We saw the oncologist today to discuss options.  I had shared with a few people that we discovered last week, our insurance will not pay for  clinical trials.   We were supposed to start a new treatment this week.  So now we  have a new game plan.  First of all, Bill will get a blood transfusion tomorrow if they can locate a match for him.  His hemoglobin was down to 8 ( normal is between 13-15) which is causing him to be anemic and extremely tired.  We will do that at the Brown Cancer Center in the morning.  

In the meantime, Dr. Miller (the oncologist) is going to contact the Dr. at Humana in charge of the "denials" and see if he can convince Humana to cover the clinical trial.  He is also contacting the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD to see if Bill  might qualify for one of their trials which would be paid for with grant money.  So we are still in a holding pattern, although Dr. Miller wants to get something going within the next week or so.  The only other chemo option seems to be basically more of the same treatment he had last fall and winter, which as you know was extremely tough on him.  

Needless to say, we are feeling pretty down at the moment.  Hopefully, the blood transfusion will provide Bill with  strength and energy and allow for some normal activity for a while.  It's been such a good summer for us so far and we're grateful, it's just that we would like to see the good continue.  

I'll keep you posted.  Love, Holly