Category: General

I signed up for the Flex One plan through AFLAC at work. If you can get your employer to have an AFLAC rep come in to talk to the employees about this, it’s a good thing. I don’t know if they have individual plans for this. Here’s how it works. Your employer deducts an amount you specify from your paycheck, and this is before taxes. You then submit to AFLAC all your unreimbursed medical expenses and you get the money back from them in about a month. This helps me to save money on taxes. It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up. By the end of the year, I’ve paid 20% of my Zometa infusions (since it’s done in a hospital, and I’m on an 80/20 plan – it comes out to about $300 a month!). I’ve paid an awful lot of co-pays for Dr. visits and drugs too. Yes, I still have to pay, but at least now the money I’m using is tax-free. They also cover diabetic testing supplies, which I need for dex days, acupuncture and other things like that. I tried to submit my supplements, but they denied that. It was worth a try. :)

Here’s a short list of things you can be reimbursed for (and not have to pay income tax or bother deducting medical expenses at tax time.)

• Ambulance service, birth control, contact lense solution, crutches
• Rx drugs, elastic hose (with Rx), eye glasses/contacts
• Acupuncture, chiropractor, psychoanalyst, hearing devices
• Medical copayments & deductibles, smoking cessation products (with Rx)

I’ve had trouble with AFLAC a few times, with the cancer plan, but I do think they’re a good company. If you’re like me, and still in the workforce, this FLex One plan can help save a little money. Even with good healthcare coverage through BCBS of North Carolina, MM has had a pretty serious impact on my finances.

I hope this info will be useful!

From a recent edition of mental_floss magazine:

In these tough economic times, any industry with significant job growth should be cheered, so here’s to Elvis impersonation. When Elvis died in 1977, there were 43 professional Elvii (that’s the plural form, because we said so). In 1990, there were 10,000. In 2000, some 35,000. At this rate, some have projected that one out of every three humans will be an Elvis impersonator by the year 2020.

“Fear Factors.” mental_floss Jul-Aug. 2004: 14

I went to see an Endocrinologist on Wednesday. He’s a really nice doc, and spent a lot of time with me. We wanted to find out a few things about how treatment is impacting me, so he drew blood and I am having a bone mineral density scan next Wednesday. He’s testing for quite a few things. Vitamin D and calcium, thyroid, average blood glucose levels over the last 3 months. Heck, I don’t remember what all. He said it would take a few weeks for all the tests to come back. Isn’t science amazing sometimes?

I have the most terrible cable Internet service in existence. If I didn’t live outside my own DSL service area, I wouldn’t have to use Charter Cable. I’ve even entertained moving so I can get DSL!

During the holiday weekend, there have been between 12-13 hours without service, and still counting. Last month I called in to report that my service was down, and was told it was my cable modem. I bought another one, and after being without service the entire weekend, called in to have it provisioned. At that time I was told there had been a fiber cut. Geez. I have an extra cable modem if anyone’s looking to buy one.

If you’re in NC, and you have a choice between Charter Cable for broadband and anything else, pick anything else.

Today I walked a few laps around the track at the high school for the ACS Relay for Life. I took along my niece and nephew and their mom, my sister. It was a hot, sunny day. I forgot to sign the banner before I left, but they’ll be there until 10 tonight! I can go back and do that later on.

It was a good event. Lots of local people turned up to show their support. The Southern Pines Fire Department was there with a truck. I was sure my nephew would love to sit in the truck, but he got scared and shy! Maybe next year! My niece did get up into the truck, put on a helmet, and had a great time.

I’m crashing a bit from dex, so I’m tired!

All I want to do is just say that I hate having numb feet!

This is a response to a question I asked:

Dear Beth:

I did see it and had mentioned it in my e-mail, but I guess it was a
little buried in with the other stuff. The M-spike was too small to
quantify from this recent visit, which is what these days we call a
near-CR, but since it seems to be dropping maybe a CR is in sight as
well!

RO

I’ve been worried about some abnormal lab results. Usually I don’t have any abnormals except for the MM. This time I have elevated calcium, phosphorus, LDH, WBC and abs neuts. The WBC and neuts are from the dexamethasone. I didn’t know about the LDH, so I asked my dcotor, and his response was:

“As for the LDH, this is a very non-specific test, and can be elevated for any of a number of reasons, with myeloma being only one of them. Since your protein level was too low to quantify on the SPEP, however, I would not be worried about that.”

The calcium, he said would be dealt with by the Zometa infusiuon. I never had high calcium before, and it has only started being that way since I began taking a daily calcium +D supplement. I have stopped that as of yesterday!

I will be seeing an endocrinologist on June 2nd. He can help me with calcium levels, the glucose intolerance I have on dex days and the hormone levels that must be messed up from dex! I know there must be some, because I have amenorrhea. Aside from the obvious, amenorrhea is nice because my RBC and HGB are waaaaay up! Check my labs and you’ll see. In Jan last year, my HGB was 13.0 and RBC was 3.96. A few days ago, they were 15.6 and 4.84. A little lower in May, but Aunt Flo was here last week for the first time since last summer.

It’s a dex night and I am up at 2:00 am. I have to take a sleep aid and get to bed!!