Not So Fast...

I'll start off with a bit of happiness!  We just got back from three wonderful weeks in New Mexico!  We have friends-who-are-family that live there, so it's worth braving the icky desert each summer.  The boys joined us and we spent two weeks house-sitting for our friends while they were on vacation; then we stayed with them for a week when they got back.  Family time, best-of-friends time, and lounging in the pool multiple times each day?  Yes, please!  The heat did exacerbate Andy's symptoms a bit so he had to be careful, but the down-time was just what all of us needed.  

Unfortunately, we came back to a little hiccup in Andy's treatment plan.  His doctors want him to start the new drug (Rituxan) ASAP so we were planning to get him in for the first infusion within the next week or so.  Unfortunately, our insurance company has denied the drug, saying that it "isn't approved for someone with his condition."  On the one hand, I understand that it is ridiculously expensive...many tens of thousands of dollars per dose.  However, I'd literally bet the farm (if I had one) that nobody on the approval committee has ever even heard of CLIPPERS, so they wouldn't have any solid working knowledge of  "his condition" at all!  If a rare disease is being dealt with, which this is among the rarest of the rare, I really don't think it's asking too much for them to trust his (internationally known) team in their estimation of what will give him the best chance.  

We've alerted his primary neurologist and we're waiting for him to let us know how to proceed.  We would appreciate prayer that we can get all of this sorted out as quickly as possible.  There are other drugs that they can have him try, but they seem to have more negative side effects and we would prefer to go with this one since it was their first choice.  

Please join us in prayer!  Hopefully we can get some answers soon.