Epic, much health ~ma for your mom, and coping ~ma for you. That's all so hard to deal with. I hope they can get the infection under control.

Steph, the exorbitant cost of some drugs makes me so mad. Rich companies getting richer on people's pain and desperation, fuck that.

Steph, the exorbitant cost of some drugs makes me so mad. Rich companies getting richer on people's pain and desperation, fuck that.

I get that R&D costs are high, but I still don't understand the point of pricing a drug so high that no one can afford it without assistance. Just price it lower in that case.

(Okay, part of me is going to be stuck on perpetual freakout until I know for sure that we won't have to pay $2500 a month for this medication. We don't earn that kind of money.)

That is, in fact, more than I earn in a month.

Dang, that is a lot of money. IIRC from my days billing IV drugs for Home Health, the pricing is often set so that when insurance or Medicare pays their negotiated percentage of the price that actually covers the cost, it's not really what patients are expected to pay, although that was a long time ago. I guess the idea is that the people who CAN afford it will, in effect, subsidize the people who can't, but there has got to be a better way.

Speaking of Fitbit steps: I just walked a mile and it netted me 1435 steps, so 10k steps still seems impossible as an every day thing. I think the only times I've hit it are days when I've run a 5k. I"m working on hitting 250 steps every hour when I'm at work because I figure sitting all day is really what I want to avoid, but while my Fitbit is happy to track my hourly steps it doesn't seem to have a way to remind me to get up or nag me that I haven't hit that goal yet.

I watched tiny bits of the correspondence dinner, I think I will need to watch the whole thing at some point.

And I just read Beep Me, Epic. How scary! Lots of ~ma.

Steph, we had good luck with that kind of program when my MiL needed chemo drugs, so my fingers are crossed that the pharmaceutical company will take care of you.

Steph, my mom needs a drug to improve bone density -- Forteo, I think it's called? -- and it's like $3,000 a month.

What kills me is it's not at all covered by the drug company for PATIENTS WITH MEDICARE. Which is the greatest population of patients who need it in terms of age/health, and Medicare doesn't cover shit with a whole bunch of additional add-on plans, which all cost money.

Which is probably not helping your freakout, I guess, but I do sympathize -- some drug costs are truly ridiculous, at least when it comes to an average citizen affording it.

Epic, all good vibes and lots of ~ma to your mom, and you. That is scary.

There was a snap last night as I was eating, and my front-teeth bridge that I'm having so much trouble with came loose. It hasn't fallen out, but it's loose enough now that practically any movement of my mouth is at the very least uncomfortable up to and including quite painful.

My goddess of a dentist is out of state, but will be available tomorrow. I'm giving serious thought to being at her office when it opens at 7 AM just to make sure she can work me in somehow. Maybe she can temporarily glue it back in? SIGH

Which is probably not helping your freakout, I guess, but I do sympathize -- some drug costs are truly ridiculous, at least when it comes to an average citizen affording it.

My initial googling tells me that a lot of patients are covered by the assistance program, at least to where their copay is $5-$35.

(I also know that part of my freakout -- though, come on, the reality of a $2,500 drug is ridiculous -- is that I'm displacing my worry/stress about my husband's new fun chronic degenerative disease onto stress about money.)