I've been a little quiet on here the last couple weeks, as I've had a lot on my mind and I'm ready to share. My uncle lost his battle with cancer last Friday, and he had been fighting it for two years. Our family knew this day would come, as the type he had (Glioblastoma - Brain Cancer), there is no cure for at this time.
As some of you know, my uncle has been living with our family back in the Chicagoland area since January 2020, when his journey started. However, these last few months have been very painful. He suffered a seizure in the fall, and he was on to the road to recovery. Seizures can occur to patients with this form of cancer; however, this seizure was a little different. There was medical negligence performed from a hospitalist that stopped his anti-seizure medicine when he was discharged from the hospital. He was on this medicine for two years, and you cannot just discontinue it. I will not mention their name or the hospital to keep that information private; however, this has been a very traumatic experience as this all led to his downward spiral. She chose not to read over his medical files of two years from the cancer doctors, which are at the same hospital. Additionally, the social worker would not let my dad come into the hospital to review discharge papers, which is correct protocol. There were no restrictions with Covid stopping this at the time. The reason I am saying all of this is to help prevent this from happening to another family. As a family, we know we would have had a few more months with Uncle Joel, if these two would have followed proper medical protocol. Let justice be served!
Moving to more personal with me, I want to reflect on the good times I had with my Uncle growing up and know he fought hard these past two years. The funeral was this past Wednesday, and we strictly kept it to family and did a livestream for friends near and far. One thing that is on the back of my mind, and I know I will need to move on is an individual who has made the grief over the last year very difficult for me. As most of you know, my grandma passed away last April and I was living in Dallas at the time. I had someone from my day job try to prevent me from taking bereavement, and make the situation where I was grieving very difficult for me. For those of you that don't know, NO ONE CAN EVER STOP YOU FROM TAKING BEREAVEMENT (leave for a loved one's passing). That situation hurt deeply, and I did raise the issue back then. Fast forward because this individual tried to start with me again this past Friday on the day my uncle passed, while I was by his side. Never once has this individual expressed condolences or been sympathetic in this situation; instead they have been rude and condescending to me. I vent to my loved ones about this, and my dad being near retirement was very hurt by this individual too that they would try to take me away from spending time with my family when grieving. On top of this, one of my colleagues has experienced the same treatment. I know venting about this won't change the situation or bring my loved ones back. What I want to know is: how would this individual feel if this were their loved one? I bet the same as me. As you are reading about this, think about this too as we will all come into contact one day with someone who is grieving.
I will say I have looked into therapy, as I have a great therapist in Dallas; as well as, the hospital and my job offering grief counseling. There are always resources at your fingertips, and I recommend using them as someone who has in the past.
The moral of this story is I want to raise awareness for a tough situation and show that three bad apples can't bring you down. I want justice served for my family, and these individuals to own up to their mistakes; so this doesn't happen to anyone ever again. If I have learned anything over the years, it's about learning from your mistakes to improve in the future.