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I’m going to vent. Feel free to ignore this post altogether. I’m ready to write letters about my anger and then burn “them.”

Y’all know that I was diagnosed two-and-a-half years ago with chronic lymphocytic lymphoma as a result of my cold agglutinin disorder. A month ~ only ~ of rituxan and I was back to normal. My blood work looks great and there is no sign of any cancer in me whatsoever. I was told it is as if I never had anything wrong in the first place.

There is a team of doctors at our agency who simply looks at statements and clicks off boxes. So, they have put me into the near-death category. I have tried to mitigate their response by emphasizing the last sentence in the previous paragraph. Then, last week or two, my husband, bless his heart, reapplied for medical clearance. I didn’t know he had done this and did not attempt to update my records.

He pressed the doctor about his health issues and what he is doing. They called him. Still no clearance. But then, after the phone call, that doctor relooked at my record submitted late in July. She basically called me a liar, put me in the “never move about or interact with anything, you might as well dig your grave” category. She wrote both of us and told us as much ~ not in quite those words.

I was hoping to avoid this stress. I am disappointed and upset. I didn’t think there was any point in going through this until January anyway. But, through no fault of my own, I am back in it.

I have a funny diagnosis. It is extremely similar to chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It parallels it. But it is lymphoma which puts it on a different trajectory. My doctor has been most emphatic about this and I have queried him a lot to make sure I understood this point. Yet, because the letters are the same, I guess (CLL), other people try to make me have leukemia. Leukemia is more serious. Lymphoma will stay with me but I’ll die around age 90 or 100 WITH it, not FROM it.

All this I have explained over and over to people who think they should know. My husband SHOULD know and I explained it to him way back in 2018. But, last night, he decided he needed to understand it better so he did independent research on the internet. Up to that point I have no complaint. My complaint is that he just spent about 15 minutes informing me about my diagnosis and how benign it actually is.

If you hear of a murder in Auburn, AL, check to see if the assailant’s maiden name is my screen name.