Job Loss, Tumor, and Everything in Between...

This past week has been nothing short of overwhelming. On Saturday, Amy was given the choice of either being fired or resigning from her job at Dish Network. They refused to honor a doctor's note excusing her from two weeks of work (after she had already missed the two weeks of work), wanted her to make up the 92 hours of work she missed (40 hours/week of regular work plus 6 hours of weekly mandatory overtime), and all because she was one month shy of her year needed to be eligible for FMLA (since Dish doesn't give their employees sick time). She already knew Dish treated their employees horribly, but this was just unreal. And I'm panicking about paying the bills.

However, Amy losing her job was somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Since the job pretty much made her miserable, losing this job was the extra nudge she needed to be more motivated (and have the extra time) to find one at which she could thrive. Plus she now has more time to go to the doctor and such.

And go to the doctor she will. On Thursday, she found out that she has a tumor on her head. Here's the background in her own words. If you don't feel like clicking just yet, here's my watered-down version: about 2 and a half years ago Amy noticed a bump on the side of her head that was squishy. 2 chiropractors told her it was probably nothing to worry about - just a bruise or fat, but nothing to worry about. She's also told a few doctors about it, but they said it was nothing to worry about. When she switched to a new PCP, that PCP sent her to get a CT scan without contrast, which was this past Thursday. The tech came out afterward with that look and asked if Amy was willing to get one with contrast. That's never a good sign. The radiologist (and the tech I'm sure) saw something (duh?). Amy's doc called and left a message before we could get home, and said that it was a tumor, that it's probably benign (don't they always say that though?), and that she needed to talk to a neurologist.

SO. . . Wednesday we'll go to see the neurologist. Amy talked to her doc again, and she's definitely gonna have to have surgery to remove the 1" x 1" x 1.5" tumor. Seems like it's gonna be a long 3 days before we go see the neurologist. Blah.

In light of all this, I'm incredibly grateful for all the support from our friends and families we both have. I think the most shocking and comforting for me was the support from my manager at work. When I went in to tell her that this was all going on, she said to let her know if and when I needed to take off (for whole shifts or just an hour or so) for any appointments or procedures or anything, because "family is very important." I'm really grateful I have a manager who gets it and is flexible.

So...it's been a week. A long one. I'm scared, worried, thinking, avoiding temptation to look up Amy's images on the computers at work, thinking some more, etc. I'm also grateful that Amy could get on my insurance so she wouldn't have had to worry about that through this process. And I am tired.

If you want to follow Amy's blog on this process, go to http://amysbumpblog.blogspot.com.