FU, cancer!

I saw that our county health department is now giving out free H1N1 shots to people with chronic medical conditions, as long as you bring in an order from your doctor. They were previously only vaccinating children and pregnant women, so WCK has already had her first dose, but I've been waiting on my shot. I've read that it's highly recommended for myeloma patients, so I've always been planning to get one. Since I had to take WCK back to the health department to get her booster anyway, I asked Dr. GPO at my appointment this morning if he could write me a note. He told me I could just walk down the hall and get a shot, since the cancer center now had an ample supply of vaccine. Score!

I went down the hall and told the lady at the desk. She made a phone call and told me I couldn't have the shot because the insurance company wouldn't pay for it. Seriously?

Of course, it was totally fine, since I just took my order from Dr. GPO to the health department and got my shot for free, and WCK got her free booster. You just have to shake your head, though, at an insurance company that won't pay for flu shots for cancer patients. Wouldn't the shot be far less expensive than complications from the flu? But they're an insurance company. They don't have to make sense.

In other cancer center news, they now have a new, fancy appointment system where they give you a printout with all of the details of your next appointment. It lists the date, time, duration of the appointment, name of the doctor, and the reason for the appointment. Apparently the new form abbreviates "follow-up appointment", because under "Reason", it simply says, "FU."

Awesome. That's what I want to tell the cancer cells every day.