I wonder how many lives would be saved were it not for the bureaucracy of health insurance companies and hospital administrators. As a former strategy consultant, inefficiencies and stupid processes drive me nuts. As a concerned daughter with an ailing dad, the delays and incompetency are maddening.

My dad is finally going into the hospital tomorrow to start his autologous stem cell infusion process. The hospital is going to give him high doses of poison, hoping they kill the bad cells and spare a few of the good ones in the process. They'll give him drugs to make his blood nice and rich with his own stem cells, then they'll collect the cells by filtering his blood. After they've sufficiently poisoned him, the plan is to get his stem cells back into him so that his body can begin regenerating (hopefully) healthy bone marrow. Well, that's my basic understanding of the process, at least.

The doctors outlined the process over a month ago, and the timeline was supposed to start weeks ago. Yet, my mom has been the project manager on this one, calling the hospital and leaving messages, calling the insurance company to identify if and where there's a hold up. I suppose I shouldn't been too harsh on these people. Afterall, they are going to be administering poisons to my dad. notice I've not once mentioned names or facilities.

In any case, the whole point of this post was to let people know that my dad is still fighting the battle while my mom continues to be his biggest supporter, coach, and nurse.