Having the Big C you see who your friends are

Why not just hire a buddy to go finish for you...under your license/contract as an employee? An ADA suit's only gonna get you about half of what's owed you (half will go to the attorney) in actual damages - you won't get much if you win.

I am sorry to hear you are having such a time. Hopefully soon someone will be infected with a little humanity towards you and your situation. It seems they have none currently.

Actually under ADA they face fines of $50,000.00 plus all the public ridcule you think companys would be wiser i guess not people in Pittsburgh have very short memorys.

Not that any law suit is fun, at least an ADA suit is more focused than the usual financial blood bath. Can money really ever do anything to help recover from a loss of respect, a sense of powerlessness, as well as plain old hurt feelings? Probably not, but each must seek his own remedy. Only experience with the process will guide him on future actions away from this solution I suspect.

I understand. I had one client who called demanding to speak to me while I was doing chemo. At the time I was too weak to get up, much less go into the office and try to help him. He got my personal phone number, called my wife and insisted she put me on the phone. When I checked it out I discovered why his order wasn't shipped. He never paid!

There are a few people like that in the business.

Nice.

on his accouts. Just what

Nick, we're not friends and probably never will be but I do hope you beat this thing. You're in our prayers. After you get well let me know so I can resume hassling you. :^)

If the court takes anywhere near a 50K chomp out of their wallet, trust me, they'll never forget you. Additionally there will be oinks and squeals of protest heard from sea to shinning sea.

I'm not your enemy. Never have been. We disagree on some things that might seem like a big deal but they're not important at all compared to this stuff.

I don't know how much personal research you've been doing, Nick. When I got sick the first thing I did was seek out the best medical help I could find. For me it was a good surgeon here in Sarasota and then Moffitt Cancer Research hospital in Tampa. They're rated on a par with M.D. Anderson.

Next I decided to learn everything I could about cancer, treatment options, prognosis, etc. I was fortunate. They caught it before it spread too much and the surgery/chemo apparently worked. Your situation is more dire than mine but there is hope. There's a lot of work being done with something called IMRT (stands for "Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy"). This involves using a 3-D scan to control the power of the radiation beam to precisely hit the tumor with little effect on non-cancerous tissue. From what I've heard, it's supposed to be very promising. Perhaps you could ask your oncologist if this is appropriate for you.

BTW, speaking of oncologists, don't just take whoever your other doctor recommends. He might be great or he might be an "authorized dealer". Uh, this is one area where I will concede that DIY is not the way to go. Find someone who believes he can cure you. It can be done. My favorite aunt had Stage IV CRC several years ago. She's alive and in complete remission today. In her late 70's, she does everything but cook for herself (if you tasted her cooking you'd understand why). She chose an alternative treatment plan which no doctor would agree to so I don't recommend it. I just figure she got a miracle. Whatever you might believe, those do happen.

Whatever they tell you about the prognosis, fight hard. Don't give in. I might not agree on much with any of the idiots here but on this one everyone is pulling for you. Anyone who isn't should hit his head on the way down. :^)

from all I can find out I have one of the best teams of doctors available for what im going thru UPMC has a very highly rated reputation .Plus best protocol being used . The radiation is working and tumor has slowed its bleeding and is shrinking. side effect from continous infusion chemo are there but I am coping with them but very weak compared to how I ususaly feel alot has to do with my anemia from the bleeding.

Finding out now after doing more research on colon cancer I had several tale tell signs last couple of months that should have clued me to a problem. But when you go and look at most literature it never mentions these symptoms. Pisses me off they never tell any one to look for these. Had I known I would have been in sooner. They think I have had it for about a year. Most likely major syptoms came on after my vehicle wreck caused hard trauma to my body. Thank god that doctor checked me and found the mass or i could still be playing around not knowing what was going on. they still insist you only need a colonoscopy starting at 50 and now i know better. MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE SCUM INSURANCE COMPANYS telling everyone to get them at 50 what there not telling people is if theres a family history you need checked from age

35 and up every other year. You think these MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE INSURANCE COMPANYS would pay for these tests early for high risks groups but they would rather pay high treatment costs and let us die instead. My wife has a lady friend in 30s who has had parents on both sides with breast cancer she is worried and they will not pay for simple mamography test.

I could not get insurance from these MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE INSURANCE COMPANYS becuse too many prexisting condtions so all i could ever get was a very low end cover nothing policy. It is just wrong. As many millions of dollars every year i save these MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE SCUM INSURANCE COMPANYS. By installing and maintaining life safety systems which protect millions in Property and those who live and work at them plus all the electrical code violations and dangerous conditions i clean up and make safe every year .You think when i needed them they would come thru for me and every single time these MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE SCUM SUCKING MOTHER FUCKERS HAVE FUCKED ME OVER HARD. When i got severly hurt and permanately crippled back in 92 they f***ed me hard twice they refused to pay for the accident and then did not want to pay me for disabilty policy i had in place and i had to take them to court these MOTHER FUCKING LOW LIFE MOTHER FUCKING SCUM. INSURANCE COMPANYS.

