Hey, Is Anybody Hiring?

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under cancer, health, medicaid, oncologist, prognosis, social worker | No Comments

So, I went to see my PCP the other day to get this form filled-out for social services.  My work deferrement is up for review next week.

So, the doctor walks into the room and introduces herself to me as if we’d never met before (that should’ve been my clue that she didn’t remember me).  She grabs the form, reads it and goes off on me about why I don’t go get a job. Like I was in there trying to get a deferrment — as if me being deferred all this time had nothing to do with my illness. 

I said to her, “You don’t know who I am, do you?  I was just in here 3 weeks ago.  Remember?   I had cancer . . .”

She gives me this puzzled stare, pauses for a few minutes then thumbs through my file.

“Yes,” she says, finally.  “I remember.”  Yeah, sure you do.

She then reads over the same report from my oncologist that she’d read the last time I was in there.  She asked me if I was depressed.

“No,” I answered. Although, I was becoming rather impatient after a 2 hour wait and discovering that my family doctor didn’t even know who I was.

 So, she listened to my heart and gave the oncologist’s report another glance and decided that I am now healthy enough to return to work.

 Great … but now I need a job to return to.  Anybody hiring?

Update

July 11, 2008 | Filed Under PET CT Scan, cancer, medicaid, oncologist, treatment | 3 Comments

I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this blog.  A long while.

 Well . . . since my last entry, I’ve worked-out that problem with my insurance.  My medicaid provider is now, Horizon NJ Health.

 I’ve had several follow-up exams, including return visits with my oncologists and my family doctor as well as another PET/CT Scan and an MRI.  I’m still doing good physically.  I’ve gained back all the weight I lost during my cancer treatments. 

 In April, I participated in a “Relay for Life” for the American Cancer Association.  I met a lot of other survivors there.  It was a pretty cool event.  All I had to do was walk a lap around a high school track and they gave me a t-shirt and a free dinner!

I had a routine dental cleaning today and the dental hygentist praised me for being “tartar-free”.

 In other news, I’m giving a poetry reading tomorrow night at Fountain Plaza on Commerce St. in Bridgeton, NJ.  Although, I’ve read a couple of poems at an open mic, this will be my first featured poetry reading since my cancer.  I’m still a little self-conscious about reading in front of people.  The tongue cancer has left me with a noticable speech impediment.  In fact, the next health decision on my list of things to do is to find a speech therapist.

 All that aside, my summer so far is so much better than the misery of last summer.  I’m eating pretty much anything I want to now (perhaps eating too much!).   I’m getting plenty of exercise.

I even had a rather positive experience at the cancer center recently of counseling the family of a man going through treatments for the same cancer as I had.  The man had reached that point in the treatment where he wanted to give up and his family didn’t know what to do to keep him on track.  My doctor asked me to talk to them and tell them my story.  It felt good to help them.  They were all very frightened and it did help them to see someone who’d been through those horrible treatments and survived the disease.  I gave them a lot of hope, I think.