cancer treatment

If your “Fairy Godmother” could give you cancer treatment advice

She would say….

“You must let your friends and family help you whenever possible during your treatment. This is the time to take friends and family up on any offers of help!”

If a friend or family member says…..”What can I do to help?”…. You NEED to say “I could use help with…”

Have a list ready of things that you know you could use help with.

Here are a few suggestions of things that others could DO to help you while you go through treatment:

Deliver a meal or two through your meal train
Clean your bathrooms, vacuum & dust, or clean your entire house 🙂
Do your family’s laundry
Mow your lawn or weed flower beds
Water your plants
Pick up your groceries
Babysit your kids so you can take a nap
Wash your car

If things are in order around your home, you will feel less stressed and be more at peace which will greatly help you through your treatment.

The further along you go into treatment the more tired you will be and the less energy you will have, so it is really a good idea to let people start helping you right away because if you wait until you really need it you may be way too tired to even try to schedule the help you need at that point. Better to get in a good schedule of receiving help from the beginning of treatment so that friends and family can slowly work helping you into their own personal schedules too so it is easier on everyone.

Bottom line is…..your friends and family will want to help you and you NEED to let them help. It is good for all involved because you need the help and it will let them give you the gift of helping and give them something to do that will really help you.

Cancer Butterfly has a lot of FREE Resources available to help you get through cancer treatment more comfortably.

Why keeping your cancer medical paperwork organized is important

Once you are diagnosed with cancer it is very frightening and overwhelming to just process all the medical information you are receiving, not to mention everything you need to now keep track of as far as paperwork.

It will be much easier for you if you just start out organized from the beginning of your treatment (or at least start where you are now) if at all possible. I remember once I started and continued through chemotherapy for breast cancer, it got more and more difficult to concentrate on things like reading a book, watching a movie, or focusing on any kind of paperwork.

Keeping things simple and having a specific place for everything will make things much easier and you will be able to stay on top of your paperwork much better and find what you need when you need it if you are organized.

There are several money saving programs available to help cancer patients with their cancer treatment related out of pocket co-pays. These programs require specific information from your medical paperwork (EOB’s – Explanation of Benefit) forms from your health insurance regarding each of your medical visits in order for them to determine your out of pocket expenses. Once you have all your information in order you will be ready to apply for Cancer Grants and Cancer treatment medical discounts.

Worry less and save money on your cancer treatment

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 my first and foremost concern was of course for my health and to be able to see my two young daughters Jessica (then 5 yrs) and Emily (then almost 2 yrs) grow up.

My second concern was how much my cancer treatment would cost and how much of a financial hardship it would be for my family. I was (and still am) a stay at home mom, so our family was already on a pretty tight budget.

I spent a lot of sleepless nights worrying about how much my treatment of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation would cost and how we would pay for it.

I was soon committed to not let my cancer treatment be a financial drain on my family. As you go through cancer treatment you have a lot of nights that you have trouble sleeping either due to the treatment medications you are taking or the worry in your mind and in your heart.

I decided whenever I couldn’t sleep I would research ways to save money on my cancer treatment and apply for anything that I could in order to save as much money as possible on my treatment.

Had I known through my ten months of treatment all that I know now I could have applied for programs earlier and maximized more of my benefits and probably had many fewer sleepless nights worrying about how we would pay for my treatment.

My goal is to help others who are burdened by this horrible disease called cancer. Hopefully the information on Cancerbutterfly.com will ease your mind about the financial side of your treatment, so you can focus on your health.

I wish you much luck with your health and your financial side of cancer.

Resources to help cancer treatment be more comfortable

There are a lot of resources available on Cancerbutterfly.com to help cancer patients be more comfortable as they go through cancer treatment and to help guide them along the way. The following resources are things I either used as I personally went through breast cancer treatment or wished I had known about during treatment that I wish to share with other cancer patients.

Chemotherapy can be very hard on our gums especially due to many of the chemotherapy drugs causing dry mouth. Dry mouth can lead to a host of dental problems. There are tips to help prevent dry mouth on our Dental tips page.

Our wigs resource page provides basic information on wigs, along with how to care for them. It also gives the differences between the two main types of wigs: Synthetic Hair Wig & Real Human Hair Wig.

Our Meal train resource page makes it really easy for a friend or family member to set up a meal delivery calendar for you and it is FREE!

Our Tips for Cancer Patients resource page provides lots of suggestions on things to help you during treatment. Every cancer patient needs help with different things that could make life easier or more enjoyable while they go through cancer treatment.

Our Tips for Those Who Love a Cancer Patient resource page provides lots of suggestions on things you can do to help someone going through cancer treatment. Are you wondering what you can do to help your friend or family member who is battling cancer?

I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 on my cancer treatment!

If I had found out about these money saving cancer treatment programs earlier in my breast cancer treatment I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 on my out of pocket co-pays!

I did save $4,276.61 on my out of pocket co-pays for my cancer treatment, however finding out at the end of my treatment that I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 was devastating!

That was money that came directly out of my family’s pocket since I didn’t know about all the cost savings available to me at the beginning or even middle of my treatment! Many of the money saving programs available have time deadlines relating to your treatment and many of the programs also have retro rules regarding how far back in time they will allow you to use your benefits on prior treatments that occurred before the date you were actually “approved” in order to use your awarded benefits.

Since I had found out about these programs so late in my treatment, (I actually found out about them after had just finished chemotherapy), I had been awarded a certain amount of benefits that I could use but I was only able to use it on my last chemo treatment due to the programs retro rules on how far back you are allowed to use your awarded benefits 🙁

Needless to say this was extremely disappointing and frustrating to find out! So my hope is to help other cancer patients learn about and understand these programs as early as possible in their treatment so they can save as much money as possible on their out of pocket cancer treatment expenses.

Welcome to Cancer Butterfly! Learn how to save money on your cancer treatment!

The Cancer Butterfly website is officially open!

My name is Danielle Rivera and I am a seven year breast cancer survivor, I created this site to celebrate my seven year breast cancer survivor anniversary on September 4, 2016.

Since going through ten months of cancer treatment myself, I learned how expensive cancer treatment can be and what a burden it can financially be on a family.

This is a site designed to help cancer patients learn how to save money on their out of pocket cancer treatment expenses.

The resource pages will help guide you smoothly through your treatment by providing information on the different types of wigs available, how to set up an electronic meal delivery calendar, dental advice for how to take care of your gums and teeth during chemotherapy treatment, tips on how to keep all your medical paperwork organized, and even how to get free hotel nights and airfare for medical treatment or for a much needed vacation 🙂

Our family was able to save $4,276.61! This is the actual amount I saved on my “out of pocket” cancer medical expenses, this amount would have come directly out of our families pocket had I not found additional programs and resources that help cancer patients with their “out of pocket” cancer related medical expenses.

I am excited to share all the resources that I uncovered during my treatment and help guide cancer patients and their families along the way. My family lives on the central coast of California. My husband is a Firefighter for the US Forest Service and we have two daughters, Jessica who just turned 13 years old and Emily who is 9 years old.

Saving money has turned into somewhat of a hobby of mine, whether it is on groceries, household items, hotel stays, air fare, or cancer treatment, I am interested to find out how to save money and look at it as a fun rewarding challenge that I am excited to help others succeed with as well, especially cancer patients!