Interesting stuff

Ok, so we saw the oncologist on Friday. Seems my numbers are down based on my improving intestinal situation and serious application of Thalidomide that makes me stumble, stagger, sleep forever, and gives me dry skin and a rash so bad it appears to snow when I walk. Love the stuff. NOT!

Anyway, the surgeon blessed me to get steroids again. This time I'm only doing half the dose I was doing before. 20 mg per day on the previously established schedule. Dunno what the diff is between the 40 mg and the 20 mg, because either dose makes me an emotional mess. As Ed mentioned to the doctor, a single pill moves me 80 miles, but 10 of them only moves me 100 miles. Anyway, I'm calling the Pope about Ed's sainthood.

Now, here's the fun stuff. I got a letter from my boss about my job at GHC. Seems that due to my indeterminate return date, she has decided to reduce me to TPT (temporary part time). Basically that means I lose all my health benefits at the end of April. I won't make any comments about self-serving divisiveness, but some things should be obvious.

Ed and I went to my office to turn in my laptop, cell phone, and badge. We cleaned out my office and I wandered over to the other building to talk to the 'job center' people. They directed me to personnel via telephone and I apparently set a small avalanche in motion. See, it appears that my application for LTD has headed off my boss's end-around. Apparently they can't (or won't) reduce my status while the application is still pending, and personnel sorta suggested that "undergoing treatment for incurable cancer" might qualify me for LTD. A small part of me wanted to put my stuff back in my office and get my gear back.

Regardless, the current treatment plan calls for me to get my blood numbers back into the zone of excellence again so we can start harvesting stem cells. If I'm on LTD, I'll get the autologous transplant during that time. If the LTD application is denied and I have to go back to work, they'll freeze the cells and I'll get the transplant when it's convenient. Either way works for me, but the latter means fairly continuous chemo treatments until the transplant. Not fun, but then very little of this is.