Peter,You were correct to dismiss the "death panels" as nonsense. It was a twisted interpretation of the fact the Medicare would automatically pay for an "end of life" consultation instead of requiring a case by case approval - nothing more.I'm of course not familiar with Canadian health care. But it sounds like you're saying you're on private health care at this point. That would seem to indicate that Ontario (I'm assuming Canada's health care varies by province) hasn't paid for any of your medications yet. If that's the case then I would think you were at choice number one three years from now. Or maybe they are already providing your drug coverage in some sort of public/private combination program, like I said I don't know anything about Canada's system. Even if that's the case Novartis has some really helpful people in their patient assistance programs. They provided me with Gleevec at zero cost for the year+ that the co-pay would have equaled about 75% of my annual income before I was able to get into a much better program.I guess the take-away from my point of view is don't give up before you try. :) You've got some calls to make and maybe some letters to write it sounds like. When I first was prescribed Gleevec my oncologist sent to the dedicated patient assistance program nurse. After about 2 hours of waiting she came out and announced that despite her best efforts I didn't qualify for assistance of any kind. I went home and made one phone call to Novartis and got approved in less than 10 minutes. I think they discontinued the dedicated patient assistance nurse position after my feedback to my oncologist. What was she doing all day, every day?Wow, they'll pay for 2 drugs but not a third - how completely arbitrary and illogical. If they're paying for A drug what do they care which one it is?Patrick
--- On Sat, 7/6/13, Peter <pksch...@gmail.com> wrote: From: Peter <pksch...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [CMLHope] Tasigna does not like me To: cmlhope@googlegroups.com Date: Saturday, July 6, 2013, 2:39 PM Hi Beth and thank you for your reply. I suppose another option would be to go back to Gleevec at a higher dose and see what it does. My gut feeling tells me that this would be a long shot. Sprycel seems to be the next logical step, but the pleural effusion etc. just scares the heck out of me. But, as you said, maybe trying it on a low dose like 70mg for a start makes the most sense. There is another issue though: you might remember all that talk about "death panels" during the Obamacare debate. At that time I dismissed that as nonsense. Turns out, I was wrong. Death panels are alive and well in Ontario. The Ontario drug plan for seniors pays for only two out of the three drugs, i.e. if you made the wrong pick the first two times, they won't pay for the third one. Since my private health plan comes to an end in three years when I turn 65, this will be an issue. The cost of the drug will be higher than my pension income. So, there is a lot of thinking I have to put into this decision............. On Saturday, July 6, 2013 2:39:20 PM UTC-4, Beth wrote: I just wanted to welcome you Peter to the group. I am sorry you have had such a hard time with Tasigna. sounds really challenging. I did not have those problems with tasigna, I had pancreas and liver enzyme elevations that took me off of it. so I don't know what to say about your specific problem. There are other options to try....Sprycel is 300X plus more potent than gleevec, one of the positives of it, and many people are able to use much less than a whole dose and have achieved MMR or CMM on it. It has it's issues for many people, but for some, lower doses are very effective and produce less side effects. Mostly I am holding hope for you that you can find the right med for you at the right dose that will work best for you. My only thoughts with your toxicity profile, and I am no doc, just my personal experience, is If you do try a new drug I would encourage starting with a lesser dose, do blood work in a month, assess, and go from there,..perhaps titrate up to what your body can tolerate, or stay at alower dose if the trend says it's working......It seems that if we start high and get very toxic, lowering dosages when the body is already under distress causes more problems than clearing the body of the old drug, and starting with a solid but lower dose and going up from there...Other's might disagree...it's just based upon the individual... your heart side effects are worrisome....so the three other options out there may be a thought! Take care, Beth -----Original Message----- From: Peter <pksc...@gmail.com> To: cmlhope <cml...@googlegroups.com> Sent: Sat, Jul 6, 2013 10:54 am Subject: [CMLHope] Tasigna does not like me Hi everybody :) After reading your posts for a few months, I thought it is time that I introduce myself. My name is Peter (62), I am from Whitby, Ontario. I was diagnosed with CML in May 2010. It took me about a year to get used to Gleevec, to the point where I could (kindof) live with it. At the end of two years, the only remaining issues were chills, muscle cramps and some fluid retention. The problem was, it did not get me any higher than a 2.7 log reduction - close, but no cigar. I switched to 800mg Tasigna, which got me up to 3.4 log within three months. But I could not tolerate the high dosage, so we lowered it to 600mg. Now I am stuck at a 3.0 log reduction, but Tasigna appears to be doing a number on my cardio - hypertension, palpitations, fast pulse, irregular heartbeat. I take Proprapnolol, Cilazapril, Hydro and the occasional Ativan to keep a lid on these issues, but with limited success. In addition, I am also experiencing extreme fatigue and weakness. Has anybody here had these kinds of problems with Tasigna? If yes, I would be really grateful for any helpful hints you can give me. -- -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------ ------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to cml...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to CMLHope-u...@ googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/ group/CMLHope --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cmlhope+u...@ googlegroups.com. 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