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Long-term disability benefits
This topic has been discussed here before, and lately I've been checking into it more just in case I'm in need of long-term disability benefits.
For those of you getting, or having applied for, LTD benefits via your employer, was your advanced cancer diagnosis questioned as being a pre-exisiting condition?
So far I've gotten some free legal advice through an agency via the telephone, and I'm gathering up my employer's policy, etc., and will probably need non-gratis advice to verify everything. I haven't yet posed this question to the person giving the pro bono advice, and the answer may depend on my policy.
I had early stage bc in 2003. It advanced 3 1/2 years later, which was six months after starting with my current employer.
Right now I'm on short-term disability through my employer due to a thoracomtomy I had in early July (but I'm not getting paid salary because I used up all the benefits available within a 12-month time span when I had a craniotomy in October). Also, the lung surgery was to remove a fungus due to cancer treatment in the lung, and there was no cancer in the path report.
Joan
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Diagnosed stage 2b in July 2003 (2.3 cm, HER2+, ER-/PR-, 7+ nodes). Treated with mastectomy (with immediate DIEP flap reconstruction), AC + T/Herceptin (off label). Cancer advanced to lung in Jan. 2007 (1 cm nodule). Started Herceptin every 3 weeks. Lung wedge resection April 2007. Cancer recurred in lung April 2008. RFA of lung in August 2008. 2nd annual brain MRI in Oct. 2008 discovered 2.6 cm cystic tumor in left frontal lobe. Craniotomy Oct. 2008 (ER-/PR-/HER2-) followed by targeted radiation (IMRT). Coughing up blood Feb. 2009. Thoractomy July 2009 to cut out fungal ball of common soil fungus (aspergillus) that grew in the RFA cavity (most likely inhaled while gardening). No cancer, only fungus. Removal of tiny melanoma from upper left arm, plus sentinel lymph node biopsy in Feb. 2016. Guardant Health liquid biopsy in Feb. 2016 showed mutations in 4 subtypes of TP53. Repeat of Guardant Health biopsy in Jana. 2021 showed 3 TP53 mutations, BRCA1 mutation and CHEK2 mutation. Invitae genetic testing showed negative for all of these. Living with MBC since 2007. Stopped Herceptin Hylecta (injection) treatment in March 2020. Recent 2023 annual CT of chest, abdomen and pelvis and annual brain MRI showed NED. Praying for NED forever!!
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