Day 13 - ICD Codes and Good Quotes

I just called my Oncologist regarding the medical aid refusing the PET/CT scan.

We were not sure exactly where the problem was. The Oncologist has to request a PET/CT scan from the people that only do scans at another hospital. They have to apply to the Medical Aid for permission to do the scan. My Medical Aid refused the scan.
The Medical Aid says they will not approve a scan if I only have malignant leg sores. I told them that the diagnosis was Angiosarcoma, not only leg sores. They said no, the diagnosis was leg sores.
So the Oncologist and I checked the biopsy results, and what the pathologist had written. The biopsy report says:

DIAGNOSIS:
- High grade, poorly differentiated epithelioid  angiosarcoma. 

The ICD code was C44.7.
Google says that C44.7 means - Malignant neoplasm, skin of lower limb, including hip.

C44.7 does not require a PET/CT scan, but does require surgery.
So my Oncologist is going to ask the pathologist to redo the biopsy result and include the correct ICD code.

Life is getting way to complex, convoluted and chaotic for my simple soul. It is a good thing I have a practical, modern thinking girlfriend.
My idea of a complex lifestyle is when I want to meditate, but think I may have to pee before the hour is up, so I have to change all my plans, and pee first. That is my idea of a complex life. NOT when ICD codes are wrong.
 I am sure that people have died because of some typist using the wrong ICD code. The ICD code determines what treatment you get, NOT what is actually wrong with you, or what you need to continue living.


Sometimes I think I should never look at the internet about Angiosarcoma. I just found this:

Background: Angiosarcomas are a rare but aggressive form of soft tissue sarcoma. At metastatic stage, the clinical benefit of therapeutic intervention remains debatable.

Patients and methods: We have carried a retrospective analysis of 149 cases treated between 1996 and 2009 in the French Sarcoma Group.

Results: The median age was 60; the sex ratio was 0.80. Sixty-two percentage of cases presented with metastasis at the diagnosis. About 20% arose in irradiated fields. The median overall survival was 11 months.

Then with a bit of depression, I start reading quotes by people with cancer.

“I'm not afraid of being dead. I'm just afraid of what you might have to go through to get there.”
― Pamela Bone

"I'm not fighting," he said. "It's already inside me... and I'm not going to fight. I'm going to be a good host, let it pass through me.. resist nothing. Sieve. Let it all pass through.”
― Amanda Palmer, 

You who live, will die another day.

Don't deny the diagnosis;
deny the verdict.

Remember:
You are not dying of Cancer,
You are living with Cancer.

But I keep thinking about the line from above...
...the clinical benefit of therapeutic intervention remains debatable.