Booklet

About two years after I was diagnosed, my wonderful Swedish housekeeper was coughing a lot. She was seeing a doctor but the cough continued. Finally, I asked if she had ever had an x-ray. This jerk of a doctor had done nothing other than treating her with inhalers for a year. She finally demanded an x-ray.

It revealed that she had 4th stage lung cancer.

She had no money and was living in an illegal structure. She had to go to the county hospital for treatment where she and I were both amazed at the high quality of care she received. What was even more amazing is that she was assigned her own social worker. All the forms for disability were filled out with her, all the deadlines were met, and she didn’t have to think. It was all done for her.

She passed away a month after winning a large monetary award for medical malpractice. She died in a beautiful luxurious hotel room. I smile every time I think of her. She was such a good woman.

Michael was a little afraid of her. She would look and him and say, “You must clean that garage.” And he would. He said that she could pick him up and snap him in two. Her hands were huge and very strong. She was a character.

When I was told I was not returning to work, I had no idea about anything. No one walked me through the processes: State Disability, Long-term Disability, Social Security, and Workmen’s Comp claim. I almost missed a lot of the deadlines for filing.

During my talk the pulmonary doctors, I suggested that a social worker be assigned to anyone who receives a bad diagnosis. Later, I thought even a small booklet of timelines, addresses, phone numbers and even about the entire process be made available.

Michael thinks that we should write one. It was such a huge learning curve especially when I was not feeling well and also trying to deal with all the new life changes of a bad diagnosis.

Another thing on my list of Things-To-Do.

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