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PeeJ

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Everything posted by PeeJ

  1. Why doesn't anyone really help? I've called or e-mailed all these charitable organizations, and nothing. I went to the unemployment office last week and told my "counselor" why I was applying for a job not even making half of what I was a Cargill, and his reply was "shi_ happens"...wow.. what a wonderful world we live in. Happy Holidays.
  2. Hi, just checking in again. Hope all that have read are still around and doing well. Well, I won my unemployment hearing and am receiving my $250 dollars a week. It doesn't go very far when your COBRA health insurance costs $500 a month. I have been given the right to sue by the EEOC, although they couldn't find any evidence of discrimination one way or the other. Cargill filed a restraining order against me after I won my unemployment hearing, so now I have the added expense of hiring a lawyer to fight that so I don't have a record of stalking against me. Cargill claimed I was harrassing and stalking them because I called their offices 18 times in 3 months trying to get the last of my personal effects from my office. It's so funny because the transcripts of my calls are pleading with them to please call me back, which they wouldn't do. Cargill's attorney offered to pay my COBRA insurance and contact the American Cancer Society to hold sensitivity training sessions to Cargill's management so they wouldn't harrass their next cancer victim if I would drop my EEOC claim. I don't think so. Cargill likes to proclaim their community involvement with their motto of "Cargill Cares". Problem is, I don't think they really care unless it is a tax deductible contribution. It's really been great though going through the legal proceedings. Cargill's evidence against me is actually supporting my claims of them ganging up against me behind my back. They gave me a copy of an email that shows they were actually collecting evidence against me without my knowledge within 2 weeks of my return from sick leave. I never realized they were out to get me that quick, I never really had a chance at all. I am a little dissapointed with the cancer support groups out there, though. I think I have a landmark open and shut case proving discrimination of lung cancer survivors in which the five-year survival rate is 15%, but it seems none of the organizations want to get involved. I guess it would hurt their chairman's salary if they lost any tax deductible contribution that Cargill contributed. Anyway, thanks for all your moral support. I think I'll be able to get through this month ok, so I don't think they'll start reposessing stuff until after the first of the year. Oh, one note of praise though. I just celebrated my 51st birthday yesterday, and one of the church members where I attend, asked me if it would be ok if he nominated me for election as a deacon in my church. Wow, and to think a year ago to the day I was in the Polk County jail, naked, and on suicide watch. What a difference faith in God and a year can make. God Bless, PeeJ
  3. Hey, thanks again all who have responded. I know my condition pales compared to all of you who still have to get treatments. You are all in my prayers. Becky, yeah, I think you are right that I might have tried to come back too fast. I was really on a natural high though and ready to move on with my life, especially it being a year after my divorce. It bothers me that I had no counseling from HR when I came back after recovery from surgery. I asked them after they fired me if they knew that I could have asked for acommodations being a cancer survivor and the psychological problems that I had told them about through the ADA, and they said they knew. I never found out, until I started doing all this research after I got fired. Honest though, my surgery and recovery was so easy, it was hard to believe I even had cancer. Because the spot was seen in May and during the time we watched it to see what it was, I had intesified my physical workouts where the guy that did the breathing tests found it hard to believe that I had been a cigarette smoker. My cardiovascular system was really in good shape because I took out my frustrations and stress by exercise. But once they started beating me up mentally at work, I lost interest in that too. Yeah, and they can deny unemployment if they fire you for "misconduct". They can even deny me COBRA if they want to. In fact, I don't see how they couldn't deny that too, if my misconduct warranted no unemployment, surely it warrants no COBRA. I'll just have to wait and see what happens to my application. Thanks again all... Love, Perry
  4. Fay, thanks so much for the advice. I haven't thought about applying for disability. I guess I could give it a try, but I feel kinda foolish applying for it, because I'm really in great shape for being 50, except for only missing a third of my right lung. Heck, I'm even playing softball with my church on Monday nights. Pretty good too... My major problems are psychological and my depressive moods from being out of work and reliving the events of the abuse I was put through at work the three months I was there. I can't sleep over two or three hours a night and wake up with nightmares of the closed door meetings. The only way I'm able to cope with them is because I'm active in my church 5 days a week and God and my support family there is always able to put me in my proper perspective. Like I said, I was so blessed that my cancer was caught so early. I have the constant fear like everyone else that it might come back, but the only treatment I have right now is quaterly CT scans to monitor it. Even those are hard to take though. The first one I had after my operation showed another new spot on my right lung. The follow up after that 3 months later showed that it hadn't grown any so my Dr. dismissed it as scar tissue... whew. That was another reason I was so scared losing my job, because that first scan had that spot, and I was scared I was going to have to go through the operation stuff all again, and maybe even more, like chemo or radiation. Thanks again, PerryJ
