For Older People with Sense

Hi, popping in. I was posting with another member. I thought sharing the below information may be helpful to you .

The link www.needymed.org is to a web site started by a Social Worker and a doc. It is a tricky site to use. The first page leads to a several hundred resource pages. But I think this first page, does not project the wealth that lies beneath. Be patient when following the links within the site. There are sections that are disease and drug specific. The specific page then links to lists of organizations that provide monetary or other types of assistance.

Register first and do the request for assistances form. Reason: the request for assistance form is filed. If you apply to 1 or 20 organizations/companies, the forms don't need to be repeatedly filled out.  The system is designed to pull information from the original form. There may be a few particulars that need to be added to a companies/organizations form.

All the pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs. All the drug manufactures are listed there

The other way to reach drug manufactures is 1. call the manufactuer patient assistance number(goolge keywords: drug name and manufacturer, then to webpage>>>patient assistance. Very time consuming.

There is so much more on www.needymed.org. It took a bit of time to wander through the whole site. I've shared a telephone walk through with many friends and relatives. I even called healthcare facilities to tell them about this link.

For completeness, there are many ways to get financial assistance for whatever you need. There are organizations that will do things for you i.e volunteers that buy groceries, drive, install handrails, build wheelchair ramps.

How to find the info besides from the link above?  FIND the SOCIAL WORKER(SW).  It's there job to know these things   Talk to all of the following 1. cancer center SW,  2.hospital SW, 3. Insurance companies SW, 4. County SW. 5. church outreach leader.

I requested from my insurance carrier, a consult with a SW. That one appointment with the insurance carrier Social Worker, led to grants totaling $10,550. The meeting with the cancer centers SW, led to coverage of neulasta  for $4000.00.

Awwwwww, thanks ladies!!!! 56 years old today and proud of it!

I always try to have a good day, so it was good! Nothing done special or anything, but nice to be alive.

Happy Birthday Barbe!   56 is a very good age!   Yes being alive is good. Are you working on any projects lately? Oops that is on the stitching thread isn't it? lol

I walked for 4 minutes at 1.1 mph at PT yesterday. I felt SO good when I got home, I had energy and some motivation and made several needed appointments that I have been putting off. It only took me about half an hour, I have put off some of this for 9 months!  I am so silly.  Yesterday was the first time I have felt energy in a long long time. I am grateful for it and hope with physical therapy it will continue.   

About energy or lack thereof.  I crashed emotionally this morning feeling I would never have the energy to even start the long list of things that need to be done.  Spring here (I guess everywhere) is very busy with the extras; the garden, the flower beds, cleaning and moving all the porch furniture out, not to mention the changes in the house.  I use to look forward to starting those tasks.  Now I can barely get my wash on the line and fill the birdfeeders. 

Fast forward 5 hours and I have done laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and worked in the flower beds for two hours.  Guess the toxins I cried out left me with some room for energy!  It may not be there tomorrow but at least I felt some power and hope today.

I will be 70 in August and have a hard time separating the normal losses of aging and the effects of the cancer and treatments. 

Ginger - 4.4 at 1.1 mph.  You have inspired me.  I may have to go to my treadmill - tomorrow.

Happy BirTHday Barbie, yes, it's nice to be alive sassy

Brigadoon and Wilsie, I "celebrated" my 71st birthday in March.  This is my 5th year since my bc dx and surgery and my 5th year on arimidex.  I changed after bc from being full of energy and feeling much younger than my age to a person who experienced a lot of fatigue.  I think part of that change was discontinuing HRT after my dx.  But all of a sudden, I didn't keep up with housework, didn't feel like doing yard work, just generally became a less active person.  I continued to play golf, but my game went downhill.

I also gained weight, my blood pressure went higher, my cholesterol went higher.  I blamed a lot of these changes on arimidex.  In Feb. I went back to WW and have managed to lose about 11 lbs.  And I am starting to feel more energetic.  When my prescription of arimidex is used up soon, I plan to stop taking it a few months shy of my 5 yrs. 

It will be interesting to see if my bp, cholesterol and weight control improve once I stop arimidex.  If not, I'll realize it was aging and not taking the HRT that were responsible for my fatigue and downhill slide.

In retrospect, I am not sorry I took HRT.  It made me feel great and staved off aging.  Plus I am not convinced that I wouldn't have developed bc anyway.  Some women do and some women don't, regardless of breast feeding, consumption of alcohol, child bearing, taking HRT, being overweight or being underweight and on and on.  Maybe someday drs. will know WHY but they don't know why now.  I figure it's all genetic.  Like heart disease.

Barbe your so funny . They love you.

Mac and Chrissy, Ginger or anyone  I wrote a new thread re discussion between Members and Mods I'll bring back the link.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/110/topic/821164?page=1#idx_18

psst, Barbe, I'm 58. I didn't follow anyone here, the posts were irresistible so I hunkered down around the campfire with the amazing ladies here. Lol

hi Chrissy, it is scary to know that your hard won return to vitality will be dealt a bit of a setback with the knee replacement. But, you have healed like a champ before, and you will heal again. This time, you know you've healed like a champ before. You're experienced. You've been there. This is not your first rodeo! Or horse race. I had a setback when I fell on the ice in March. Today I was diagnosed with bronchitis. I hate having a Vitality Setback. But I will battle back. So will you! Hugs!!

Chrissy at least they will get the anticoagulant thing right this time. No guess work there now. Sorry, though, that you have to go through this again. Wrens suggestion is nice. Remember when you talked of how good it felt for the knee that was done 

My memories bad, did I tell you I had thyroid cancer? I'm still glowing from the RAI 131. Not as paranoid about it now.  Glowing till July 25th. Have to carry a letter in case I set off a security alarm. Also, I didn't expect to get ALL the s.e.'s listed...a few... okay, but got way more than expected. Frustrated with docs, too much they can't tell me about this. i.e. like if it's a primary etc. Going to request a referral to MOffit where I had the crainiotomy. I've already picked the doc by her resume. She covers lots of systems and body parts. Here to many docs with their particular "part". I want one alpha dog that looks at me as a whole person and devises a plan.