I JUST HOPE THEY KNOW THERE IS A SPECAIL PLACE IN HELL FOR THEM SOME DAY.

Why are you being so kind? Usually I find the above statement is accurate only on those very rare times when an insurance company is trying to show its best and most magnanimous behavior. Otherwise it is far worse in normal day to day operation.

Glad to hear you've got good docs and are making progress. The anemia, weakness and other crappy stuff I know. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I can tell you this much though. Once the treatments are done it will take at a minimum six months before you strart to feel yourself again. Just hang on though. It does get btter after a while.

one to look for

It was the same here. I had a recurring cough and occasional chest pain but no other symptoms. Routine X-rays showed nothing out of the ordinary.

I was very fortunate. They found it just before it broke out of the pleura. Much longer and it would have been inoperable. The pain I fealt was from the mass invading the pleura -- there are no pain nerves where the tumor started.

That may even have exacerbated the development of the tumor.

If not for the accident you probably would have died within a few months. Strange to be glad of having been in a wreck, eh?

Exactly. With my family history cancer was a probability yet they still only started when I reached 50. Now I'm having a full workup every year and interim CT scans every four months for at least five years.

To them it's a numbers game. They don't even consider that human life, not to mention horrific suffering is involved. It's like epecting Wal-Mart to care about the local mom and pop stores they put out of business. It makes no difference that the local guys spent 40 years building a business with the sweat of their brows. They just plow them under like so much manure in a pasture.

Really? I thought there was a law about that. Maybe it's just a state thing.

I bought insurance through one of my businesses. The rates are slightly higher but they can't refuse any worker based on prior health issues and the rates are only based on employee age. If you're self employed or you own a corporation, that can be a real help.

If you see them for what they are (money machines with no humanity) it helps to understand. There is no gratitude for anything. There's no emotion or sense of responsibility. All the TV ads showing kind-hearted "neighbors" caring for the customers are total bulljim. Remember what State Farm did to the people of Lousiana?

I didn't realize you'd been in a bad accident. Hope you got punitive damages out of them.

Got nothing out of them on 92 case steps collapsed almost lost my buisness cruched my heal to point i was permanately disabled and they no longer wanted me to work and i got nothing same day some jerk in an other court room got $50,000.00 for a bad hair treansplant job. The case made the papers and people were shocked to find out how seriously you could get hurt and insurance only covers negligent acts not accidents. thats why i no longer do residential work. besides there being a pain in the ass.

It reminds me of that woman who got $250,000 out of McDonald's because *she* spilled her coffee on her leg. Phbbbt!

What about the owner of the building whose stairs collapsed? Weren't they liable?

Funny, I always loved doing residential work. I offered more and charged less than most of the competition so we were always booked up for a month or more -- sometimes for several months at a time.

After moving to Florida and selling the alarm company I lost interest in going back to installing. At this point it would mean a significant pay cut so it's out of the question.

If in the course of your treatment it becomes too hard to continue, you might want to consider doing something like what I've done. You could parlay your knowledge of various systems into an online business and with any luck make just as much or more without all the physical work. After all, running an online alarm business isn't rocket science. (I had to say that:))

Owner had no liabity becuse it was ruled an accident.

imagine that you pay into home owners insurance thinking any one getting hurt on your property is covered and in fact they are not covered and you are not liable unless the injury occured by you the home owners negligance. commercail property policys are different. they pay fr all injurys thats why they get scammed all the time.

Im already doing alot of consulatnt type work with electrical contratcors and my professional fire photography and writiing is also making some money so i have concidered going that way if i have to.

seems to me that failing to maintain your stairs would be negligence? either that or you weighed 400 lbs?

No I wayed 210 at time and failing to maintain would be negligance but these steps looked OK and just collapsed due to an engineering problem the homeowner would not have had knowledge of so they said there was no negligence. isnt this such a great country we livein.

If i came to your home tonight for dinner and in your dinning room theres a magnificant chandilier that ha been hanging for sevral years and looks to be safe and during dinner it came down and every one got hurt from flying glass your home owners policy pays $1000 to 5000 total towards medical bills and thats it becuse the chandilier looked ok and you did nothing wrong as the hostess to make it fall down it is an accident and you are not liable and your insurance does not cover any thing other than medical cap it has which is $1000.00 to 5000 thats it.

you could go after person who hung light but in my case the stairs were over

100 years old and no one to go after for a faulty design. So as i said i have dropped all my residentail work. in fact my buisness insurance went down in cost because i no longer do residential work.

I don't know that to be true. It certainly wasn't in my case.

You'll see how things go and decide if/when you need to. What do you do in the are of fire photography? Is that for fire investigation?