Well, I have only three days left in the week to feel good, and
I’m going to get the most out of it because every Friday for the
next three months I have a date with a vial of contempt.
Well, I have only three days left in the week to feel good, and I’m going to get the most out of it because every Friday for the next three months I have a date with a vial of contempt – Peg-Intron, seven CCs of hell. The wonder drug for hepatitis C is the cure that makes you feel worse than what ails you.
It was a dreadful three days beginning with the uncontrollable shakes, my body convulsing in a wave of tremors so strong I barely stop long enough to take a breath. Without my significant other to care for me I would have gone without food because I barely had strength to make it into the bathroom let alone cook for myself.
Peg-Intron is not easy to come by. Usually, when a doctor prescribes medication to a patient, the patient usually goes to the local pharmacy and has the prescription filled – no problem, unless the drug you need is Peg-Intron.
Before the drug company would prepare it for me I had to register with them and get an ID number to assure that my “therapy” was not interrupted. But first, the insurance company had to authorize my prescription – once again no problem, except it took three weeks. Three weeks of filling out forms, answering questions from a number of case managers and of course locating a participating pharmacy. As you might have guessed, not one was listed for San Benito County. The closest participating pharmacy is in Santa Cruz. Fortunately, they deliver, but after mulling over the cost of this wonder drug, they ought to deliver.
Nonetheless, I’m lucky. Since I already met my $500 deductible for the year there was a limit to what the drug company could charge me.
“How much is it going to cost me?”
“You’re only responsible for the 20 percent co-payment. That comes to $285 a month,” the young woman informed me as if it should somehow make me feel like I was getting a deal.
Cynical at best, I couldn’t help but think the reason it took so long to get the drug approved was the insurance company was either betting on the 2-percent odds that a given population group would die before the authorization went through, or it’s because they have too many forms to be filled out, too many fax numbers and too many odds the paperwork is buried underneath a whole stack of patients’ requests for services.
My drugs arrived a day early, but the doctor said it’s best to begin on a Friday because of the flu-like reaction. Then I was informed I had to learn to give myself the injection, or recruit my all-too-anxious partner.
“Hey, no problem,” he joked. “As long as it’s not me getting the shot.”
The young assistant demonstrated how to mix the vials, measure the fluids and pinch the skin, and handed Jim the syringe.
“Just grab her skin and put the…” Lydia said, stopping in mid-sentence. Jim had nailed my arm.
“You didn’t have to jab her so hard,” Lydia chastised him. “Maybe you should come in next week for one more demonstration.”
The poke in the arm was nothing compared to what was in store for my weekend. Everyone warned me the injections would make me sick, but no one said it would feel like I was at death’s door.
When we got home, Jim pulled the mattress off the spare bed and placed it in front of the fireplace. All weekend my sweetheart nursed me, cooked for me, brought me my medicines, did the shopping, the laundry, cleaned out the kitty litter, fed the animals and did other household chores I usually take on.
By Monday afternoon I started to feel a little more human, a little more like myself.
“Oh, thank God,” Jim said. “I don’t want to be Linda anymore. It’s too hard being you. I couldn’t do it all the time.”
You don’t have to tell me how hard it is being me, and to think you get to be healthy me taking care of sick me.
Despite the loan I need to cover my co-payments, I got off pretty lucky because the truth is, if I didn’t have my dear partner I’d be one paycheck away from poverty. Let’s see, what would my choice be – buy medicine or pay rent? That’s not a choice.
