Information Bravo

After appointments with the Endocrinologist, the Surgeon, the General Practitioner, the Reproductive Endrocrinologist and phone calls with ALPA representitives, the Chief Pilot, the Base Administrator, the Long Term Disability company, the company HR department all in the last week, we have a good idea of what we are looking at. I feel like I am at the vortex of a paperwork tornado. And I am becoming entirely too familiar with the halls of the hospital complex. And only 6 days into the billing cycle, we have already used up 3/4 of our cell phone minutes (no small feat with our monsterous cell phone plan).

A has a papillary carcinoma, basically a tumor growing on his thyroid. It’s growing at a fast rate and is intertwining with his vocal cords and heading up towards his ear. He’ll be having surgery on Thursday, will recover for a month and then follow up with some radiation treatment. Then, we’ll wait for the FAA, probably for months. The radiation treatment will be a challenge to say the least- 48 hours of not being able to be in the same room for more than 3 minutes, 7 days of not touching or sharing items. And endless humming by me of any song with “radioactive” in the lyrics (a particular 70’s rock hit comes to mind) will add to A’s misery.

The good news is that A will eventually be able to return to flying, once a special issuance is in hand. It will take 6-12 months from the conclusion of treatment to get that though. Long Term Disability and Loss of License insurance will help keep some money rolling in, thought not nearly a total income replacement. We are looking at having to maintain our health insurance though COBRA for at least the short term, which is not exactly cheap.

It is frustrating, to say the least, to have just gotten into this and to feel like the door has slammed shut in our face. It is hard to watch this happening. I could tell when the sad acceptance of reality came when A finally unpacked his suitcase, the travel soap reappeared in our bathroom and the blazer went to the back of the closet. The outpouring of offers of help from friends has been helpful; the genuine offers rare. I had to ask 7 people if they could bring me dinner at the hospital the night A will be there overnight. Although I have been able to maintain my daily functioning and occasionally keep some good humor, my private moments, in the car alone, are not always so pretty. There are times when I feel on the verge of tears for hours at a time. Most times I feel emotionally spent from trying to keep up on all the details.

We’re getting through this one day at a time though and hopefully in the future, this will all just be a “remember when…”

March 3, 2008. Uncategorized. No Comments.

Into a holding pattern

The diagnosis came in today

A has an agressive thyroid cancer. It will require an complicated surgery to remove and will then be followed up with chemotherapy. From what we were told, he can’t return to a part 121 airline until 1 year after completing chemo. And he’s 5 weeks from being at the company 1 year, which would afford us some better protection and benefits.

My head is spinning

February 26, 2008. Uncategorized. No Comments.

Things I wish I had figured out earlier

I don’t have time to worry about a lot of things; I have too much else on my plate. So I’m releasing my worries about these small things and becoming zen about them. I’m letting them go b/c there is nothing I can do about them.

When A has to leave to catch a commute flight to work, he is incapable of leaving our place on time. It doesn’t matter if the flight is at 6am or 6pm, he won’t get out of our house on time. It’s just him, there is nothing I can do about it. He’s yet to miss a flight though and thankfully it doesn’t carry over to his show times.

A needs 2 full sets of travel clothing- one to take and one for the wash. Several times we’ve been stuck late the night before a trip doing laundry for something (socks, undershirts, his favorite off duty T-shirt…) he needs to take on his trip the next morning. Since his time at home doesn’t always coincide with my laundry schedule, it’s easier to just always have one clean set waiting for him. Sometimes he’s going to have to be happy with wearing his second most favorite off duty T shirt.

Pilots are gossips. I don’t know why I thought that the pilot profession would be immune to it, but it isn’t. Every time A gets into the cockpit, there’s a discussion about “what have you heard/read/picked up through osmosis?” I know there is occasionally some down time in the cockpit and it’s an easy subject to talk about, but it seems like some people spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the future. As a pilot, you aren’t likely to influence management decisions so why obsess over it?

A has a flight attendant groupie. She picks up trips specifically b/c he’s on them. Or at least that’s what she told him. She’s young (under 21), somewhat lacking in social skills (due to a strict fundamentalist, home-schooled exist prior to getting on with the airline), and 10 minutes into their first trip announced to both A and the CA that she “didn’t sleep with married men” (after asking whether they were married at minute 9…). A telling her that married or not, he wasn’t interested in her seems to have set her world off kilter b/c she spent the rest of the trip trying to find out why. I think it made him appreciate a secure woman such as myself even more.

And now my worries are free like butterflies to propagate the world over.

February 21, 2008. Uncategorized. No Comments.