Rosie's Cancer Journey

After using a steroid inhaler, my voice came back just enough for me to work yesterday morning. It is still not 100% but much improved. I work in a school office, so I need my voice in order to do my job.

I really love my job. My coworkers put together this amazing gift basket for me. I’m not even sure how to begin to thank everyone. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and love, and this is a wonderful feeling to have when you are going through something like this.

In the afternoon, I drove to Capitol Hill where my doctor is located to get IV fluids. Wow, I feel so much better after that! I’m starting electrolytes today in hopes this helps. And yesterday, and today, I’m eating rice and protein shakes. I had a handful of yogurt covered blueberries last night, and while tasty, they too, made my stomach turn. A Tummy Pop from the gift basket helped with that as well.

I also filled out my FMLA paperwork and was told I am not covered. My dad was really sick and passed away in June. I took a lot of time off to care for him and help him with appointments and hospital visits. Much of that was paid time off but I had to take unpaid time. And I work at a school, so I have summer off as well. There is a requirement to work X many days to be covered. Because of that, I could lose my benefits if I take much more unpaid time. I am still trying to understand all of this and I have to sit down and look at it all. Washington State offers paid medical leave so technically it isn’t unpaid for me because I qualify for that. But if it is unpaid through my employer, then that’s what will ding me, and I think I have just used up all of my paid time off. I’m hoping I can make it through the next round of chemo without a whammy and fill out the paperwork again right after I meet the threshold. Talk about scary! This round was not easy.

And yes, there are a lot of feelings that come up with me around this and how I got to this point because of what I needed to do to help my dad, but I also know I wouldn’t do anything different. Life sure is something, sometimes.

As of right now, I do think I’m barely going to make it to be able to qualify for FMLA and keep my benefits. I need good juju and prayers that this will also work out. ♥️

Update here- https://rosiec.blog/2025/11/14/benefits-should-be-ok-for-now/