vidaza

[eve]

a question to all forum members currently on vidaza

dad has been on vidaza for over 1 year – the drug were provided for him by the clinical trial doctor (free of charge to my dad) – dad took them home and the drug was self administered (actually my brother gave him the shots, but that doesn’t really matter)

now that vidaza has gotten fda approval and there is no more clinical trial in order to get the cost of the drug paid for by medicare dad will have to have the drug administered at the local hospital

the problem is that they can only administer it monday thru friday – skip saturday and sunday – and get the last 2 shots the following monday and tuesday

has anyone had experience with this type of protocol and if so has it been sucessful in keeping their condition in check

does anyone have any suggestions on how to possibly get the shots on sat and sun

dad’s drug coverage will not cover him for this drug if he purchases it and administers it himself and it is very costly $400 a vial

thanks for any information you can provide

eve

[Terri]

Eve, I know that when BOb was on the trial we went 5 days to the doctors office, THen our hospital has Outpatient therapy for people on ANtibiotics, blood tx and chemo. We would go there for the weekend. The doctors office got this all set up. Actually I would bring the drug with me with instructions to the hospital and drop it down to the Pharmacist at the hospital to MIx. Then they would send up the two shots administered by the Nurses.

At that time the nurses were not that experience so this time around we asked the doct if Bob could do 5 days in the doc office and then skip sat and sun and we go back to the doc for two more.

[eve]

thanks terri

so bob gets 5 shots ships 2 days then gets 2 more shots and has had no problem with that as far as it affecting the success of the treatment?

eve

[eve]

oops ! the word is skips not ships

[Lexingtongrn]

My friend skipped Sat & Sun during the last three sessions and it didn’t make any difference in his blood work.

[Terri]

Eve, So far it is ok, this time around but He just finished the third round and we see the Doc on Feb 4th not sure if he will have a BMB or just continue. But we asked the doctor if he felt it would make a difference if we skipped the two days and he did not feel like it would. Actually our drs office has several more patients on this drug.

If you feel you don’t want the days skipped does your Hospital have an Outpatient IV therapy dept. Thats where we had gone for two days. They would give the shots.

I trust our Dr so we felt fine with skipping the two days.

I hope this all works out for your dad.

[eve]

thanks for the feedback

eve

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