Amazing Bureaucratic Surprise

I got a call today from the Social Security Administration. The young lady wanted to talk to me about the time when my pancreatic cancer symptoms started manifesting because if I claimed 2010 I would be outside the limits for having worked and then claimed disability. There is a limit of something like 7 years, you must have paid into SS within the last 7 years if you want to claim disability. She maneuvered me to claiming that the first symptoms were actually in September 2008, which is absolutely true. I was losing weight then and I had definite symptoms in September that led to me being under a doctor's care from October through December of that year, prior to my actual diagnosis in March of 2009. That minor change then made me eligible for disability payments.

The truly amazing thing is that the bureaucracy was able to turn on a dime so to speak and actually worked with me to ensure my eligibility. I am truly amazed. At the end of our conversation the young lady said that my eligibility seemed assured and that I would likely hear from the Austin office within a few weeks and that she expected my payment to be at or near the maximum allowable of what I expected when I will be 65. The result is that I should start drawing my full allowance three years early. You cannot imagine the good news this is to me. A major weight has been lifted from my shoulders, I will be able to contribute to the household income while I endure the cancer. This also means I can shift my focus entirely to living life and dealing with the cancer.

My medical situation is getting a bit more complex. I requested and was given the radiology exam results for my last several CT scans. I have forwarded them to my surgeon in New York for a second opinion on my status. This is because I sensed some confusion in the diagnosis leading up to my re-entry into chemotherapy. One of the things that seemed to be a trigger was the concern over the Superior Mesenteric Vein, which was resectioned during surgery and does not appear normally in the scans. The radiologist repeatedly takes exception to the appearance of that blood vessel in the CT results. Another issue seems to be that the lymph glands around the original site of the cancer seemed to be enlarged, which was noted on my post surgery examinations. These conditions seemed to be caused by the massive post op infection I had in that area. If these conditions are not agreed upon as being caused by the surgery then they can be construed as evidence of a recurrence of cancer. So I am trying to set a conversation up between the New York team and the local team so they both see the same situation. I have a history of taking an active roll in my care, particularly finding a surgeon who could operate on my supposed inoperable and hence fatal condition. This is but another case where I feel medical science is a little too prone to human shortcomings. Tomorrow I will go by and get CDs of the CT exams and FedEx them to NYC for evaluation. Maybe nothing will come of it and maybe something will. At the very least maybe it will lead to some sort of conference on my situation that will possibly clear up some things.

This post is being composed at 3:30 in the morning because cancer and chemo rob you of your normal sleep schedule. Most nights I sleep four hours at a time at most unless I take sleep aids. And they usually leave me groggy the next day. So I take them only when necessary. Obviously I did not take them tonight. My midnight snack is done so I am going back to bed and will try to get some sleep.