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So my dad and his older brother were diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in late 2016 and mid 2017 respectively. They are in their 60s. Their father was diagnosed in 1997 and passed away in 1999 due to lack of treatment. My dad and uncle are truly blessed. themmrf.org/multiple-myelo…
This is considered uncurable but manageable with treatment. Treatment is extremely costly. My dad was hospitalized in late Jan 2017 for two weeks for stem cell replacement therapy. It is a blessing he has insurance and both he and my stepmother had as much leave as they did.
I took time then as well because he needed someone home with him 24hrs a day. I was still a federal employee and stocked up enough leave to take off two weeks to be at home when my stepmom went back to work. Another blessing.
If he were uninsured or underinsured my father would not be with us. If they didn’t have the leave and relationships with their employers they did or if I didn’t, he would’ve been a precarious situation either physically or financially. My brother could not take leave at all.
My father is everything. He is far from perfect but we take our precautions with him because the slightest cold or virus can send him to the hospital. His levels have been good. His cancer on last visit was smoldering. My uncles is the same level. He thankfully was caught early.
But my daddy is in the hospital and after we lost my grandmother in 2013 because her doctors missed some of the breast cancer in surgery and it mestasicized to her brain I’m always so wary when they say it’s all good or they got it. I don’t want to worry my kids or younger sibs.
But folks out here acting living and breathing and dying and trying to survive and y’all act like we have to fucking settle for fuck shit. We are asé’d up as my brother would say, but so many families struggle and can’t go to the hospital for that fever. They can’t take off work.
I still think about the sista I met during the Now This event we did recently who would go to work after chemo. Like how strong people have to be because there is no other way. I’m just tired so tired of being told we gotta just settle for fuck shit. Why can’t we have a fighter?
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