"How Fast Can You Get to the Hospital?"

Those are words you never want to hear. But for many of us Members of the Club, they are words we eventually do hear. My first time was last Tuesday.

The catalyst was my description of the burning sensation I had felt in my throat and lungs since the night before. Dr. Z knew I'd been on a long flight a few days earlier and he was concerned that I could have developed a blood clot, despite having been off any chemo drugs for quite some time. So off I went to Emory, to receive a cardiac CT scan.

As it turns out, I am clot-free in all the right places.

We think this is an upper respiratory infection, which I might owe to my seatmate on the Prague - Brussels leg of my trip home last Friday. I've been on steroids and antibiotics for a few days now. The sensation is still there, which has kept me from exercising much this week. I'd give myself about a B so far, for not turning into a total ass as I might have in the past after a week of little physical activity.

I start my new drug next week. I've written before about the co-pay assistance programs that drug manufacturers have to help put really expensive drugs into the hands of people who might not otherwise be able to afford them. My drug, Stivarga, retails for over $10,000 a month. That's $350 a pill, once a day. My insurance company picks up 75% of that tab, so Marcie and I were trying to figure out where the "extra" $2500 or so a month was going to come from.

But along came the Reach Program from Bayer. To my pleasant surprise, I qualified for a grant. My cost will be, are you sitting down, $50. Not $50 a pill, $50 a month. It's a brilliant thing for Bayer, since they still get the $8k or so from Humana. Otherwise, I might've gone with some other therapy that's less expensive. Like the old saying goes, 8 grand in hand is worth 10k in the bush.