It is a beautiful Autumn morning and what I really want is to go for a walk... but I must stay close to the phone. I must wait to hear from NYC. I must wait wait wait wait wait to be told when I can start. Come to think of it, cancer patients do a lot of waiting. For the last two months I have been basically waiting. I should have bought an around-the-world plane ticket...

In the beginning of August I asked my Health Insurance for an authorization to allow me to start the R7112 clinical trial at MSKCC, a hospital outside my network. This trial from Hoffmann-La Roche is only offered in 3 states: Colorado, Texas and New York. I confess that I did not have a lot of faith in my HMO. I was basically waiting to hear a NO. Once I heard a NO I would appeal. With my cancer curriculum I thought it would be easy to show the health insurance that they will benefit if I find a treatment that works... and so I continued to wait for the negative answer in order to appeal. I waited all of August and all of September.

When I gave up waiting to hear from my insurance, as I was ready to start STA 9090 at Dana-Farber, E. from my primary care physician called.

"Elsa they said YES you are all set to start the trial in NY."
"MY insurance said they would cover the costs?"
"YES."

Coincidently at the same time the oncologist from Sloan called to let me know that there was an opening in the study... (yes we also wait for a spot on the trials)

I told her I was ready to start immediately, my insurance had said YES.

You might ask why I am still waiting, why I am still at home. Why haven´t I packed? . Why am I still gardening and thinking of walks?

That will be the next post. Right now I am going to take a walk and forget the phone.