Tykerb: One Day's Dose

This is what one day's dose of the new cancer wonder drug, Tykerb, looks like, folks.

Is it any wonder that I've been blathering on about it?

Five orange penny-sized pills, to be taken on an empty stomach, at a cost of about $23/pill. That's more than $3,000/month. Shocking, I know.

The problem for me, aside from choking these down and then dealing with the side effects, is that Tykerb, since I take it at home and it's a prescription drug--rather than a drug that I receive at the cancer center, like Herceptin, which I no longer take, and Avastin and zometa (which I do)--is handled differently by my health insurance company.

I'm OK as long as I stay with WSHIP, the Washington state high risk pool, because WSHIP covers this drug, no matter how reluctantly, but in January I am eligible to go on Medicare, because that is the two-year anniversary of my going on Social Security Disability, and I'm worried about paying for Tykerb on Medicare.

The infamous "Part D" problem, which I don't have a clear handle on yet. When people start talking about a "doughnut" in prescription drug coverage, my eyes glaze over. But now, sadly, I'm going to have to care.

I'll keep you posted as I wade into the murky waters of Medicare.

And I won't be canceling my existing insurance, despite the $800/month premium, until I have it sorted out.

Read more about the doughnut hole, or "donut hole," as they are calling it on the National Writers Union's blog:

More Than 3 Million Seniors Will Fall Into Donut Hole in 2008

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.