  5. Separated from my wife in August 2001, named Quality Employee of the Month where I work August 2001, divorced after 26 years of marriage in January 2002, suffered from depression after my divorce, found out I had a spot on my lung in May 2002, started drinking kinda heavy, got my first traffic ticket in my life on my 50th birthday in November 2002 (it was a DUI), quit drinking totally and dedicated my life to Jesus Christ on December 8, 2002, biopsy confirmed cancer on January 15, 2003, upper lobe of right lung removed on January 28, 2003, singing in church choir 7 days later, returned to work March 28, 2003, warned of behavior deficiencies I had on first day back to work, told I was working at different job than when I left for surgery so they could evaluate my performance, lied about my whereabouts by co-workers, tried to defend myself and accused of being argumentative, reported to my supervisor by my team lead, told HR I was scared for my job because of the way I was being treated, they thought I was imagining it, bullied in closed door meetings by my supervisor when I told him I was scared for my job due to being an insurance liability, first CT scan after my operation showed another spot in April, more depression, more worries, lied to by my supervisor, tried to report my supervisor to his supervisor for lying and harrassment, but she lied to me too, and I was suspended and put on probation for not being able to get along with others, my performance improvement was to be evaluated by the supervisor that I reported for lying to me (that's funny, right?), needless to say, my performance didn't improve, reported a superior co-worker being belligerant towards me to my team lead and supervisor, but they never answered my call or returned my voicemail message, placed on another 30 days probation for upsetting the guy that got belligerant with me... haha...brought to tears in my final meeting arguing with my supervisor again after he said my e-mails were too long, even though they were technically correct, asked me if I thought that e-mail was the correct vehicle to use to tell 6 different people at 4 different locations the same thing, at the same time, and me like a dummy said, yes, upset me when he told me he didn't have to look at my technical solution to a problem, because he was a manager and it wasn't his job to look at technical solutions, even though it was his solution that he came up with that I thought mine might do a better job and cost the company less money, fired from my job because I told a co-worker that I was glad I was a Christian or I could have killed my supervisor for the way he's treated me since I've been back to work. They said it was a threat. I only said they were lucky it was me they were doing this to, because anyone else would have gone postal, I only prayed. Well, fired on July 25. Denied unemployment compensation in August. I have about 1 month left then I will be broke. Pretty funny, huh? Wait, here's the punch line. When I try to get some of my personal belongings back from my employer and try to explain that I'm scared, can't sleep, and don't feel like living anymore, they ask me why I can't just let it drop and move on. Can you believe that? They are a riot! If you'd like more details, just let me know. This is a true story! Oh, my last CT scan came back good though, so there's good news, I guess. My oncologist wondered what happened to me though because I had been the model patient and so positive last time he saw me. Isn't it amazing what support from your co-workers can do?
  6. Hi, I'm Perry. I'm 50 years old and was operated on in January 2003, stage 1 NSCC. I think that's right. I really didn't pay much attention to the Drs. I just wanted them to hurry up and get it out. I had the upper lobe of my right lung removed. I was really fortunate it was found so early in May 2002, during a routine chest x-ray from my annual physical. The spot on the x-ray was only 5mm at that time. I couldn't believe my primary care physician saw it on a lousy x-ray. By the time we watched it with CT, then verified with PET scans, then the biopsy in January, it had grown to 1.5 cm. No other cancer was found anywhere else. I thank God for my blessings. My surgery was fantastic,my recovery was amazing. I was back singing in my church choir 7 days after my operation. Very little pain, except for the staples in the incision. I think I had worse pain from bicycle wrecks as a kid. Again, I praise God. I was back to work after being off 8 weeks. Funny thing though, I was fired after being back at work after only 3 months. Seemed I didn't know how to do anything right anymore. Everything I did, I was told I should have done it another way. Everything I said, I was told I should have said it another way. I tried to be quiet, but then I was accused of witholding information and not being a team player. Anyway, I'm unemployed now, feeling great physically, but really worthless mentally. I don't think I'll be able to get another job equal to the one I was fired from. I'll probably be broke in another month. I live alone, as my marriage of 26 years ended in divorce 4 months before I found out I have cancer. People tell me to cheer up, and I try, but it usually only lasts a couple days. The company i worked for even denied my unemployment claim. They are really amazing too, because they are like the largest private corporation in the world, so the $80,000 in med bills I cost them so far shouldn't have been that hard on them. Well. here I am. Hi.
  7. I only had the upper right lobe removed in my cancer. I was released from the hospital in 5 days and singing in my church choir 2 days later. I had the epidural for the first 3 days and the oxycotten (or whatever for the next 2). They gave me some Tylenol3 but I never bothered with it. I was in really good shape though because my cancer was found so early, I had a chance to enhance my workouts before my surgery.
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