What an emotional day!

[warmpup]

So today I had the follow up visit with my oncologist following my head+body PET/CT. He took me off all the related drugs and prescribed a head MRI in two months. I reminded him I only copmpleted 13 of the 16 prescribed chemo sessions. He said I made it futher than most. I then reminded him I never made it to the prescribed 28 to 35 lung radiations. He said the chemo probably did me more good in that area. So I left his office and went to work.

Well, the mail beat me to the job. In today's mail was the employer's questionair resulting from my application for Social Security Disability Income for which I had not prepared my employer. Now I am so concerned. I truely don't wish to quit working especially since there is a 98% chance of no cancerous activity in my body "today" however, I must protect my future financial stability. Such internal battles going on, I must have broken out into tears at least six times today.

So, tonight, this is how I sit. Would welcome any sugestions.

-Pup

[Ry]

So did you talk to your employer? Geez you men...leaving out the best part of a story. You just need to explain your situation. I am sure it will be ok. If I recall from another post you've been there a long time, I am sure they will understand.

[mary colleen]

Pup,

First of all, let me congratulate you sincerely on the good checkup.

I understand the disability issue. We went through much of the same ordeal.

Our situation was different - my husband has lost his job because his loss of vision (brain tumor), loss of physical ability, and inability to learn a new job in the aftermath of WBR led his long-time employer to decide that they "no longer had a role for him." He had exceeded his FMLA leave, so they were able to do this. He was terribly hurt.

We had private disability payments that were adequate, but I felt strongly that we had to get the clock ticking toward Medicare eligibilty, so simply had to apply. The system is designed in such a way that the sometimes lengthy wait for approvals, and the 2 year delay to Medicare benefits almost forces many people with an illness like this to apply for benefits before they are otherwise ready. I felt that we had no choice if we wanted/needed the safety net of Medicare eligibility down the road. Though my fervent hope was that my husband would recover and work again, I was very worried about how I would cover all of his s health insurance and financial needs if something happened to me.

I finally understood "health care reform" talk to be more than rhetoric.

Ok, enough of my rambling.

One thing I can think of for you: find out how much you would be able to earn without compromising your SSDI. Once you know that, perhaps you could work it out with your employer to cut back to that amount of pay/hours once you are receiving disability. That way you could still work, and also have that safety net set up. I don't know what it is (have been meaning to find out), but there is an allowable amount of income that you can earn without losing or reducing benefits.

I'm sorry this was so long. I'm very happy that you had a good checkup, and I hope the suggestion I made is in some way useful to you.

Hugs,

MC

[warmpup]

MC,

Yep, employer is very agreeable to my needs. And they understand why I want to do this. And even thought I received a clean report, the tumor in my head is like still there, just shruken and inactive? Could become active again ?? I Think that is what happened to my sister But yeah, the medicare thing is most important! Plus early access to retirement accounts sans penalties

-Pup