the admin of cancer
When you think of life with cancer I am sure your mind goes to the physical side effects. A life with bouts of nausea, a lot of meds, and pain. And there’s all of that. But, there’s one pesky aspect that I had never thought about until I was drowning in it; the admin of it all.
You know when you have that task that you need to do. It will only take maybe 10 minutes, but for some reason you just keep pushing it to the next day. Then the next day. And suddenly months have gone by. Imagine that task multiplied by 10 every single week, while working full-time, and you cannot procrastinate any task as it pertains to living.
That’s cancer.
Also, almost everything has to be done during normal business hours. Juggling work full-time and cancer life is only possible because of a supportive team and company. Working from home also helps as I’m not spending time commuting to/from the office or meetings. I really have to make the most of every minute I’m feeling well enough to tackle things.
So, here’s a non exhaustive list of the admin of cancer so you can have a grasp on what we deal with. Also, I am SO thankful for all of the love and support I have but unfortunately none of this can be outsourced because of privacy laws and such.
scheduling appointments with physicians - this can mostly be done online nowadays but most of the time I call the office because I need specific timing to fit within my schedule.
scans and diagnostics - I have to wait for the scheduling department of the hospital receives the orders and calls me. Sometimes, I’m in work meetings and can’t immediately hang up and answer the call, so I have to call back. Typically I have to leave a voicemail and the phone tag continues. Then, the actual call to coordinate location, details of how to prepare for the procedure or scan, and finding a date/time is at least 15-30 minutes.
billing - this by far is the most tedious. Your hard earned dollars from my GoFundMe are tightly managed. I track my explanation of benefits from my insurance company, then I review the bill I received, 99% of the time there is a discrepancy in what I’m billed and what I actually owe so I have to call the billing department. I have to then track that they resubmitted the claim properly, await the new bill, and then pay the new bill. I spend at least 1-2 hours a week on billing, totaling 4-8 hours a month.
attending appointments - the commute to/from, the waiting for, and then the actual appointment equals at least 1.5 hours for each appointment. Typically, though, this is more like 2-4 hours. I have 6 specialists on my team who require regular follow ups, 3 of which I’ve put on hold because I just didn’t have enough hours to make it to follow up appointments.
treatments - again, including the commute to/from, and the prep of each treatment in the actual treatment time, I’m spending at least 8 hours every 3 weeks on treatment alone.
second opinions - I’m working hard to ensure my local team is not my only expert source. But, this involves coordinating with my insurance, other cancer institutes, and following up on everything at least once a week, typically twice a week.
tracking and organizing records - I review each and every provider report, note changes/questions, and add to a shared drive. This takes approximately 1 hour each week.
clinical trial tracking - Joe is working on this for me, but it’s at least an hour each week checking the clinical trials site and sifting through opportunities.
social media - yep, I’m including this one.
holistic treatments - the research alone is just exhausting
And honestly, I’m just capping this here because I have run out of time to finish this, ha!
