drug #1

one of my drugs, avastin, got some coverage in the new york times this weekend. i will be the first to admit that this is the Big One, the drug i have pinned my hopes upon, the one i believe will keep me alive and kicking for years longer than the statistics say i should be around. i realize, too, that i could go in for my scan at the end of this month and find out it is once again on the move, that the drugs just aren't working anymore. but i'm not planning on that being the case. my doctor has had patients on avastin for years, and that gives me hope that in my case, with my cancer, it is going to continue working the magic as a wonder drug.

i see it on my health insurance claims, at $thousands$ a pop. every three weeks, the insurance company is shelling out the dough to keep the drug pumping into my collapsing veins. i hadn't even given much thought to the fact that maybe they might stop paying for this drug, as it looks right now that i'm in it for the long haul. perhaps i will be one of those patients costing the system hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just to be kept alive for a few more months - i'm banking on years.

but, as long as the same system is subsidizing morbidly obese people, smokers, prescription drug abusers, and the likes, i feel just fine having said system subsidize my fight against cancer - a cancer that, in my case, i did nothing to deserve - no smoking, eating right, exercising all my life.

so, it might be expensive, but as far as i can see it is worth it. sorry for my burden upon society. but thanks for the drugs.