Cash...Check...or Charge...

Cost of 1 visit with the oncologist: $463
Cost of 1 Oncotype test: $3820
Cost of 1 round of Chemo: $4500
Cost of 1 Neulasta shot: $7600
Cost of 1 lumpectomy surgery: $19000

Cost of seeing my twins smiling faces when they run in the door after a day at Ecole: priceless

* I don't know how people without health insurance in this country manage their care - it is criminal. The bills are exorbitant. We are lucky enough, despite being self-employed, to have good health care, with reasonable co-pays. We pay out the a** for it and the bills still rack up. We open them, read them and file them and wait for the phone calls to begin. If anyone out there still thinks that our health care system isn't broken, then they are sorely mistaken.

**Mom goes in for her surgery tomorrow. Her breast cancer is clinically Stage 1 at this point. She'll have a lumpectomy to remove the tumor, a sentinel node biopsy and a balloon inserted to prepare for a mammosite insertion. This little device will then able the radiation oncologists to pinpoint the area of her breast to be radiated. (I unfortunately, was not a candidate for this device and will undergo 6 weeks of radiation.) She will have have 5 days/2x day of radiation next week and then her treatment will be finished. She'll have been diagnosed, operated on, and gone through treatment within a total of 3 weeks. For that I am grateful as I don't know if she could withstand the 6 months that I am going through. Good luck, Mom!