I live in Missouri and when Procrit (EPO) was needed I had to go thru the VA because Procrit is only paid for by the insurance companies in this state for those receiving intravenous chemo drugs. The VA Dr. laughed and said I don't understand why they don't think that Gleevec is type of Chemo therapy. I have been on 400mg Gleevec for 5 1/2 years and had one iron infusion at 3 3/4 years, and transfusions every three weeks for 6 months after that. I took a 10 month Gleevec vacation before I tested postive again. I returned to 400mg Gleevec and at 3 months was again negative. 2 months later I started Procrit and nosedived to a trasfusion in 6 weeks. I am now again on a Gleevec Vacation and have doubled the amout of Procrit. We are watching things closely and in Oct. will talk to my ONC to see what our next step will be. My ONC is contacting MDAnderson again to see what my best protocall will be, reduced Gleevec or a different treatment. There is no doubt in my mind that the Gleevec is cause of my accelerated Iron deficient anemia.
Richard H. DX 2/03 400mg Gleevec 3/03 PCR negative 11/03 Q-PCR undetectable 11/04 RT- PCR .001 11/05 On Aug 29, 8:32 pm, zippimom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I go to MDAnderson and was told the Medicare will no longer allow > Procrit for CML. The insurance companies are taking medicares lead. I > have my drugs through blue cross and blue shield and they are still > covering it. My PA had to call the insurance company but she got it > approved for six months more. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
