5: Proper Prior Planning

We're now left with only 9 days left in January, 19 days since diagnosis and 4 post op. We have 2 weeks to wait until my follow up with my oncologist and find out concretely, what pathology and lab results showed, aka, what are we up against. But we didnt have the luxary of waiting 2 weeks to start planning. As a small business owner, if I dont work I dont get paid, theres no sick time or AFLAC supplemental coverage. I only had my rainy day fund that would last a few months in case cash flow slowed but those funds would only last a a brief period in this situation. Im obviously nervous but we have time to put plans in place to empower my staff and set them up for success to keep things running as close to normal as we can. They take the emotional news in stride and we talk about what will happen. I tell them they're going to be working with Charlie from charlies angles ( all of you who are old enough to know what im talking about ). I put their minds at ease letting them know nothing will change and the doors will remain open, but that doenst do anything for my piece of mind. To do that, we needed to get planning, and then plan again, then plan one more time in case there's issues, and then plan one last time. This ends up consuming a good portion of my time over these next weeks.

Its hard to plan the personal side of everything because we dont know what the routine is going to be like once we start. Claire and I talk about making the day to day automated so we could focus on what was important at the time and not have to worry about things like dinners, if we needed to get essential supplies at the store, dog food, prescriptions, bill pay, ect. And I feel that we did a very good job in prepping. It helps that Claire and I are open and talk about everything, it also helps that this girl is a rockstar at anything she puts her mind to.

The post op pain is starting to fade a bit, but Im noticing the pain isnt in my back. I have to request some more pain meds which ends up being a process. We have to come pick the script up in person because of the new opioid laws. Then when we pick up the script it has the wrong Birthday for me on it. We try to get them to write a new one but all they are willing to do it strike though and change it and initial it. From my tenure in EMS I knew this wasnt going to fly but indulged them anyway. I didnt want to chance on going to a retail pharmacy only for them to deny the script because its been altered so we went to the one in the hospital and luckily we did. Of course they had an issue with the script being written on, so I made them call upstairs and sort this out. I wasnt about to be walking around this hospital while Im in pain because the healthy employees want to be lazy or not do their job. After another 30 minute wait we are out of there and back home.

Claire is currently bartending as shes just graduated with her Environmental Geoscience Degree in December (you go girl! ), so she will be heading to work later tonight, but in the morning, she helps me get ready to have the boys over for the superbowl and we knock out our plan for this week because our big appointment with the cancer center is supposed to be Wednesday... and we expected a heavy appointment because the what ifs disappear and we will be left with concrete answers. She heads to work, the boys show up and we suffer thought that boring game. I'm dozing on the couch by halftime so the boys take off early. They'll be back Wednesday to see how the appointment goes.

Even the best laid plans can be foiled. Tuesday we get a call from the hospital around noon stating that they "cannot locate the pathologist in order to obtain your pathology results and he wont return our pages." I typically try to filter my responses but I let out a reactionary " What the fuck do you mean you cant "get ahold" of him". My hands are tied, I cant go all Liam Neison and track this guy down in 24 hours, so we reschedule for a week later.