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.)

A couple of Hubby's chemo drugs were $45,000 a dose. I think a couple were six figures a dose. I can't say they didn't throw everything at it. But damn, people without insurance must just collapse from the stress of it all.

people without insurance must just collapse from the stress of it all.

The drug for Tim's RA is $2500 a month WITH our insurance. (Or maybe just -- "just!" -- $1200 a month with our insurance.) Which, of course, is a far cry from $45,000. But it's still prohibitively expensive (and yet one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for RA, which is why I wonder how many patients receive assistance from the drug company; it's got to be the majority).

But look. All that aside -- and the money aspect IS stressful -- I *am* beyond grateful that Tim's rheumatologist is smart as hell, perceptive, and has as good of a bedside manner as my Awesome Doctor(TM). Tim just randomly got assigned to him when he called the rheumatology practice, and that was a HUGE stroke of good luck.

And I'm extremely grateful that pharmacotherapies exist that can actually slow or stop the erosion that happens with RA, so he won't be crippled by the age of 55. I really am grateful for all of that. The monetary part of it is just daunting.

I do know a lot of the cost of Hubby's treatments were the cost of the materials. He was getting cool stuff like puff adder venom and extract of rare tree barks and I think a couple of spider venoms. They weren't expecting someone who could read the Latin. By the end he probably could have survived being bitten by 90% of the world's venomous creatures. Or 5% of what lives in Australia.

The latest Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery had a funnel web spider as the murder weapon. And Phrynne is desperately afraid of spiders. Jack was very cruel to her about that.