Real and Emotional Costs
Because several people have asked about the cost of RIT, I pulled out our old records. We carefully recorded each expense from the time I was diagnosed in January of 2002 until the end of that year, and what follows are sums from actual bills.
The total cost of RIT, including the drugs and consultation with doctors, scans, and every single test associated with it, totaled $36,926.50.
As many of you have read, I relapsed after five of the planned eight R-CHOP treatments. If I had completed all eight, the cost would have been $65,188.24, based on the cost of each treatment I did take. In addition, our insurance paid another $42,780.24 for an array of chemo-related complications and hospitalizations. This figure does not include the numerous CT scans, blood tests, Neupogen, doctors' visits or other miscellaneous expenses during the months I was taking chemo. Nor does it include the $44,809 that was spent on searching for a bone marrow donor - and that was just for the search! I can't even imagine what the transplant itself would cost.
These numbers are four plus years old, so they mean relatively little besides showing that the cost of RIT was, in my case, about one third the cost of chemo plus chemo-related complications.
But there is more to the cost than just dollars and cents. The months of chemo, relapses, complications and debilitating side effects took a huge toll on our emotional health and our personal finances, and that cost is immeasurable. With RIT, treatment is given in two doses a week apart and side effects are minimal. Normal lives and schedules are generally resumed quickly.
In real dollars, RIT appears to be less expensive than other treatments, but in real value to our physical, emotional and financial well-being, it is priceless.
Betsy