cross state treatment in winnipeg or toronto

bestfriend05

Hello all,

My mother is a stage 4 breast cancer patient with mets to brain, she was diagnosed last sept. She has had surgery, and radiation treatments in vancouver where she resides. However, due to recent recurrence in brain mets mom has to travel either to winnipeg or toronto..to get a procedure called gamma knife, its a radiation treatment.

I would be grateful if any of you ladies who have had treatments in either of these cities and or gamma knife can give your inputs about your experience there..

Also there is the issue of getting covered by insurance, we are in the process of finding out whether we will get covered..The radiologist also recommended seattle, but we figured that would be more difficult in terms of insurance..

anyone had any similar issues/experience..?

She

Your Mom should definitely be covered, I'm just not sure if she'd have to submit receipts for reimbursement.  I was offered DieP in Winnipeg, my PS trained there and told me they have excellent treatment facilities.  Due to the long recovery I held out for local surgery.

I'd be asking some questions before making any decisions:

- flying - how long after gamma knife tx does one have to wait

- reimbursement of expenses or prepayment of per diem 

I know a few folks are referred to Seattle when they can't have tx in BC so costs are covered.  I'd start investigating tx there first, it's the closest, no flying just a 3 hour drive.

Why don't you post over on the Stage IV forum, I bet they'll have plenty of info.

bestfriend05

Thanks She for your reply, i tried asking the radiation onc for seattle, as i knew it would be easier to get to and less expensive in terms of travel as well..but he seemed more insisitant on winnipeg..so could not argue with him ..anyhow, atleast he is trying for winnipeg, have not heard back as yet. I did not know we can cover travel expense with our insurance i shall try and find out, thanks for the tip. Can i just ask can we get the travel reimbursed from private medical or provincial insurance, would u know at all..?