Hello, I am a CMLer in Canada. I just started a new job, and after my first week, decided to tell my bosses about my leukemia (I have a specialist appt at the end of the month and I wanted to tell them about it). Needless to say, they were surprised!
As many of you on Gleevec know, because we don't always show evidence of our cancer treatment (ie. no hair loss), people assume we are healthy, 'normal' (whatever normal is!) people. Thus, there is usually a little shock and confusion when I tell people. What I find I have a hard time explaining is that I am doing okay, and that taking Gleevec is kind of like a diabetic taking his insulin. Anyway, I feel that I am doing well enough that it shouldn't interfere with my work (it's admin/reception work--no heavy lifting or anything!), but for some WEIRD reason, I have a major guilty complex right now. I feel like I should have told them during my initial interview. It just didn't come up. I am thankful that I am feeling well enough to go to work, and at first I didn't feel like I would necessarily have to tell anyone about my medical history. Now I am afraid they are going to think I was hiding this from them. I wasn't intentionally hiding anything, I just don't want to be treated differently from anyone else, so I didn't say anything, thinking I didn't have to. However, CML is a part of my life I can't ignore, and I realized today that it's easier for me if I need to go do bloodwork or go to my doctors to just be able to say WHY then to skirt it...does that make sense? I think the worst part is not knowing if they are being honest or not...maybe they were just pretending to be supportive when really they are thinking, 'we should never have hired this girl!' I'm feeling bad wondering about that. This has something to do with my 'heart-on-my-sleeve' personality, I'm afraid, I feel that I was dishonest by not telling them sooner. CAN ANYONE OUT THERE RELATE TO THIS EXPERIENCE? If not, I apologize. I'm just feeling a little out of sorts at the moment. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
