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@mrnootz

God Bless my Blue Cross & Blue Shield health insurance company from saving me from the Mayo Clinic and Keytruda. Once they cured my stage 3a lung cancer with Ablation, Chemo, Immunotherapy, and taking out part of my lung, I thought treatment worked and I was 100% cancer free and that I was done driving to the Mayo for a while. However, my overzealous Oncology Nurse Practitioner wanted me to start Keytruda Infusion on the 2nd January. Keytruda would be 90 minutes in the Chemo chair with $14,000 worth of drug pumped into my arm every 21 days for the entire year, just in case. I was dreading it, lots of side effects with some of them being diarrhea & death. I left the house at 1am on the 2nd to drive up to the Mayo for a couple of CT scans and blood tests and other BS before my 1st Keytruda infusion. I met with my NP at 10:45 for a check up before I started the Keytruda at 12:45. BC&BS turned down the $250,000 worth of treatments at 10:30 that morning after seeing my CT scan and the path report stating I was cancer free. Once again, thank God for my insurance company for saving me from a year of unnecessary hell. Back in June when I met with my first of many doctors at the Mayo, I was told that it is ALWAYS about the money and to be careful. Unfortunately I am not smart enough or strong enough to tell the Mayo Clinic NO, you have done enough, I am cured and please stop treatments. We will now be doing some RV traveling this year. GOD is GOOD...

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Replies to "God Bless my Blue Cross & Blue Shield health insurance company from saving me from the..."

@mrnootz, you are the CEO of your body and care team. You have the choice when to say it's enough. But I understand the pressure that a patient can feel when presented with all the options. For example, my dad went into an oncology appointment with the intention of not taking chemotherapy when his cancer recurred. We were surprised when he chose to continue treatment for a time. After 6 months, he decided to stop. His care team and family accepted each choice. Both were right for him at the time.

Thank goodness you had options. Not all cancer stages have curative options. You might be interested in this related discussion:
- Going my way: Decided to stop cancer treatments
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/going-my-way/

God bless you all and thanks for your stories. I’m new to this having been diagnosed with 1b lung cancer and having an upper right lobectomy. My oncologist prescribed 80 mg Tagrisso once a day for three years. I’m three weeks in to it and it’s very strong and I don’t like the way it makes me feel. I worry it’s destroying my body. There is a 40mg Tagrisso pill also but I’m also fearful if I go to that lower dosage the cancer has a better chance of returning. Does anyone have any experience with Tagrisso and the dosage options. I can’t live like this for the recommended three years.