Saturday, September 5, 2009

A return to normalcy...part 2?

My Thursday night class is a little better than I thought it would be. With all the snacks and such that I brought this week, I stayed awake, and the lecture was much more enjoyable and fruitful for application. In fact, we raced through the book of 1 Samuel. There is a lot of good stuff in there that is very relevant to today in our global community. It is amazing to see just how patient David was after being anointed as the king of Israel. Saul, the first anointed King of Israel, pursued and tried to kill David many times to keep David from the throne. David, throughout Saul's pursuit of him, was faithful to God's promise to be the next king and never tried to take the throne himself by force. He had so much love for God, love for the king, and for the king's son Jonathan, that he waited for God to bring him to the throne.

As we studied that story, it reminded me how patient I need to be with regard to returning to work. Yes, the FMLA story continues from the last posting to this one. And again, I have to find humor in this situation. I also have to thank God for allowing humorous situations while dealing with this cancer and the steps I have to go to while trying to rid my body of it.

First, I want to acknowledge and say thank you to the many members of Porch Club from Camp Sanguinity! If any of you are reading this blog, the years of sitting up late after the kids went to bed and telling stories, jokes, and pranks (sorry Vance) have prepared my humor to deal with many situations with laughter and a smile. I do think of you often when I think about or deal with the cancer issues! Thank you for giving me the ability to laugh in the moments of darkness! Sander, Webb, Robert, and many others, I have opened my mailbox very slowly everyday expecting a thyroid, or some other body part, to be in my mailbox with a funny note attached! Thank God it hasn't really happened!

I find humor in alot of things, so this one story continues. I think I left off last time about sweet Pat escorting me from the premises, and finally returning when I got a note from the surgeon saying I could go back to work. I still laugh at that thinking of High School and walking the halls without a hall pass...gotta laugh at those days!

Anyway, since that last posting, sweet Pat has asked me everyday about the FMLA papers. Everyday I have called my doctor, and of course I end up leaving a message for the nurse. She eventually calls me back and says she will get them to me. Well, here is where the story moves to the humorous side. I called everyday this week, and the Corporate office called Pat everyday to ask her where the papers were, and of course she asked me, and I asked the nurse. I have a hard copy of the papers in my desk, actually the originals in my desk, and everyday I called I would pull them out and look at them, 4 pages I think, and would say to myself, "I could fill these out myself and go have the doctor fill them out." The papers say your doctor must fill these out, so of course I would just call and ask if they were done. Well...Tuesday afternoon, I get a call from the nurse and she says, "Jeremy, I have placed these papers on your doctors desk with a note that he needs to fill them out asap. He will fill them out first thing Wednesday morning." I was like, Great! Finally! Great idea, but it didn't happen. Here is where I started to laugh, a little. I also started to get a little frustrated. Wednesday afternoon, the nurse calls me back, and of course I am thinking, "she forgot the fax number, so she is calling me." No! The nurse informs me that the doctor has told her that I need to come in and sit with her to fill out the papers! Of course, I was immediately ready to get this done and over with, but I had to leave work early to go fill out the papers that the doctor was supposed to fill out!!! At first I was a bit livid. I was thinking, ok my doctor can feel a bump and say go get this test and that test, you have cancer, let's get it out. Then we have to fill out some paperwork and he says no, the patient needs to fill it out! Maybe we do have some issues with out healthcare system.

So I get to the doctors office, the nurse comes and gets me, (please note that the nurse is still the fill-in for my nurse on vacation, so she has no idea who I am or experience with my medical history) sits me in an examination room and begins to ask me the questions, like...when did the doctor discover the problem? I don't know about you, but I would expect medical professionals to document the date that they felt a lump and the ordering of tests. No, they had no clue! Just before I left the office, I printed out an email I had sent to a doctor friend that outlined the timeline of events from the first doctors visit to the return to work (well the pseudo-return to work). As we went through the questions, this is exactly what the nurse needed, but also, there were questions asked that I had no business answering as they were for my doctor to answer. I left the doctors office wondering if I should continue to stay with this doctor if he couldn't even fill out this paperwork! But in the end, I realized he did feel the bump and was proactive in diagnosis, so I figure I should give him a break...

Well...maybe I shouldn't. The story continues!!! Thursday comes around, and before I left the doctors office, the nurse told me she would have the doctor sign the papers and would fax them over to our office. I took it on faith that the papers would be faxed on Thursday. I truly forgot to follow up on Thursday until wonderful Pat came by near the end of the day to ask about the papers. Of course when she asked, I was in shock the papers were not there. So I picked up the phone and called the office to ask for the nurse. Pat headed back to her office while I spoke to the nurse. The nurse explained that the doctor was just returning from lunch...this was near 3:00 in the afternoon...and that she would leave the papers on his desk with a note to sign them. I had just hung up the phone when Pat came back to my office. I was smiling thinking, ok, this paperwork thing is over finally. Well...Pat, in her kindest grandma voice, says, "Jeremy, the Corporate office just called and said if the papers are not here by 5:00pm Friday, you could lose your job." WHAT!!!!!!!!! My eyes grew bigger than grapefruits, and my jaw dropped to the ground. I was in utter shock. I picked up the phone as fast as I could and dialed the doctors office. When the receptionist answered, I, as kindly and as patiently as I could, asked her to take a message and deliver it to the nurse asap. I told her, "Please take this message to my nurse, if I don't have the papers signed and to my office by 5:00pm today, Thursday, my Corporate office says I could lose my job." The receptionist replied, "Oh my, I will get this to your nurse right now." I hung up the phone and told Pat to stay by the fax machine. Then for the next 10-15 minutes, I was alone in my office praying and talking to myself. Next to the surgeon telling me I might lose my voice, this was the most stressful time of this whole experience. I was talking to God about what was going on. I kept saying to myself..."hmm, I could get fired because of the program that is supposed to protect my job." I was livid for those 10-15 minutes. So many thought went through my mind. I was not a happy camper, as we would say at camp. Those 10-15 minutes passed by and suddenly Pat bust through my doorway, hands in the air with one hand clasping newly faxed papers. I thought she was Rocky running up the stairs next to the statue from Rocky 2 (I think it was Rocky 2). I, too, joined her in the celebratory dance probably for 5-10 minutes of dancing and thanking God!!! Needless to say, I was still a bit angry with the Corporate office and with the doctors office, so I left work and went straight home. I wasted no time and threw on my running clothes and took off. I ran my usual route and knocked 6-7 minutes off my best time. I felt so good afterwards, that I started to laugh about the whole FMLA paperwork thing.

I am happy to say that all the paperwork is in place and seems to have settled so I can work without problems. One great lesson I have learned is...I will never use FMLA again!

I have been amazed by the number of humorous and interesting experiences I have seen through this medical issue. I am thankful for a healing God, loving friends and family, and a good sense of humor!

Besides the drama that unfolded this past week, I feel pretty good. I do sense some tiredness in the middle of the day, but I still feel good. I meet my endocrinologist on September 17, less then two weeks away. I think at that point, I'll get a better understanding of the next steps with radiation and diet.

I would ask for your prayers as I meet this new doctor. That he would be a good one and that he will fill out paperwork on time! Ha,Ha. Please also pray for my patience as my voice is not back to normal. I love to sing, and I still can't really carry a tune at this point.

J