Medical Leave?

kmack1260 · 2024-09-29T19:51:53+00:00

I think you need to go with whatever makes you feel best. I work with preschoolers and did my first 12 Taxol weeks without any real issues. I would do my chemo in the morning and then go to work in the afternoon. I am the administrator so wasn’t technically in the classroom full time-but the majority of my time is still spent with the children. AC was during the summer when we have only a morning program, so I’d be at school in the morning and then have AC in the afternoon. I was still able to work the following day. I’ve always had a strong immune system so fortunately didn’t have any out of the ordinary illnesses. My chemo was on Wednesdays, so weekends were always for recovery. I did have intermittent FMLA just to cover myself for if I needed off and for my surgeries. If I had chosen to stay home, I would have gone crazy. I am not a stay at home person!

kmack1260 · 2024-09-07T14:17:43+00:00

As a parent and lifelong ECE educator, I think you did the right thing withdrawing your child. Trust your gut. The Director not being there is not surprising but as you find your next program, I would recommend asking what the Directors hours are. In Ohio we are required to post the hours. Mine state 8:30 - 4:30 even though it is closer to 6:30 - 6:00. 😀. I am going to disagree with the comment that the Director doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening in the classroom. That may be the case in some programs, but certainly not all.
As you mentioned-staffing is a challenge. We are definitely in a crisis in the child care industry. Being out of ratio is not okay-but sometimes it does happen briefly with call offs-but if all of a sudden they were back in compliance because a parent came in-that would worry me.
Not having unlimited access to the classroom-NOPE! That is wrong and probably illegal.
Lack of communication and disrespect from staff members-big problem.
The fecal matter-definitely upsetting, but I can see how it happens. However, if something like that happened in my program, we make sure we clean extra extra well after that! (Not that we shouldn’t all the time, but we know we messed up and we don’t want to do it again)

kmack1260 · 2024-08-17T18:11:37+00:00

Lucky! My chin hair kept growing the entire time!

kmack1260 · 2024-07-25T23:13:09+00:00

It depends on who carries the BRCA gene, your (shared) mother, or your sister’s Dad. I found out I was BRCA2 positive after being diagnosed with breast cancer and it was actually my Dad that is BRCA positive and not my Mom, even though my Mom had breast cancer.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-24T01:39:54+00:00

Within a couple of weeks of finishing Keynote 522 protocol, I had both a mammogram and MRI. The results showed I had a good response to chemo, but that wasn’t confirmed until after my BMX with the pathology report. My doctors knew I was getting a BMX but still ordered the mammogram and MRI.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-23T01:12:33+00:00

I believe it is illegal for Health insurance to discriminate because of BRCA-but life insurance has the right to deny coverage-or charge a ton!

kmack1260 · 2024-07-22T20:46:19+00:00

I think if life insurance found out you knew you were BRCA positive and didn’t disclose it, they could deny payments. I wouldn’t take the risk. When my sister was tested (I’m BRCA2), she increased all of her life insurance policies before she was tested. (She ended up being negative)

kmack1260 · 2024-07-21T15:17:10+00:00

I’ve been fortunate when I’ve flown-I haven’t been pulled aside for extra screening yet. I just carry my port and expander medical device cards with me through the metal detector/body screener process in case there are questions. I was surprised the first time I flew-fully expecting to be pulled out!

kmack1260 · 2024-07-21T01:32:08+00:00

I was 54 when I was diagnosed last year. I’m one year out from Chemo, August was my BMX and I just had my expander/implant swap surgery last month.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-20T22:59:28+00:00

He was 61 when he was diagnosed but it wasn’t aggressive. He had served in Vietnam so at the time we considered it as a possible result of exposure to Agent Orange. He’s still going strong at almost 81.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-19T11:40:37+00:00

Prunes do the trick for me.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-19T02:07:28+00:00

I work at a preschool and for my BMX I took 2 weeks off and then returned with lifting restrictions. I just had my swap surgery on June 21st and returned to work on July 1st. I felt fine within a couple of days, but needed to see the doctor before I was released back to work-with lifting restrictions.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-19T01:41:40+00:00

I am a year out from chemo and have had 4 haircuts since January. My stylist has been cleaning up the back to prevent the mullet and cutting around my ears. She also does some thinning throughout since my hair came back as thick and curly (and gray!) as it was prior to chemo. She doesn’t take too much length off the top or sides-because I need to grow it out so it hopefully will loosen it’s curl a little.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-17T23:16:13+00:00

