Them: What type of cancer that you have had?
Me: I was diagnosed with a cancer called mesothelioma relatively unknown
Them: (blank stare) I've never heard of that!
Me: Most people have not. It is quite rare.
Them: (light comes on) Wait a minute! Is that cancer TV commercials are about?
Me: (nodding, and anticipate all future issues)
Them: Ohh, you have been exposed to asbestos? I thought this stuff was banned? Do you continue ?? Did you have a lot of money?
Me: (deep breath I decide how to educate them.)
I often tell them that asbestos is not banned, and that I was exposed as a child because my father worked with asbestos and brought the house of fibers on work clothes, especially her coat , I wore to do chores around the yard. I say I hired a lawyer their good reputation, but also use the time to explain to them that this disease is about so much more than a trial.
See, there's this misconception that since I had cancer when I could sue someone, all the money I went all ok.
But it's not.
No amount of money is worth the prognosis of mesothelioma - cancer or, for that matter. I lost more than I gained. Let me explain.
My career
I had worked hard and long to go through the ranks at the show I worked to become not only one of the best stylists level, but partly business owner. I loved my job. I have invested time and money in my career to get where I was. I booked 8-10 weeks in advance and had the customers and the most wonderful colleagues. Things were great.
I lost everything because of cancer. The most aggressive treatment available for the type of mesothelioma is I had surgery. My cancer was in the lining of my lungs, so that the operation resulted in the removal of the whole of my left lung, the lining, the left half of my diaphragm, the lining of my heart, and sixth ribs. During surgery, chemotherapy with a solution heated to 140 ° C was pumped into my thoracic cavity and washed for one hour. The underlying theory is that surgery gets everything they can see, while the chemo takes care of all they can not.
I spent 18 days in hospital and three months of recovery. I started chemo, then followed with radiation. Both treatments left me bedridden and sick for days. Working out of the question. I finally ended up selling my share of the company and leave the career I loved. No amount of money can not get that back or replaced everything I lost in revenue and earnings.
The actual cost in dollars
Here are some facts and figures for you.
It was ten years ago when I had my surgery, surgery alone was $ 250,000.
My hospital stay: $ 300,000.
Chemotherapy: A single drug was $ 10,000. I had two drugs, and all the other stuff they give to combat the side effects - each chemotherapy treatment was $ 25,000.
Radiation was another $ 20,000.
Add to that all weekly appointments to check my blood levels, the travel from my home in Minneapolis / St. Paul in Boston, and now from Minneapolis to Houston since I moved specialist. Hotels, food, airline tickets ... At the time I was 40 years I accumulated more than a million dollars in medical costs.
Yes, I had insurance, which helped, but much of it out of pocket. The trial I pursued barely touched the surface.
Parenthood
I was diagnosed when my daughter was aged just three months. Any first year of life was spent with me, either in hospital or thousands of miles from her while my parents took care of her during my operation. I missed all the sixth month of life while I was fighting for my own.
The entire first year of his life was spent with me on the couch while she played on the show floor. She stood over me and rub my back and ask "Mama ok? Mama ok? "While I was vomiting on the toilet after radiotherapy. No one and a half years toddler should have to attend it. I am grateful that she does not remember.Cancer stole the parent I could. She does not know other than the mother who has a disability and not quite the endurance it should not. She knows I have a lung and I get tired easily, and the race and the game is not very easy for me, and swimming is difficult because you need two lungs float.
She knows every six months, I have to get to my specialist and see how I do. While we do our best to reassure her, she still worried. She is 10 now, and we have never hidden the effects of cancer or what I've been through it. I will never be whole time I lost being with his back. No settlement will ever replace that time.
Post-traumatic stress
Yes, I suffer from PTSD. I sought help to get me through the paralyzing anxiety that crept over me through every year I make between me and my diagnosis. One might think that the years suggest that the concern decrease. The only thing I know for sure is that there is no guarantee.
I know people who were 8, 9, 10 years apart and had a recurrence. I will not fool myself into thinking that I'm never at risk for this to happen. With the help of my amazing therapist, I became much better about how I deal with fear and anxiety and help get my life back.
I will live the rest of my life with the shadow of recidivism lurking on my shoulder. The shadow is still there, just out of sight - but I feel it. Money can not buy peace of mind, or a cure for an incurable cancer.
Why I fight for awareness
Just because my illness was caused by the negligence of an industry that knew the injured people, does not make it ok. He does not buy everything I lost and all the friends who have succumbed to this disease over the years.
A friend told me that he thinks that no more innocent victim that the victim of asbestos. They were doing their best to provide for their families and are paid by falling ill or having their sick relatives, asbestos.
This does not concern the trial, or money. Mesothelioma is about people, the community, the innocent victims. That's why I fight for awareness and asbestos ban. For people: my people.
