There hasn't been too much going on as far as Marion's condition. She's been experiencing the typical side effects of the chemotherapy...nausea, throwing up, loss of appetite. She's lost maybe 12 or so pounds (which allows her to fit into some clothes...so, at this point her doctors aren't concerned about the weight loss). Her blood counts are normal, and according to an X ray recently, it seems the tumor is responding to the treatments (meaning the tumor is shrinking). The doctors are now prepping Marion to have a "sleeve" inserted so they can do internal radiation. Her survival rate increases with this procedure.
I hate words and phrases like that. Prognosis, survival rate, quality of life...
While Marion goes into her treatments, I sit in a waiting room. All sorts of people shuffle in and out while I wait for her to get done. There are some people that come into radiation oncology that so much don't have a life as they just exist. There's a glaze in the eye of some of these patients. If you look closely, that spark that most people have...of things to do and people to see...just isn't there anymore. Maybe it's like shell shock or PTS or something similar. It's a battle to the death quite literally when you and cancer face off. I shudder to think Marion will get that look in her eye one day. It's entirely possible...but something I'd rather not face at the moment.
As far as all the other elements of this...the Social Security Disability is the one thing that's just slugging along right now. It's actually not because of the state in this case. It's because Cooper Hospital and the Women's Care Center hasn't sent in the required documents to the state yet. We got a call yesterday from a caseworker who said normally they would just close the case based on insufficient evidence. However, in Marion's case, since it's Stage III cancer she's willing to wait. I mean, it's been 43 days since the state attempted to get the reports and all from the clinic and the hospital. We have attempted to get some records as well, and haven't gotten them either. It's odd to me why the clinic and the hospital (who said they were in the process of sending it 2 weeks ago) can't get this rather simplistic task together. Our livelihood depends on it for God's sake.
We'll be going to the records department today to get more information. I hate having to woirry about these sorts of things, but the truth is we need to get it done. The case worker is also calling the Women's Care Center, so we're hoping this sandwich like assault will get things done.
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