The week so far

Last week, Dr Winkler said that he was going to add Revlimid to my treatment regimen. Monday I got a phone call from Mindy at Diplomat Pharmacy. She said that they had put the Revlimid through my insurance and that my co-pay would be $2000. WHAT!? So she will present it to the Chronic Disease Fund, and if accepted my co-pay would be $25. I said I could afford that. She took some financial information from me, and said they would be calling both Dr Winkler and me. Tuesday, Dr W asked if I had received the medicine yet. I said that I hadn't, but told him about the phone call the previous day. He called in Donna Marie who handles such things for him. She had a fax that she had received the previous day with the same information I had just reported. The Pharmacy called again today. I've been approved for assistance from the Chronic Disease Fund, so they will UPS the capsules for Monday delivery (I told her I will be out much of the day on Friday). She then transferred me to Celgene, the manufacturer of both Revlimid and Thalomid to take a survey. It's the same as I was taking for Thalomid. Revlimid is a cousin of Thalomid. It has not been tested on humans for birth defects, but it has caused birth defects in animals. Once again, I promise not to get pregnant.

The Celgene representative asked if I had any Thalomid left over and I said that I did. She asked if she should send a return authorization. That will be good. I'll be glad to get it out of the house.

Knitting:

As Dr W walked into the exam room yesterday, I was saying, "Oh, shit!" He asked what was wrong, and I replied that I has just dropped some stitches off the end of the knitting needle. Then I held up my work and asked if he thought a man who works on the barges on the river would wear a scarf that color - fuschia! He said that he might, which was not the answer I expected. But then he added, "But he might get teased a lot." That's more like it. I said I guess that had better become a shawl rather than a seaman's scarf.

After I got my Velcade, Zometa, etc, I went to Market Square Coffee. I got a sandwich at Kirchoff's next door and a cup of coffee. I sat there and ate lunch and knitted for an hour or so. One of my knitting friends owns the coffee shop, but she wasn't there. When I saw her at the knitting guild meeting later she said that Tuesday is her day off. Then I went to Kohl's, Lowes, WalMart and Home Depot. All I bought was three packages of herb seeds - tarragon, parsley, and basil. I called the yarn shop from Kohl's parking lot and asked if the knitting guild was meeting at 7 pm. Maureen said it was, so I decided to find a place to sit and knit after I had finished my other errands.

I really enjoyed the meeting. It was a great bunch of women (about a dozen), some of whom I hadn't seen for a while. I mentioned the charity knitting group we're trying to start at Grace Church, and Stephanie asked if we'd like to join the small group at First Presbyterian. I think that might work well. I plan to tell Libby (our rector) about it when I see her on Friday.

Yard work:

When I woke up during the night, I thought it was raining, but the bird bath was dry this morning, so I guess it was just the wind that I heard. I was glad if that, because I was able to mow. I finished the second round of mowing and started the third - two and a half tankfulls of gas. I was only going to do two sessions, but that put me in the middle of the fenced-in area and I didn't want to leave it that way. Now it will be Saturday before I can do more because of other things scheduled for tomorrow and Friday. Maybe t won't grow too much taller by then.