Tumors grew slightly but insurance approved SIR-Spheres!
Mom got chemotherapy today. This is her last dose before the SIR-Sphere procedure which has been moved a day later to September 3rd. We were already anxious for Mom to hurry and get the spheres but the latest PET-Scan showed that Mom’s largest tumor grew by 0.5 cm since the last scan. Yikes. This is due to the fact that she was taken off the Avastin a couple of months ago (to reverse arterial narrowing) but this definately increases our sense of urgency for her to get the spheres ASAP!
But at least the concern over whether or not insurance would pay for the SIR-Sphere procedure is over. They approved it last week! We were relieved because Dr. Durham and Dr. Schefter made it very clear that without insurance approval, they would not perform the procedure (there is no way we could afford it otherwise). Luckily the spheres, because of their efficacy, are becoming the standard procedure for liver metastasis and doctors are getting less resistance from insurance companies. But I’ll still probably stress about it until the spheres are actually administered!
I wanted to recommend a website and great group of people for anyone that may be wondering about the SIR-Spheres, otherwise known as, Y-90 microspheres, Yttrium 90 microspheres, “magic beads”. http://www.y90support.org/ is the link to the Y-90 support group. They have been a great source of information and support for me.
