Originally Posted by the Shemp

i was diagnosed with blood cancer at 3pm on a thursday, in a small medical clinic, 60 miles from Vancouver...3 hours later i was in a private room at the Vancouver General Hospital, Leukemia center...i had a meeting with a hemotologist and an oncologist within an hour, outlining the procedures ahead...friday moring they operated on me and inserted a three tap catheter into my chest....Later that day the final results came in from my bloodwork tests and the type of my Leukemia was identified... next morning chemotherapy started...and i was in the private isolation room for 6 weeks...after that i was a day patient getting treatment daily, but able to go home each nite..

i was going to need a bone marrow transplant and fortunately for me, 7 months later a suitable bone marrow donor was found in Germany... a member of the transplant team from Vancouver flew there to get the stem cells that i would need to survive...

i was given the transplant and again i was in the bone marrow transplant unit for almost 7 weeks...of course my body tried to reject the bone marrow many times over the next two years and i was really a basket case with a ton of side effects, some of which i still have today...but with new anti rejection drugs and hands on attention from a team of dedicated professionals, i was able to keep alive...

the cost for treatment like this in Seattle is over 300K...my cost in Canada, was the parking meter and a new pair of glasses and i still have full medical insurance...they dont kick you out if you have previous medical problems...its a good system, not perfect of course, but i never had to fight with an insurance company or worry about losing my house to pay for the transplant...in fact, i didnt even have to start a begging thread on GFY