Zofran seems to work

Scott started taking the Zofran yesterday evening. He's only taken two, but they seem to be working wonderfully. He's not felt nearly as woozy, and it has actually perked him up quite a bit. So glad it works. He was having a terrible time before. Having the ones that simply melt away in his mouth is a blessing, as it also gets rid of the mental part of swallowing yet another type of medicine.

But I must say it is very, very lucky that we have insurance that covers the drug. Even the nurse at the clinic said she'd have to check and get the okay from our insurance company to see if they would pay for the prescription. That's not unusual by any means, but after we picked them up we realized why.

They wrote Scott a script for 60 pills. Small things they are - just 8 mg each, and he can take a maximum of 3 per day "as needed". The kicker is the cost - which shocked Stephanie and I. The prescription cost was - for 60 pills - $2,100.

That's not a typing error. $35 each.

And the script has 6 refills on it. Do the math. The use of that drug for maybe a year at 1 per day would be $14,700. It's staggering. It's hard to believe.

What a family would do if they had no insurance is beyond me. I can't fathom anyone having children that are not covered by insurance these days. Not to mention there are lots of insurers that simply will not accept the cost of such drugs. Granted the non-disolving version of the drug is quite a bit less expensive, but having a child that is a nervous wreck already, taking several other meds and dealing with cancer makes the disolving form very desirable. As bad as Scott's sickness wears on us just from the standpoint of this terrible disease, what would one do with all the other issues tossed on top of those worries?

Just counting our blessing we have an absolute maximum out of pocket cost related to our insurance plan. I really don't know if it would work for Scott to have to swallow more pills, when the mental part of that is a large part of him throwing up we believe.

In business news - buy stock in GlaxoSmithKline, the drug maker. They should be making decent money!

Also found out today we'll be making another hockey game this coming Saturday night, courtesy of Brad Richards again. That should be a good perk for all of us again, especially after Scott's extended hospital stay last week. Only two weeks from then left until hockey playoff time, so it should be an exciting time.