I Need Someone Who Can Help

I have worked all my life and within the last 6 months I have become unemployed. I have no health insurance and I have been diagnosed with a solid mass on my kidney.  I can't get the treatment I need because I have no insurance and I know nothing about who to talk to or what to do.  I am scared and I need some who knows what to do.  Is there anyone who knows where I can go or how to get the care I need?  I was diagnosed in December and the mass was 2.3 cm three weeks later I had a repeat CAT scan and it had grown to 2.4. If anyone could help you would be saving my life.

On 4/10/2008 donnalynn wrote:

You can contact the American Cancer Society and they can help you.

Join the kidney cancer email support list Kidney-Onc.  A couple of the listmembers have had your problem and will tell you how they got treatment (can depend on where you live, some states are more helpful than others).  See http://cancerguide.org/kofaq/ to join.

Contact the Kidney Cancer Association at 800-850-9132 and/or Cancercare at 800-813-HOPE ; they may be able to help.

You should know that solid kidney masses are not usually biopsied unless tumors are found outside the kidney as well.  A very high percentage of solid tumors are cancerous, and with needle biopsy, there is a risk of spreading the cancer, and with small tumors such as yours missing the tumor with the needle.  Usually, surgery, preferably a laparoscopic partial nephrectomy  (although a nephrectomy, talking out the whole kidney, is probably less expensive),  for a tumor as small as yours,  is done without a previous biopsy.  You might call the American Cancer Society back and let them know that a biopsy is not indicated for kidney cancer.  

You should also know that the difference between 2.3 and 2.4 is just a millimeter--very, very small, and possibly just within the error tolerance of a CAT scan--your tumor may not have changed in size at all.Your tumor is very small; you have some time to find someone who will do the surgery.

There is an email support list that deals with medical/legal insurance issues and health care access (see http://www.harp.org/ , scroll to the very bottom of the page, and click on "Click Here to Join the Dialog Listserver."

Best of luck to you.

On 4/10/2008 donnalynn wrote:

You can contact the American Cancer Society and they can help you.

Try contacting Journey of Hope if you are in the cleveland, Ohio area.

                             Good Luck, Paula

You are in a difficult position, but do not give up!  You will probably need to be very assertive to get care, but it can be done.  You might also contact the social services or accounts receivable departments of the hopsital where you might have surgery done, or ask your doctor's staff if they have suggestions about obtaining coverage, perhaps under a government program in your state.

Under no circumstances agree to pay full billed price for any hospital service.  Insurance companies routinely pay as low as 20 cents on the dollar for services for insured patients.  People who are not insured should not have to pay the full billed price. 

On 4/12/2008 jreubtet wrote:

Who's paying for your CT scans?