Discovery April 22, 2007

Hello, my name is Russell Jeide. I have a wife, three kids, and a dog. Last Sunday (4/15), my wife, Susan, noticed a lump on her neck. The lump is about the size of an olive and hard like a bone. As you may have heard, we now believe that the lump is one node of lymphoma that started between her lungs (apparently in a lymph node) and has moved up to her neck. This last week we have been through a lot in trying to arrange for diagnosis/treatment with the best doctors, but being a HMO insurance member, this has proved to be very difficult. I won’t write about the boring details of our insurance battle, but will only say that we were not successful in switching our insurance groups as we originally wanted.

Below is one of the CT images that shows the lump on the right side of her neck.

If you care to hear more about the insurance side of things, read on as I have copied below an email sent to my firms insurance representative in a plea for help in switching our insurance

4/15: Notice large hard lump on neck

Monday 4/16: Saw new doctor, Dr. Liu, that is filling in for Dr Stein in the Sharp Community Medical Group

Dr. Liu referred her to get a CT scan; got CT scan but nobody told her anything about the result

Tuesday 4/17: Dr. Liu said he didn’t have full scan yet, told us to come into his office the next morning

Wednesday 4/18: Dr. Liu handed us the Radiology report, which says something to the effect that the lump in her neck is also in her chest and is likely Hodgkin’s-type lymphoma (or possibly non-hodgkins). Dr. Liu didn’t have the CT scan or any further knowledge regarding the test. He didn’t diagnose her. He told us that the Oncologist in their group was Dr. Lyman, but Dr Lyman could not see her until early May. We called Sharp and they gave us the number of two other Oncologists in the group (Chen and Kosmo), who we called also, but neither of them are taking new patients. The rep at Sharp (Rita) told us that if none of the Oncologists could see us right away that they would approve a referral outside the group. Thus, we call UCSD cancer center (Dr. Edward Ball’s group) and they could get us in on Monday 4/23 at 3:20 (with Dr. Carrier of Dr. Ball’s group) and we still have that appointment and are planning to go to that appointment. We then had Dr. Liu’s office send a prior authorization request to Sharp with a referral to Dr. Carrier. She is already registered at UCSD, because we have gone there before. We thought (based on what Sharp had told us) that this would be approved and we would be able to go to the UCSD Cancer center. Margreta, the referral specialist at Dr. Liu’s office told us she would complete the referral and follow-up with us

Thurs 4/19: No word from Sharp or Margreta

Fri 4/20: Nurse from Dr. Liu’s office called and told us the referral was denied (and add, “I told you that was going to happen”).. We talked to the Sharp group again, and they said they would deny the referral to UCSD again (if we submit it again) because “we are equipped to handle this case.” They said they will try to get us in earlier than May and will call us if they can. So, two main reasons why we need to go to UCSD: (1) To be seen ASAP (we don’t have a diagnosis yet, but only know that there is a LOT of cancer in my dear wife’s chest and neck, and no idea how fast growing it is) and (2) to get the best cancer treatment (we have been told by numerous people that have gone through cancer treatment that we need to go to a learning/university hospital in order to get the most advanced and best care. We were specifically referred to Dr. Ball’s group, who already told us how their team of specialists work together to treat patients. This is where we want to go for treatment!).