Year End Cost/ Years Recap

Today is the last day of 2010. My journey of discovering that I have breast cancer is not over. Its been a long, tough, emotional , testing year for me and my loving family. And have learned to rely on Jehovah God more than ever before. I spent many evenings listening to the meetings at the Kingdom Hall since I could not be there in person.

Remember back on January 2nd when I went for my mammogram, thinking at the time that I had a cyst that was hurting quite a bit, thinking that maybe I should see about having it drained or removed. And right a way they called me back for a second mammogram to double check what they thought they saw. Now I am glad that they did, at the time, it seemed kind of annoying but scary too.
January 22nd was my appointment for the biopsy and the same day I learned I had breast cancer.
Had surgery to have the lump, and as it turned out had some lymph nodes removed also on February 19th.
On March 23rd, had my chest port put in since my veins were not large enough to use for chemo.
Then on April 1st I went to Longview Kaiser for my first treatment of chemotherapy drugs.
The chemo ended August 26th. and at this point I am still going to Kaiser every three weeks for the Herceptin and this is scheduled until June 16th, 2011. As far as I can tell from the Explanation of Benefits from Kaiser, this drug costs $3347.00 each time. From August when I started taking the Herceptin until December I have had 18 treatments that total $60,246.00. By the time I am done in June of 2011 I will have had a total of 27 treatments that will total $90,450.00

And then after the chemo I went through 33 treatments of radiation and this was Monday through Friday appointments. The amount charged for the radiation was higher than I ever would have imagined.

As for the cost of all this, I am soo glad that I have insurance and feel bad for those that do not. I have called Kaiser so many times, I should have them on speed dial!
Whether its to ask what I owe, to find out what they are charging me for or to discuss my bill, its usually a long phone call that is frustrating. I have also learned that my insurance coverage is pretty good and I cant complain about it.
When you have an appointment, treatment, procedure, etc they send you what they call an Explanation Of Benefits or EOB for short after your appointment. I have learned that  I have not received one for every single visit. Good thing my great friend Kris bought me a little note book that I have carried all over the place and relied on for everything. I wrote down every day that I had an appointment and what it was for.
In looking back at the calendar for this past year, I have had 56 appointments and 102 total appointments that have included phone appointments, lab work done on my lunch hour, days off work for surgery and healing, or days off work when I was sick from the chemo drugs etc.

The following will not make sense or add up due to the fact that I cant figure out some of Kaisers billing but the following is the total for what i have receipts and paper work for:

When I add up the EOB (Explanation of Benefits)  that I have received it totals $65,575.03
The amount I was charged total was $102,763.59
Just the cost of the 33 treatments of radiation totaled $66,098.00
Add in the cost of the wigs I bought $451.88 bringing total out of pocket paid $3659.95
Now that the year is over, I will be back to paying my $250 deductible, and $2000 out of pocket  $25 co pays ever time I go.

And I owe a huge thank you to my husband, my mom, Kris, LeAnn/Missy and Shari for all the help, support, driving to and from appointments, sitting with me while I was sick, allowing me to be sick and to heal etc.  for the last year and all the online comments on this blog and loving comments at meetings and cards and flowers. Along with those that I work with who had fund raisers for me that brought in more funds that I ever would have guessed.

Its been a long emotional year and in the next couple of weeks, I will be going for my yearly mammogram and hope and pray that it comes back without any cancerous growth showing on it.