Not So Free After All

After my "free" medicine arrived, I discovered an invoice for $67 in the bottom of the box. So it's been $10,400, $100, free, and now $67. I called to verify and, at least for now, it's going to be $67 a month. Better than $100 I suppose.

I'm a little depressed today. I had another visit with the oncologist yesterday and found out that my creatinine serum level is too high. For those of us who don't speak doctor, that means my kidney isn't functioning as well as it used to. It's doubled in the last two months. Some adjustments to my medicine have been made, hopefully that will bring it back down. I only have one kidney left so, if it goes wonky, I'll be looking at dialysis. Not an encouraging prospect, let's all pray that's not happening any time soon.

I googled "foods that lower creatinine levels" and discovered that I should avoid red meat, bread, caffein, coffee, tea, milk, butter, chocolate, tomatoes, potatoes, salt, and pretty much anything that tastes good.  The "good" food list includes lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, nuts...salad. I need to eat more salad...Ick.

I applied for Social Security Disability benefits earlier this week. In typical governmental fashion, I get to wait four to six months to find out if I've been approved. The nice lady who helped me with the application was kind enough to call my wife the next day to let her know that she qualified for early benefits if she wanted to apply...and took her application over the phone. Not everyone in the federal government are bureaucrats interested in generating red tape.