The Clip-Date

Yesterday, we found out that we've been approved for aid from the manufacturer of Andy's new drug!  Praise God!  I literally cried tears of joy when I received the phone call.  Because the aid is just for the drug itself and will require us to go through UCSD, I spent most of the day on the phone, confirming coverage for all of the other components involved with the infusion process.  Everything seemed to be falling into place and today we were to call and set up the appointments. Andy had the day off but due to errands and whatnot, we didn't actually see each other until around noon.  We had lunch and knew that we needed to start scheduling things, but neither of us really wanted to deal with it so I said, "Let's go to the beach!"  If you know me, you know what a big deal that is - I don't typically do the beach.  He jumped at my willingness to go, so we drove to Torrey and spent a few hours walking, relaxing and swimming...it was lovely!  I was ...

Last time I wrote, we were praying that we'd get timely approval (from our insurance company) for Andy's new medication.  Sadly, a month has gone by and that hasn't been the case.  We are now on our third appeal, and all of the neurologists on his team have written and asked for a case review by the insurance company's "rare diseases panel."  (At least there is such a thing.)  In case that doesn't work, we've also applied for aid directly from the drug manufacturer, a program that UCSD referred us to.   Hopefully something works out, and soon.  The steroids are keeping his symptoms relatively stable, but the side effects are really getting to him as he's been on high doses now for over seven months.  Keep praying, dear ones!