Oct. 2009. CyberKnife treatment plan for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Healthcare, insurance, and doctors
Sooner or later, when dealing with cancer treatment, not only are you battling cancer, you will probably need to battle your insurance company or doctors over health coverage. Unfortunately, it's usually sooner. Fortunately for me, I've had great support from my doctors and my insurance company.
Insurance company paid the radiologist the contracted rate. The doctor is now billing me for the difference. Is that legal? What can I do? What is wrong with health care in the US. And all this with excellent health care coverage.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Another month, another nasal endoscopy
As he does each time I see him, my ENT performed another nasal endoscopy today. He said the nasopharynx still looks red from possible inflammation but the area is more and more concave, which is good and normal.
He has ordered a MRI for the head and neck. I see him again next month, when we will make a decision on a possible biopsy of the nasopharynx.
I continue to cough up bloody phlegm each morning, which is probably a semi-permanent side effect of all the radiation I've had (IMRT and CyberKnife). My ENT says he has one nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient who continues to have bloody phlegm three years post treatment.
Happy Valentine's Day to my wife! I love you.
An excellent article on surgery for recurrent NPC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1656473/pdf/skullbasesurg00028-0005.pdf with comments by Dr. Fee at Stanford.
Post-treatment imaging of the nasopharynx:
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