Pioneering and a sense of humor

I've been thinking alot today about being a Pioneer. My oncologists office called me this morning and told me they were unable to put in a prior auth for the amplichip test I asked for because no one has ever asked for it before and they had no CPT code. Without a CPT code they can't put it in the system for the insurance company. I asked how I got one of those codes and although we were on the phone I felt like they were giving me a blank stare. Basically they didn't know nor did they wish to know. What did I do? I started on a quest of course to find out how to get a CPT code. I left a message with my nurse at the breast care center and then called my Dad to ask him who assigns these codes. After chatting with him I called the manufacturer of the drug and have left a message with 3 different departments about how to get a CPT code.

My sense after doing some digging is that I'm the first patient to have asked for this test since it was only approved in June of this year. The manufacturer called me back and said that it has been going on in Vegas and that Quest Diagnostics, the company I do lab work with is in fact doing that. So I called Quest and apparently there is more than 1 test so unless the Dr. calls the pathologist directly we don't know which CPT code is correct. What cracks me up and often frustrates me is that the front office staff is so rude they won't ask the Dr. to call and get the CPT code. You'd think they'd be more compassionate considering the kind of office they work in but I find it to be the exact office. They are some of the rudest people I've ever dealt with. If I can't find what I need before I have chemo next week I'll ask the Dr. to call. It's shouldn't be so hard all of the time.

Pioneering can be exhuasting. I think about our forefathers and all of the pictures I've seen of them where they look so serious and so stern. I have a book that has accounts from women on the Oregon trail. Their lives were so hard and so joyless. A sense of humor when you are blazing a new trail is so vital. How do you cultivate this? Humor has never been one of my fortes, I'm the serious type that takes it all so serious. Always have been. But more and more I am learning to laugh with the help of the universe. Sometimes these people give me the stupdiest answers that I can't help but laugh.

Yesterday I was going to the bathroom. When I pulled my underwear down I noticed quite a few hairs in my panties. Not knowing what to think I pulled on my pubic hair and a whole handfull came out. I started laughing. I'm sorry but Divine Mother has a preverse sense of humor. My hair has started falling out but it's started in the pubic area. How funny is that? It could have started anywhere but it started there.

Of course being the curious person that I am I then pulled on my head hair and a small patch came out. Keep in mind that it's not very long, maybe an eighth of an inch and so it looks like little whiskers coming out. So what I expected has come to pass. My hair is coming out. Pubic, head and underarm. My kids asked me to pull on my eyebrows and eyelashes but I refused as I'm hoping to keep these.

This morning I woke up with little snail trails on my head where the hair is starting to come out. In some ways it would be so much easier if you woke up and your body just ejected it all at one time but that would be too scary I guess. So I will get spottier and spottier as time goes on until I am as smooth as a babys butt. Perhaps my wig will come in handy for a while if I don't care for the spotty look.

I definitely feel like I'm blazing a new trail but I commit to keeping a smile on my face and not taking it all so stern and serious. Afterall, even God has a sense of humor and she proved it to me yesterday. It's a great day to be alive. Peace.