Sunday, March 24, 2013

Health News

The week I was hired as an employee I was diagnosed with colon cancer during a colonoscopy. Within two weeks I was recovering from surgery where a portion of my colon was removed along with 20 lymph nodes. The good news is that the doctors think that they have gotten all of the cancer. I must be monitored for the next 5 years before I can say I am cancer-free. Things happened so fast that I did not have much time for anything to sink in. It is now three weeks since I was diagnosed. Recovery will take a few months for me to complete. I am relieved that I did not have to have chemotherapy which I expected. Some say I was lucky. Others say prayer saved me. My personal belief is that I went to the doctor when I discovered blood in my stool and the doctor suggested a colonoscopy. And the doctor who performed the colonoscopy told me to not waste time in getting a surgeon to removed the tumor that was found. Many men do not see their doctor often enough. I guess men my age, around 50, were raised to ignore pain and hide fear. I think this way of thinking has killed many men.

More on job front

After being on contract for 6 months, I received an offer from the new manager. The old manager moved on to another project with in the company. The new manager is OK. At first she low-balled me but after some discussion and me giving her a copy of my resume she was able to get much closer to the money I was making as a contractor. I accepted the position and am now an employee of the company. I am not sure how I feel about that. My wife likes me being an employee better than a contractor. It is more stable than contracting but I am not sure of the viability of the company and whether I want to be a long term employee of the company. I have challenged myself to see if I can take over the technical lead role of the project. The current technical lead is a nice guy but does not know what a technical lead does. He rarely speaks up in meetings. He answers questions but does not follow through with newer developers. I have been a technical lead off and on for many years and think I could do a much better job. Well, we shall see where this goes from here.