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Old Sun Jun 1, 2014, 01:16 PM
sbk007 sbk007 is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: NY
Posts: 322
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jill2008 View Post
Steve,
The Zofran tablets are working out fine, although it has not cut down on my treatment time. I have my infusions done at a local hospital and the pharmacy tends to take forever because they supply meds to other areas besides outpatient chemo. The nurse can't order the Vidaza until I am seated and have vitals taken. This week I was there on average 2 1/2 hours. My hematologists office will soon be approved to give infusions though and that should cut down on my "chair time" significantly. My hematologist at Stanford thinks switching to injections is not a good idea. What did your doctor say?
Jill
He said no to changing to shots, too many problems with skin reactions.
Same deal at my infusion center with the waiting. In this area of NY very few Oncs if any do their own infusions anymore. When they passed a bill allowing Hospitals to purchase in bulk and make 50 % they started buying up the Oncologists. So the Oncologists shut down their infusion centers and send patients to the hospital they work for. The oncologist is allowed to bill the insurance company for each day of the infusion as if it was an office visit because its considered coverage in case there's a reaction. So a 5 day visit to the hospital nets my Doc over 1k a week every month. This is how they make their money and many think its a conflict of interest. There's a lot of info about this on the internet if it interests you. I am surprised to hear that an office would do the opposite and actually start doing infusions now. Its usually the other way around.. - Glad the pills work for you, its 20 minutes less infusion time per day, so you save 100 minutes per week and that's a good thing. It'll probably save you time when you transition back to your Docs office. - Take Care
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