The Day After

Here on the day after another clear CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvis (Thanks Be To God!) I’m feeling like I can finally talk about something that I have completely left out of my writings about living with cancer. Even with a good job and even with incredible (but cripplingly expensive) insurance, cancer has dealt me a financial ass whipping. We have somehow gotten by. Some days getting by seemed less probable than others. Some days I felt like I was standing on the tips of my toes in a windowless stainless steel tank that was filling up with water, my nostrils gasping for air, my eyes seeing the rising water and my brain knowing what was coming.

My cancer season came in like a cold wind, riding on that bitch known as the Great Recession. Pieces and parts of our commercial real estate holdings were as dark as my health prognosis. Medical bills piled up in stacks, often left unopened because I knew I didn’t have a checking account large enough to put a dent in them. My credit took a pounding and I’m still dealing with the fallout from those days.