The end of the saga, for now

On Thursday, eight days after they first declined my prescription of Tecfidera, I got a letter in the post* telling me that they had done so. They had a vague mention of my not having clinical work done, to cause this, but they didn't actually say what that clinical work was. They did helpfully say that I could appeal this decision by writing them a letter and mailing it to the address below, but they didn't give me any timeline for when they would respond. In the meantime, had my friends not used twitter to help intervene, I'd have been without medication, for weeks. And Aetna would have saved thousands of dollars, so their stockholders would have been happy.

Today, three days after that one, I got a letter saying that Aetna had in fact approved Tecfidera after all.

Thank you all, and thank God for Twitter.



*new word I learned from my husband

There's something about twos.

I was talking to my mother a couple of days ago, and she reminded me of the time she had turned 51. She was a little bit down about it, but I pointed out that 51 was a cool number to be, as its prime factorization is 17 x 3. You'd think at a quick glance that 51 would be prime, but further thought would remind you that since 5 + 1 = 6, and 6 is divisible by 3, that that meant 51 was as well, so it couldn't be prime. But the other factor is 17, which is somewhat unexpected. The next lower down multiple of 3 is 48, whose prime factorization is 3 * 16, and 16 is 2^4. Boring. Anyway, that's how I feel about the number 51, and the age 51. Which I'm not.

Today I'm 52. I've gained a little weight since my icon picture was taken nine years ago, and I've started going gray for real, though if I follow my mother's lead it will be many, many more years before I'm fully gray. I'm also two years into my fifties, and I have too many friends who didn't make it that far, so I'm grateful.

My wonderful and amazing husband gave me a rose bush for a present, which I love. The first thing I did with our yard when I moved in was plant two rose bushes, which are still going strong. Unfortunately we can't cut the flowers and bring them inside, because both boys think flowers are tasty snacks, but I can admire their brilliance regardless.

And I'm grateful for my many friends, my godchildren (I get to finally meet Miles today!), my family, and my wonderful and amazing husband. And Mac and Barry and Dymphna and G'Kwan, of course. Because without them, I wouldn't have anything to post about.