The Financial Toll of Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival

One of the things that happens or has happened in my case has been that I have not reached a point yet where I don't continue to have, a lot of doctor visits, a lot of medical bills, and the cost of insurance, the deductibles, and all of these things, they've just, they continue. When I was first diagnosed I was not able to work for some period of months, I was very fortunate in that we had, short term disability available through my work. I was able to keep my job. My employer was very supportive. Did everything they could to help. And, we were able to go on short term disability. But, we only, of course, drew like seventy five percent of what I had been making when I was able to work. But still, that was great. I was able to keep my insurance. And so that helped a lot, but the cost of travel and costs, they were still significant. One of the things that we didn't know about early on that I wish we had known about, we were traveling from the Dallas Fort Worth area to Houston, you know, very often for treatment, surgeries, all of these things. And I was actually, we were driving back and forth, you know, five hours back and forth. Sometimes all in the same day. Drive down there, get a treatment, drive back the same day, sometimes many times. And it was not easy. And we found that, not far from where we live, there was a little airport where someone had a, an organization that made things so much easier. I wish I had known about that. Early on, when those trips were especially car. Take us back to the airplane, fly us back, you know, a great deal. And now I know that there are organizations like that, really, all over the country that help people with things like that. Even some of the airlines have programs where they'll help people get to and from treatments. When we were dealing with our own little world, you know, surviving day to day, we didn't know about that. And, so for several years, we were doing the best we could. And we had, friends and family that sometimes would take us back and forth. And certainly, when some of early on the worst surgeries and what have you, friends and family provided for us. If I was able to drive, I did. And, sometimes when it was maybe questionable, I did anyway. And so, you know, I mean, we just part of that, you just do what you think you have have to do. But as far as so for transportation, I think, you know, there are options out there to help with that. But for dealing with a lot of the other expenses, it can be hard to find help dealing with that.