May have gotten some good news!

I saw my hema dr. today and he said I might be able to get Rituxan after all! He said the hospital has used it on a patient with TTP, so he's hoping they'll approve the use of it for ITP. There are two of us waiting and hoping to be able to get it. Now, it's just a matter of the hospital to ok it. I asked him about paying for it and that's when he said the hospital had used it for someone else, so he's hoping to give it to me and another gal. He did mention an important side effect and before he could say anything else, I said serum sickness and he nodded. So we discussed this a bit; I told him I knew about it and what it was and I was prepared to take my chances. So now I'm just waiting to hear from him. I think I'm still ready to try it. Keep your fingers crossed!

Wow Cindy - that's wonderful news! Hard to believe we've been using it here for about 9 years and you couldn't get it at all. Good luck!

And you have a doctor who actually believes in serum sickness! He sounds like a good one.
Erica

Yeah, good point, Erica. Usually we have to diagnose ourselves and then force the doctor to look it up.

My hema dr is great! He's been fighting to get the Rituxan approved for almost as long as I've been going to him. I really do like him; plus, he's the top dog in Oncology/Hematology. I don't know what I'd do if he decided to retire. I'd hate to have to train another doctor! :lol: My family doc on the other hand, IS giving up his practice in August. Don't know what we're going to do then. Both Steven and I have health issues that we need monitoring by a doctor.

That's great news. I hope it works out. Is it going to be difficult to find a family doctor? I know they're hard to come by in some areas, especially if your not in a big city.

Lily

good for you, Cindy!

Great news Cindy! Hope it doesn't take long.
Julia

Lili, we're in Saint John, NB. Not a big city, but no fly by night one either. We've been asking around, but so far nobody knows of any doctors taking on new patients. My parents have the same dr. we have, so they need to find a new one too. We've got appointments with fd in July and we'll get all new prescriptions that should be good for a year. Hopefully by then, we'll have found new doctors.

Still waiting to hear from hospital or hema dr.

What normally happens here is when one doc leaves he is replaced by another who automaticly takes over the patients.
Julia

Well, I would count St. John as a big city in Canada at least, but I think that finding a family doctor is hard even in the big cities. I'm in Toronto and it can be difficult. In Ontario, the College of Physicians and Surgeons has a web site that allows you find a doctor who's accepting patients. I used this the last time I needed a new doctor, which was when I got diagnosed with ITP. Maybe there's something like that in N.B. The problem is that you wind up with a doctor that you know nothing about. I would say my doctor is OK, but not great, but that may be because she's a little out of her depth with the ITP.

Also, when my Mom moved to Toronto, she almost immediately had to go into the hospital and when she was discharged, they gave a list of doctors who were accepting patients, so maybe you can get something like that from a local hospital. However, the list was quite out of date so I'd phone up doctors and they wouldn't be taking patients. Also, my mom was being picky. It was very frustrating. Finally we got her into a doctor who practised at a Community Health Centre run by public health in Toronto and they had to take her because she lived just barely in their catchment area. She lucked out and got a really good doctor. I've even thought about switching to this doctor myself

As you can tell, I can really relate to the difficulty finding family doctors.

Lily