Pain vs. insurance companies...

As my blog post suggests, we're still fighting with my insurance company CIGNA, to approve the medicine Dr. Fay prescribed, being the miracle drug that he believes will send my white blood cell count into remission, thus allowing me to feel much much better. By the way, if anyone works for them, I'll be your best friend if you can slip me an approval letter under the table! hehe.

The pain has been pretty unbearable the last couple of days since I got out of the hospital. I look like a 100 year old man who has had hip surgery when I walk-which is pretty entertaining when mom and I were eating at IHOP yesterday and everyone was looking at me like, what is WRONG with that man? He looks so young and healthy. Ha ha-not! I slept probably a total of 4 hours over the last 48 hours, however, God is def using this to get me to pray more! And although it sometimes feels like begging God for mercy, just beginning to talk to the Lord allows my soul to quiet down and me to begin to see His perspective and not my own limited human one.

So we did see Dr. Fay again today...he was expecting me to be bounding up the hallway, already having gotten the Gleevec, and almost cured. But was very upset to find the insurance company had still not approved it. I guess the insurance company would rather pay for a hospital stay than approve this drug. (did I mention how expensive it is? I mean, I wouldn't want to pay it either, but you know, it's kind of their JOB.)

In other humorous news, two funny stories have happened today...

one of them was when mom and I were waiting to see Dr. Fay, his nurse came in to talk to us. She was filling us in on everything SHE had been doing on her part to get this med for me, checking on every sample in the building, etc. Mom got a bit teary-eyed because she understands how much pain I'm in and hates that it's taking this long to get the medication. Julie, in a very compassionate way and most sincerely, grabs a box of what she thought were tissues from a shelf in the dr office, hands them to my mom, and my mom draws out what she thought was a tissue. Then, as mom begins to put the "tissue" to her eyes, she feels the rubber like material, and begins to make out fingers and a thumb to what actually was not a tissue at all, but had been a box of RUBBER GLOVES!!! As soon as Julie, the nurse walked out, mom begins to laugh hysterically, tells me what had happened, and we both were in stitches at that time. (in stitches...hmmm...how did that saying ever earn the meaning of laughing a lot? weird.) Just the image of this sweet nurse in all her compassion giving mom a box of rubber gloves to ease her emotions put us over the edge. :)

-the 2nd one is more of a funny coincidence. So, long story short, my best friend growing up is a guy named Chuck Haddox. I sang in Chuck's wedding 3 years ago, when he married a wonderful woman named Beth Trenz. Beth has a sister that mom knew was a nurse "somewhere in Dallas." So, today, I get called back to the Dr's office out of the waiting room by a very sweet tall blonde woman. She took my weight, blood pressure, temperature as the nurses always do, and brought me into the actual dr's office. She was so sincere and compassionate as she learned of my dealing with this disorder, and that I had only recently learned about it a couple of months ago. She left, and mom said something about her really looking and sounding a lot like Beth, Chuck's wife. I agreed, but neither of us thought much about it. Then mom said she thought Beth's sister was in fact a nurse in the Dallas area, and that wouldn't that be funny if it WAS Beth's sister. She asked Julie (Dr. Fay's personal nurse) about the "blonde woman who was just in here", and Julie said her name was Susan but didn't know much else about her. Ha-so as you can imagine where this story is going, mom called her friend and Chuck's mom, Nancy Haddox (hey Nancy!), and found out that indeed, Beth's sister's name was Susan, and 3 years ago, we were all in the same church building in Cincinatti, under very different circumstances, seeing her sister and my friend get married! Ha-wow. Thank you God for good times and funny circumstances.

On a sad note, I was supposed to fly out to Florida tomorrow to one of my closest friends weddings, who was my roomate in NYC for 2 years, and who I had worked with in Japan at Tokyo Disney. I will not be able to make that trip, but wish Scott and Delores all the best, and thank them so much for understanding these crazy circumstances and being so great about praying for me.

And again, thank you ALL for your incredible support and prayers. I see Jesus' hand working in all of this, and even though I do get frustrated and upset about things not happening faster, I know "He's working everything for the good of those who love Him." (no matter if that "feels" good at this time or not). That's one of the best things about the Lord I think. He knows what is His best for us...not our best for ourselves, but His best, and if we allow Him and continue to choose Him, He will reveal that in us. It might not seem good at the time, especially if we never see the payoff or good, but God is such a big God and true to His Word and has never lied to us, we can BELIEVE His Truth and trust that it truly is all working together for His good.

Ok, enough preaching for today (can I get a hallelujah anyone? Or if you're watching "Diary of a Mad Blackwoman", HALLELURYEH!)

Haha. Thanks for reading this novel and may the Lord bless each of you!

Luke