In 1989 my wife was diagnosed with sarcoma of the lungs. At the time of the diagnosis it was discovered to have already spread from one lung to the other lung and to her liver. Her oncologist gave her one year to live — two on the outside.

That first stay at the hospital cost several thousand dollars and, at the time I took her home, approximately $800 of medications were required to be picked up at the pharmacy.

Over the next nine months she spent five days out of every fifteen in a hospital bed with an IV dripping chemo drugs into her system. After that we made periodic trips to the hospital as her disease advanced, often seeing various specialists and adding or deleting medications.

More often than not, the payments by the insurance company covered more than one bill… or one bill was split into several payments. Keeping track of the bills from doctors, pharmacies, and various departments of the hospital and submitting them to the insurance company for payment or reimbursement became a nightmare.

By the time my wife passed away, two years after her diagnosis, I had three 1 1/2” binders filled with the paperwork for her illness.

The point I wish to get across is the importance of keeping records in an organized fashion during a very unorganized period of time. When cancer is diagnosed, it turns one’s world upside down and the stress level is high. The last thing a patient or spouse needs is having to deal with the horrendous paperwork.

While some might be able to organize these records as I did, I would suggest using an already developed system such as Amber Bowden’s MedTrakker.  Life would have been much simpler if I had been able to purchase a record keeping system rather than develop my own.

Keeping accurate records is important for many reasons such as taxes, incorrect billing, and seeing what actions are actually being taken in the battle with the disease.

Note: While I strongly advocate the MedTrakker system, I receive no compensation for doing so. Neither do I recieve any commission for sales of the product. I simply believe it to be a good system to save time and energy which can be better spent on fighting the illness.