Scan scan scan scan...

. "My brain on drugs"

Well, I am back in Arlington with my brother after a brief stint in my SF home. I cancelled a lot of appointments and basically only went out with a few groups to save time. I am back in DC to effectively complete my "initial" round of care at Mid Atlantic Kaiser. I finally saw my first medical oncologist before Xmas and she sorta freaked seeing how Mid Atlantic ignored me. She ordered a barrage of tests to finally set my baseline, ... two months and a lot of stress later.

I also got a referal to another specialist, Radiation Oncologist from my new Medical Oncologist that I see tomorrow. I originally asked for a referral to a Radiation Oncologist to cover my second opinion outside the system, $426 for the meeting out of my own pocket. Getting denied was the expected result, however the front office denied me in spetacular fashion. In a form letter they wrote:

"Radiation therapy is not medically necessary..."

Odd since most of my initial specialists were Radiation Oncologists and I was recovering from Wide Brain Radiation. It's like getting your totaled car fixed at a mechanic and being told half way through by your insurance company the you aren't covered for any more fixes. Obviously nobody with a medical background read the letter, maybe the janitor did. All my doctors wince when I tell that story.

I was running around a few days before xmas trying to get the testing done. I had about two hours worth of MRIs just hours before I was leaving on the last flight to SF. The MRIs were torture. Lying still for 20min at a time. The noise amazingly was like a construction site. So many sounds and very loud.

We were allowed to bring CD's to play through cheap plastic headsets. Of course I brought a 3 CD set of my brother's infamous band:
shamelessly exploiting tragic events, human foibles, and the absurd, through loud music and other media for fun and profit

http://users.erols.com/mlaird/shbangers/

They got world wide coverage on CNN, ABC, the Economist and wrote songs for the local #1 rock station.

All I heard most of the time was the MRI machine pumping out a lot of noise.