As I’ve said before, I have no insurance but treatment at the hospital I ended up picking is going to be covered under charity care through the clinic at a 100% discount. So I’ll have no out of pocket expenses doing anything through that hospital, which is totally amazing. Dr. Leon Dragon apparently made it happen. He’s been pushing for me the whole time basically.
Pretty sure I’ve said this but I’ll say it again. A friend of my parents had some kind of lymphoma (some kind of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma) and saw Dr. Dragon for treatment and has been fine for like 5 years or something. Well, I found out I had hodgkin’s and a few days later my parents were talking about it with the guy and he was going in for his yearly (or however often) check up to make sure it hadn’t come back or whatever. He said he’d put a word in for me with Dr. Dragon. I thought nothing of it, like, “what’s that going to do?” Well, that was like on a tuesday or wednesday that the guy went to see Dr. Dragon, we called later that day and the person that answered the phone after they heard my name was like, “Oh, Dr. Dragon just came and said you’d be calling and to fit you in.” and I had an appointment that Friday (think it was the 9th). We called two other oncologists the week ( or a few days) before we called Dr. Dragon’s office and one oncologist had an opening the 19th and the other had an opening the 23rd… I wouldn’t even have seen both doctors by now, a good chunk of the month just waiting to go see them. We didn’t want to wait, had already waited long enough, I needed to get the show on the road and he was the only one with that attitude. The other doctor I saw would have been a long wait except their was a cancellation so they called me at 12pm to come in at 3pm that same day. That’s great they called me to get me in but that’s not nearly the same calibre as actually fitting me in.
When we went to see him he was real nice. We were talking and he was answering questions and talking about what needed to be done and all that. He knew I didn’t have insurance and when I ask about how payment would work or whether they’d be able to do charity care and whatnot he seemed exacerbated by the thought of me paying out of pocket for the treatment or the chance I wouldn’t be able to get treatment because of lack of funds and no insurance. He said very earnestly something along the lines of, “”We have to get him treatment, at his age he has an expectation of living another 50 years. We have to figure out how to make this work.” and talked about that I’d be able to get admitted as a clinic patient and then my bills would be covered through that free clinic program since they can’t do the treatment there, he’d be able to treat me. Well, it turns out he really meant it and followed through. I did get admitted to the clinic and it was for a 100% discount on medical care! The guy that is friends with my folks that is also Dr. Dragon’s patient was out shopping for furniture with is wife and ended up seeing Dr. Dragon and his wife at the store. They started talking and he said that Dr. Dragon said something along the lines that he had to push it through for me to get admitted as a clinic patient or for the 100% amount or both.
How it works to get admitted to the clinic you have to do paper work and basically prove you’re poor by submitting tax information, multiple recent pay stubs, bunch of other info like that. We were prepared to do that and the lady said she’d send over the forms but didn’t. We got a call the next day that where I live is out of the clinic area, we have to fill out another form first and see if the doctors will even allow me to submit the other forms to actually become a clinic patient. So we fill out the form to see if they’ll let me even try and become a clinic patient. It’s accepted and we send the other form to try and get me to be a clinic patient. The next day or the day after that we hear back that I’m accepted into the clinic and at 100% discount! I’m not sure which stage Dr. Dragon had to cash in some favors or use his standing in the hospital or do some convincing or whatever he did, but it was probably both and I’m damn happy he did. His business card says “Medical Director,” I’m not super sure what that means exactly but it’s pretty safe to say he’s probably more than just a regular doctor and their for has more responsibilities and is probably busier than normal doctors there, making him fitting me in so quickly and taking the time to push my stuff through all the more remarkable.
A side note about how remarkable it is that I got a 100% discount is, my parents have a friend that works in a hospital’s oncology department and her response to the news was shock and amazement and she said, “I’ve never heard of someone getting free treatment. That just doesn’t happen! That’s great” She didn’t say, “Good, I was hoping for that,” as if it was semi-normal but not a given. She didn’t say, “Wow, that’s rare.” She didn’t say, “I haven’t seen anyone that got free treatment” as in maybe not at her hospital but it happens. She said she hadn’t even HEARD of that happening! That’s how amazing it is that I ended up with free treatment/100% discount.
I’m so grateful. It’s such a relief that I won’t have this huge price tag hanging over my head that I have to repay. Or even worse, that my parents would have to cash in a chunk of their retirement or something to pay for it out of pocket.
My dad would probably say something like “God is good” and my mom would say, “It’s a God thing” but to me that kinda belittles what Dr. Dragon and the other people have done that’s helped me out big time. To me that implies that like, “Oh, God had it all worked out.” like semi-implying that if Dr. Dragon hadn’t stepped up that something else equally good would have happened. That’s basically not the case, it’s not like I’m choosing between 3 hospitals willing to in advance guarantee they’d foot the bill. No, it was an amazing thing he did for me and something HE did… Kinda choked up as finish typing this…