting to finish me off. A good winch line also needs a good anchor. Something to attach that winch line to in order to make a successful recovery. I found my anchor to be my wife Jeanette. I hooked my line up to her and she pulled me up out of the hole I had fallen into.
I can't say enough about my wife Jeanette! She has been there for me through thick and thin. She has taken care of our two boys, maintained the household while I was deployed during Desert Storm, picked up and moved from stateside to overseas and back again. She has been there by my side through good times and bad times for 27 solid years.
After plenty of research on treatment options I made up my mind that I wanted Proton Beam Therapy. I read Robert Marckini's book, "You Can Beat Prostate Cancer, And You Don't Need Surgery to Do It." I highly recommend this book to anybody facing the dilemma of choosing a treatment option for PC. I won't go into all the technical stuff involving this type of treatment, but I will tell you it is very promising when you consider the quality of life after treatment. My worries of wearing a diaper and being impotent rapidly diminished after researching this treatment and reading his book.
Proton treatment is only available at a handful of locations in the U.S. The treatment is very expensive, somewhere in the area of $200,000 plus. Some insurance companies don't cover it, but with persistence you can usually get them to agree. I have Tricare from my military retirement and my wife has Coventry which is primary. The only reason we opted to get my wife's insurance was for the dental, which is better than what Tricare can provide.
I really wanted to get my treatment at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC). They are not only closer to home, but they are the pioneers in treating people with the Proton Beam. After calling Loma Linda I found out that everybody else wants to be treated there too. They were not taking anymore patients at the time and told us to call back in a month. A month! What am I going to do? I have cancer and I want it out! Now!
I called to the other treatment centers, MD Anderson in Houston, University of Florida in Jacksonville, and MPRI in Indiana. I narrowed it down to Florida or Houston if I couldn't get into Loma Linda.
My wife Jeanette has been working in the medical insurance field for several years now so she knew all the hoops you have to jump through to get something approved. Jeanette took it upon herself so I wouldn't have to deal with the stress of the insurance companies and all the red tape. She wanted me well and she wanted me to get this proton treatment as much as I did. This is where my winch line's anchor went to work to get me back up on the trail so I could start the rebuild.
Like a General in an Ops Center, Jeanette got the ball rolling on both Florida and Houston, while at the same time she kept calling Loma Linda with hopes that maybe they were going to take new patients earlier then what they said.
Then one day after much persistence and patience, like calling a radio station to win a prize, she called LLUMC first thing in the morning. She was caller number one and we won the prize! They were accepting new patients and, I got in! That day our prayers were answered. We couldn't believe it! Now I don't have to drive way out to Texas or Florida. I can get it done just six hours away in beautiful downtown Loma Linda!
While Jeanette was coordinating between the different treatment facilities she was also battling the insurance companies . Her insurance, Coventry, denied the treatment and said it was experimental. Experimental my butt! Do some research and you will find out it is not experimental. Medicare covers it why wouldn't you?
Thank God I had good ole Tricare. They covered it 100%. All they needed was a letter of denial from Coventry. I spoke to one of the Tricare representatives over the phone one day regarding some issue and I told her I was so thankful I had such good insurance. The lady came back and corrected me. She said, "Sir, this is not insurance, this is a benefit you earned for your years of service to your country, Thank You!" I had to hold back the tears from my eyes as I thanked her for her kind words.
No comments:
Post a Comment