Shar'rai goes to college

We decided to try the Vet hospital at CSU for more options for Shar'rai's cancer treatment. Her first apointment was yesterday. As with all diagnosis' as soon as you hear something scary you go straight to the internet to start researching it. That helped prepare us for the conversation with the vet team. Sean and I had already discussed the situation and if we were able we already knew what we would do. If the cnacer has spread, no surgery, we'll do pain management for as long as Shar'rai will tolerate it. If it hasn't spread and she's a candidate for one of the trials we'll sign up for the trial

We were also hoping that they would be a bit more affordable. Luckily they did have several trials going on that are specific to treating bone cancer. Everything from gene therapy to several different drug trials. It turns out that Shar'rai is eligible for the gene therapy. We have to cover all the testing costs associated with the diagnosis and pre-operative stuff, the trial will pay up to $1500 for the amputation.

Yes I said vet team. We were very impressed with the facilities and the personel. They had a greeter in the wating room offering beverages to both the humans and the pets, talking to all the owners and helping them feel comfortable and less anxious. As people are called back, the students and or vets come out to get you, they greet the animals and their owners and chatted a bit in the waiting room, then would walk you back.

Only one thing spoiled our experience... We told the vet on Monday that money was a huge issue for us. The only way we could consider the testing and treatment was if we could make payment arrangements. There was no way we could come up with all the money right now. I feel we made that point very clear. They said they would get us an estimate and that all we would need to do is pay 1/2 of the low estimate on Monday. We said ok. We scraped together all our cash, credit cards and overdrew our bank account with the debit card to pay the deposit.

In the mean time they wanted to start testing right away. Shar'rai needed more x-rays, to make sure it hadn't already metastasized into her lungs, and blood tests to make sure she could tolerate the surgery and anesthesia. They recommended a bone scan that could help find any spots of new growth which would indicate cancer in areas other than just her front leg, and they discovered an irregular heartbeat which may affect surgery so they recommended doing an EKG. The results of any of these tests could change our course of treatment, amputation would no longer be on the table if it had already spread, or if there were other things wrong that would adversely affect her being under anesthesia.

Luckily, or not, depends on how you look at it, all her tests came back clean. They kept her overnight to perform all the tests, and when I went to pick her up, they asked for the rest of the money.

What? What kind of a payment plan is that? 24 hours is not a payment plan. The 'rest' ended up being more than the what the high end estimate was listed as. I don't have any more money, you guys already took everything we had yesterday. Thus the reason for asking for a payment plan, which we told everyone about yesterday. They had me fill out a credit app for some health care credit. I was declined, which I knew I would be. Luckily I have a wonderful sister who allowed me to put her on as a co-signer. That time it got approved, although it was still for less than what that trips total bill was for. It was after hours and the billing office was closed so they said they would leave it for them in the morning to finalize the bill. I got out of there quick. I was already a mess by then, not only with the current problems but the whole situation in general. Ugh. Stress like you wouldn't believe.

During the testing they did a biopsy and injected the gene therapy material into the cancer site. Now the trial details are that Shar'rai needs to go back at 3 and 7 days for blood tests and on day 10 is when they'll perform the amputation. So between yesterday and the 17th I'll be making the trip to Ft Collins 6 times. Good thing I have 100hrs of vacation. I'm assuming (and hoping) that the re-visits are all covered by the trial. (crossing fingers) When we get to the amputation I'm hoping that I can just get her, duck the billing office and have them send me a bill. I know that the $1500 won't cover the entire operation.