Larae55

Thanks for sharing your experiences with others.

Glad you are doing well. Being positive goes a long way. I've found you can always find someone who has it worse than yourself. It pays off being positive and staying humble. God Bless you.

Thank you for welcoming others and offering your experiences to them, it is a comforting feeling for the newly diagnosed to know that someone that has been through it already is here to offer support.

I am lucky so far to be here, a favorite book title is Here For Now written by survivor Elana Rosenbaum. She teaches meditation & my ADHD brain can't hear her. Hope you are doing well & have good friends by your side.

Hi Larae55, I guess the administrator never gave you my info? I have a website for a small free lance business I have. Here is the website. www.mansionsbymelanie.com. You can email me through there if you are still interested in talking with me and then we can go from there.

Hi Larae55, I wrote a message to the administrator to request he share my info with you, but perhaps he hasn't? Maybe he didn't get my message. Let me know and I'll figure something else out.

Welcome to the WhatNext family! The WhatNext family is made up of people like you who are looking for help or looking to help others. To help you along your journey the WhatNext family has put together a Beginner's Guide to Cancer that I highly recommend you check-out here: http://bit.ly/10BQKCi. Also, please do not hesitate to reach out to others or ask for help.

Wishing you the best.

David
Founder, WhatNexter

Hi, I know exactly what you're talking about. We used to drive a half of an hour before we hit the start of the gravel road that led to a paved road.

I just expected the worst, and I wanted a stranger that wasn't affiliated with the cancer clinic nor me to go in for that first meeting in the oncology clinic. Nobody here does that. I don't know why the ACS office is even open in New Mexico. It's worthless and eats up donation money for rent, wages, utilities, insurance, vehicles. I live 4 blocks from the clinic, so it was very easy to drive myself or let a grandson take me.

I was curious and asked about services. I was told to call the 311 city non-emergency number to get a bus schedule, and so forth.

I asked for information about my cancer-no help either. I staged myself, and I nagged my family doctor into ordering the neccesary lab work. That speeded treatment up by 4 weeks. The oncologist refused to order labs. If I hadn't done that-it could have been bad, as I had a very aggressive rare cancer. It's common for cancer clinics to run us out, as this is usually incurable--radiation and surgery spreads it, and everyone agrees that chemo does nothing at all to the cancer.

Larae, thank you for raising this question. I, too am having financial difficulties as a result of my cancer. I was diagnosed and ran up some bills at a private hospital and then filed for SS disability which eventually was approved and resulted in modest monthly payments and a 32K backpay which got me out of debt and allowed me some needed breathing room. Then I applied for Veterans medical care which was granted due to my employment status (none) but then, a year later, the Internal Revenue Dept told the VA that I made 32K that year and now the VA is wanting to back charge me for all the benefits that I took advantage of because I made too much money to qualify for benefits. What a mess. Oh no, no stress here....You'd think getting cancer would be bad enough but the financial issues are the other shoe falling....
Good luck to you Larae, my prayers are with you.