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Hello Everyone,

Thanks JanMarie and Pat for your earlier replies to my post. Once again, my husband and I have gone on a journey with the HMO and the doctors to try and get a second opinion since he was on a small break from his 7th round of chemo of Carbo/Taxol. To make a long story short. We were denied a second opinion by the Medical Review Board at Kelsey Seybold because my husband had not exhausted all his option while currently being treated at their facility. All we wanted to do was to see if MD Anderson would suggest anything different since he also has a pleural effusion that is diseased. We were told that there were some other ways to get from under the Kelsey Seybold umbrella to get in to see the doctors over at MD. However, we know that time is not on our side. My husband's fluids have started to turn bloody red again and we are getting very concerned. He wants to start the Tarceva right away. We had always kept the appointment we previous set with our Oncologist which was set for the following day. He wrote a prescription for the maximum dosage of 150 mg of Tarceva. We also expressed our disappointment with his statements and the review board. He was of course trying to cover things up and make excuses. My husband just let him know in no uncertain terms that we won't tolerate his rude bedside manners and ***** footing around with us. We will be straight with him as long as he is straight with us. My husband is scheduled to do another chest CT in two months. It has been almost a week on the Tarceva and already the fluids are turning back to a lightish color again. We hope and pray that this is a sign of improvement. We are told by the doctor that inserted the chest tube to not read anything into the color or fluid amounts. (What are we to think). I thank God for the insurance we have now because these drugs are so expensive. It seems as if once you are diagnosed they place you in a drop in a separate box until dead category. We pay out the butt for their medicines and research and get no credit for doing so. If I told you what I had to do to at least get the Kelsey people to at least get the Release to the Review Board. I had been asking for that release for a week. I literally sat in the waiting room area for 4-1/2 hours the very last day we were to send the authorization for the Monday appointment. I was there on a Friday. My husband's original doctor took the day off. His nurse did not want to see me. I did not call to inform her that I was coming because I had phoned her everyday, every hour during the week. All the nurse would say is, we are waiting for his file to come to our office from his Oncologist. My husband had ordered a copy of his complete medical records. I was able to supply the nurse with the information or notes that they needed from his file to at least sign-off on the release. By the way another doctor signed off on the release. 2 minutes before the deadline to get the information over to MD Anderson, the nurse sent someone else other than her self-out to the front waiting area to inform me that my husband request to get a second opinion was denied! I won't even spend another 10 pages to tell you what happened next. All I will say is life is too short to deal with people who are unfeeling, unsympathetic, and unkind. I just politely left. I said to myself I fought a good fight. At least I tried. This day I tried. We lost this battle but my husband battles continues...

God Bless All who go through all the things we do to try and get the best care for our loved ones.

Renea