On the health front:
- I called the oncology clinic this week to see if the test treatment mentioned previously was happening, and that hasn't been finalized and scheduled yet, so I'll have to wait to see if they include me. My insurance case manager etc. informed me that my coverage includes FDA approved cancer medicine testing, so I made sure they were aware I had that benefit.
- As far as currently planned, I still will have my next PET scan in a few weeks, but we haven't had the date for the actual scan confirmed, since I guess the insurance takes some time to respond with confirmations of coverage etc. My meeting with Dr. Curti has been scheduled for the Monday after Thanksgiving however as his schedule does fill up quickly.
- Also my insurance company decided they hadn't received the request for my last PET scan prior to the actual scan, and therefore only paid for half cost. As these scans are a few thousand bucks a pop, they were expecting me to pick up half. Fortunately the clinic up in Portland never schedules without getting prior insurance authorization, and my case manager has the pre auth code the insurance sent before the scan. I guess this is what can happen when you have a third party company employed to handle billing (Aetna and Meritain)... In the meantime, my case manager is taking this task on herself, as she has the pre auth they claim to never have sent.
As for other bits:
The weather has definitely changed hard to Fall here in Oregon. I was in Arizona a couple of weeks back visiting my wonderful mother and sister (also wonderful :), and there is quite a contrast in temperature. This was a great trip where I took advantage of being able to drive down and make a couple of stops along the way (I used to drive a fair bit during my college days and my first few years here in Oregon, so road trips have a certain nostalgia for me).
First stop... Yosemite, which marks my first visit to the park, and of course I pick the day when it's cloud covered and drizzling. What can you do right? Still, what a beautiful place. I managed to take some pics, but with the weather being unsupportive, and me being still out of shape, I opted to just stick to the main valley. My route was in question though as I'd planned to drive by Mono Lake and the pass being over 9,000 ft had been closed the night prior due to snow.
Fortunately, I drove through the pass around 2 pm so the temperature was a balmy 37 degrees!
Frankly I'm tempted to say never go to Mono lake so it can stay a great secret for uber cool photos... But that would be most uncool, and since I'm gonna post a panorama shots of it I guess the only thing to say would be, there's not much else there? Except German tourists... They seem to really love the Western dessert states. Must be a John Wayne or Roy (and Ginger!) Rogers thing?
The final trip bit would be... taking the time to go down the "extraterrestrial highway" in Nevada (it runs alongside Area 51, is pretty much not so cool. I had hoped stopping at the sites along the way would be fun, but there was pretty much nothing more than a couple of touristy souvenir shops selling t-shirts and mugs. Plus the more famous of these was so loaded with bumper stickers about how much they hate President Clinton and how no one is going to take my gun etc rather than fun things about the area, that I kinda wasn't into the experience. Maybe I should have purchased some of the "Alien Jerky" that was advertised, but I figured it would likely be elk or deer meat rather than true Orion flesh, and you know once you go green...
I've dropped a few more pounds, but the traveling kinda put a kink in the exercise plans for that time. The goal is still to get the rest of the lbs gone, but I'm being realistic about my body's resources and realizing it will just take time.
Ki is doing well, and I just returned from seeing him, so it's been a real whirlwind of traveling, coming home for a week (and dressing up as a voodoo guy for a halloween party) and such. I'm glad to be home for a bit.
So here are a few shots from the trip - I'll have more to share on my flickr account after I get the old pics from Hawaii processed:
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