Wednesday was a somewhat slow day. I had a few things to do in the morning but then the fatigue set in. It was generally not a great day for me but pretty typical after the heavy chemo Monday. So glad this part will be over soon.
Let me give you some aviation information. As an Airline Pilot we generally all have Airline Transport Rating licences. These are issued by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). What validates this licence is our twice yearly physicals done by a FAA certified doctor. Essentially without a valid and current physical your licence is not valid and thus you are medically grounded. That is where I am right now. I am on long term medical leave from UPS.
I spoke yesterday to our union FAA liaison doctor. He is available for us to consult with and represent us when we need to apply for our medical reinstatement. He is an incredibly knowledgeable and wonderfully helpful man. He informed me that generally with chemotherapy the FAA requires you to be off of chemotherapy treatments for 1 year before medical reinstatement. Of course there could be some small variations to this but what that means for me is that I should not expect to be back to work until somewhere around August 2009. I wasn't quite sure how to react to this news but one thing the doctor reminded me of again. I need to get well first and then think of all of this. I know UPS thinks the same way and I certainly do.
Hey Ade!
ReplyDeleteLong time no blog (for me I mean, not you, duh). I feel you on the 1 year chemo-free deal before you can be cleared to work -- the fire department required that I be seizure-free for a year before they would let me go back. It's hard to deal with since it's something that you love and since your UPS crew is family to you. I didn't get to go back to my Fire/EMS family, so surely all of the luck (in that regard) that I didn't get will go to you! Put your health first and before you know it, it will be August 2009.
Love you,
Lil