I may not be a marathon runner, but I imagine the most satisfying part of running a marathon would be triumphantly crossing the finish line to the cheers of slightly less-athletic folk—not all that exercise crap in between. After a marathon week (which flew by much faster than I anticipated—I guess I made good time?) I have finally crossed the finish line. I grabbed a Tim Horton’s right after.

Today was very brief and almost relaxing. My parental units and I had a visit with the social worker that lasted just over an hour. The basis of the meeting focused on drug coverage and financial security before and after tx. OHIP is not a guardian angel that has your back at anytime—as most of you have probably discovered—and thankfully I am still under my parents’ private insurance, effectively avoiding the pricey CF drugs that can cost hundreds of dollars each month. Post-tx some of the medication price tags get even bigger, one in particular costs upwards of 1000 dollars a month. Guess I’ll have to cut back on shoes and all things pretty. On the plus side, this is the perfect excuse to build up my emergency supply of pumps and boots now for future use.

Financially, post-tx planning is a lot of work. I am required to apply for the Trillium Drug Program, even though it will not really help me out too much because my parents are multi-millionaires according to the Canadian government (HA HA HA). Unfortunately I am a victim of the middle-class squeeze and not too much can be done about it. I also asked about ODSP (collecting disability) but I have to either be in school just part-time (which I am doing this year anyway) and I cannot work at all. That doesn’t really fly with me because I like to keep busy and not feel terribly useless, so I will work until I absolutely cannot anymore.

Looks like I have a lot of financial planning to do for the future. I can remain under my parents’ insurance as long as I am a student or until I turn 25, whichever comes first. I’ll have my diploma in journalism and BAA by next year…Masters, anyone?

It is important to have all this stuff set up now because once you go on the list there is no telling when you will get “the call.” The shortest wait was apparently six hours, the longest wait was three years. She said not to be surprised if you have to wait two years.

Before we tied up the meeting we got to the more personal questions that generally make me feel useless and juvenile like: do you do the cooking and housekeeping? Do you do the laundry? Grocery shopping? (Okay, I do the last one sometimes) and my answer to all of the above was “No, my mom does… that too, that too…” Publicly I am ashamed, but privately I am okay with NOT doing these things until I move out, officially grow up and settle into my lucrative career as a professional journalist… at age 30.

I really liked this social worker, she shared my sense of humor and was not too touchy-feely, which is a quality I despise in a social worker (e.g. "How do you feel? Are you sad? Are you mad? Do you hate your life?" etc.) That mushy junk turns my stomach.

Nice way to end the week!

Shout out to my family for coming along this week and a special thank-you to my Cystic Sista, H, who has been very supportive the past few months and gave me a very special friendship necklace to wear during my assessment week--I wore it everyday! (I will try to post a pic later... for now you should check out all her nice stuff at http://www.gothattitude.com)

**FYI for those of you who were trying to make comments on my posts and it wasn't working I THINK I fixed it now...**