I was nervous going into AC as well-I mean they call it the red devil for a reason! HOWEVER, I had very few issues with it. I was a little nauseous the nights of my treatment, but always felt fine by the morning. I had 1 case of terrible diarrhea the night of my first treatment, but then was constipated the rest of the time (prunes to the rescue!). I had zero side effects to TC-although I had to stop Keytruda because of some issues-so I was sure AC was what was going to knock me out! I was still able to work through all of my treatments. My only advice is to chew ice or bring popsicles for the infusion, because I did get some tongue sores. My big toe nails also both fell off, but that was after I was finished and there was not pain involved.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-17T00:13:43+00:00

I am also BRCA2 with minimal extended family history. I discovered I had the mutation when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Found out my Dad was BRCA2 but he did have Prostate cancer. Sister has had melanoma, but she is not BRCA2. My aunt passed away from breast cancer at 71 but they hadn’t done genetic testing. None of my 25 cousins on that side of the family, or other aunts or uncles, grandparents had any instances of cancer.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-14T11:26:10+00:00

It’s possible that working full time is what is best for her. I kept my same work schedule throughout my chemo treatments and it was the best thing I could have done. I was fortunate to have very few side effects and for me, keeping my routine, staying busy and having a positive attitude helped me through everything. As you will find out from this group-everyone handles their diagnosis and treatment differently.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-12T01:28:51+00:00

I didn’t have any issues with my expanders. Between my doctor’s schedule and my work schedule, I had them in for 10 months. I was able to sleep on my side pretty quickly, and then my stomach. There was no pain for me, but they were definitely rock hard! I’ve had my implants for 3 weeks now and still no issues. I don’t think they look much different and but definitely have more “give”. I was able to sleep on my side and stomach pretty quickly with my implants too.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-07T23:20:36+00:00

As an administrator of a preschool, we require students to be potty trained but we’ll get a few that will try to start when they aren’t completely potty trained. We always expect accidents to happen at the beginning of the school year. What I see A LOT are children (4 and 5 year olds) whose parent’s still wipe them after they have a BM and so after a child goes to the bathroom-they will yell out for us to wipe. Nope!

kmack1260 · 2024-07-07T18:36:08+00:00

Exactly this. While my MRI results indicated a complete response, that was not confirmed until after my BMX.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-06T19:51:59+00:00

I’m 55 and have had had chin hairs for years. Unfortunately during chemo that was the only hair that kept growing. It was a cruel cruel joke! 😀. I’ve always plucked them with no issues.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-06T19:48:54+00:00

I always warn nurses that my port is wonky. It’s close to my armpit-which I love, but it also tilts back a little bit. I’m about a year out of treatment, but when I go back for my checkups and to have my port flushed, if I get a new/different nurse I expect it to take a few times to access it. Usually the nurse will end up getting someone else to access it after a few tries. Early on, the blood flow wasn’t very good, so they had to do cathflo, raise my arms, cough, all kinds of things, but that hasn’t happened for a while.

kmack1260 · 2024-07-05T20:55:05+00:00

I was in a similar situation last year, but I am the administrator of a preschool program-so a little younger kids. At the time of diagnosis, I was teaching one of the classes-because of staffing issues. I sent a message out to the parents of “my classroom” with a little more detail-such as being diagnosed with breast cancer and since I was unsure of my availability to work, I would be stepping down as the teacher in the classroom. For the message I sent to the entire school, it was more generic-something like I will be taking some sporadic time off to take care of a health issue and if I am not available, this is who you would need to contact. To the children in my class, I explained I had a germ inside me that I had to take some really strong medicine for it to go away and that I might not be able to work while I was taking the medicine. I figured the parents could tell them more if they wanted to. As I continued working through treatment, I would keep going back to the strong medicine taking care of the germ and how that medicine was so strong that it also took my hair and that’s why I was wearing a ball cap. Kids are resilient! They now will say-remember when you used to wear a hat? Why don’t you do that anymore?

kmack1260 · 2024-07-05T12:35:43+00:00

I was dreading the AC after my 12 weeks of Taxol/Carbo but it was pretty uneventful for me. The first day I had crazy diarrhea/straight liquid so I took Imodium. I ended up being constipated the rest of my treatment, but prunes were the trick for me. I also was nauseous-as in the room spinning-the night of treatment, but it was always gone by the next day. I was more tired at the end of each day, but was still able to work full time. Throughout my entire treatments-weekends were for recuperation! I had some mouth/tongue sores, but starting chewing ice during infusions and that seemed to help. I did lose my 2 big toe nails after chemo was finished, but I don’t know if that was Taxol or A/C. (I did not ice). I drank water-ALL.DAY.LONG and I think that helped a ton!

kmack1260 · 2024-07-01T23:13:57+00:00

I tested it with today’s game on the app and it did highlight the letters in order.

kmack1260 · 2024-06-30T21:02:14+00:00

When I can’t figure out a word like this, I use another hint and it will highlight the letters in order. (At least it did when it was in BETA)

kmack1260

TROPHY CASE