Month: September 2016

Relief

 

Happy note in my in-box this morning.

Lisa:
Please disregard that letter. It was denied because the lady I was speaking to marked to wrong answer-
So I spoke with a Dr. And and got it overturned. Your are approved and will be receiving another letter. Please let me know if you have anymore questions.

Thanks

K-

 

I opened this note from my physician’s assistant in the midst of a thirty minute phone ordeal with Humana; I’d tried talking to two operators with Kentucky accents and neither one  could find my account, even when I spelled my name with the military Alpha Bravo Chalie method.

I’d gone into this day prepared to be loving. Literally. I was carrying this quote around from activist Ruby Sales,  who said, “I love everybody in my heart. And you can’t make me hate you.” I was going to remind myself, no matter what happened, that Humana might be an evil corporation, but the people making up Humana are basically good. Oh well. That’s a nice thought.

And what was my take-away after the botched claim processing and  the phone ordeal?  Humana, I no longer think you are evil. You did, after all, approve my claim and I can continue taking Zinbryta. But from now on, I’m skipping talking to your basically good people and going straight to your website.

I am not yet an evolved human being who can withstand uncertainty…or being on hold.

And now, another plot twist

Humana just wrote to deny me benefits for Zinbryta, the medication that has kept my MS at bay for ten years. Am I going to fight this? You bet.

They claim they are denying the drug because I don’t have “pre-existing hepatic disease.”

That’s interesting, since a person is not advised to treat MS with Zinbryta if they do have hepatic disease.

Poor Humana. I will have fun. I will win.

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Once A Lab Rat, Always a Lab Rat

The NIH study that has nurtured me since 2010 is over. The day I’ve been anticipating with measured trepidation has finally arrived. A few hours ago, I took the last of the vials of free medication from the NIH out of my refrigerator, and injected.

If the drug had not passed the FDA approval process, this would have been a very sad day. But it did pass. The fruition of the study is available commercially as Zinbryta. Dr. Z., my neurologist, has already set in motion a smooth transition for me; I’ll be the first of his MS patients to purchase Zinbryta. I won’t have to miss a dose of the drug that has given me my life back.

So today, then, marks the happy ending to my life as a Lab Rat?

Not so fast.

Today marks the closing of one chapter. And the opening of another.

This morning I received a phone call from a research assistant named Brianna. She asked me ten easy questions designed to provoke pleasant answers, such as, “Today is Tuesday, September 15, 2016” and, “Barack Obama is the President of the United States.” At the end of this quiz, I found myself qualified to be a Lab Rat in the MS Diet Study.

As any faithful reader of this blog knows, I am very interested in the role of diet in the management of MS. I’ve been intrigued by the Wahls Diet since seeing Dr. Wahl’s TED talk; I couldn’t help but be impressed that she has managed to eat her way out of a reclining wheelchair and back to full time medical practice.

This study will randomly assign me to either the Wahls Diet or the Swank Diet. As it happens, I am comfortable with both. Dr. Z. has met many people with MS leading active, healthy lives on the Swank diet. It will be a win for me either way.

I don’t have to ditch Zinbryta to participate.

Could a lab rat be any luckier?

Another fun perk of this study: I will be traveling to Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where I got my MFA in fiction, and, come to think of it, my MS diagnosis. This Lab Rat will be traveling full circle.

I do hope you will follow Ms. Lab Rat to my next maze in Iowa City. I won’t be able to blog about which MS Diet I am assigned to, because the researchers must be blind.

I am so very grateful, above all, to my husband, who likes our current diet very much, but is willing to give an MS diet a try.

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