Those of you who know Aaron have probably been updated by his wife on the situation. For those that don't know him... He's a first year FO with a wife and child.
The following is an e-mail that his wife sent out to friends and family back in February, I recently recieved permission from her to post his situation here on the pipe, in hopes of getting some support from the pilot group:
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This past Tuesday, Aaron was diagnosed with thyroid cancer after 4 weeks of appointments, ultrasounds and waiting. He has a very aggressive tumor in his neck that is intertwined with his vocal cords. It is growing at a quick pace as well. At the present, the treatment will be surgery to remove the tumor and his entire thyroid, recovery for a month then a treatment with radioactive iodine to eradicate any remaining cells. After this, the doctor will work with Aaron to find the proper dosage of thyroid medication that he will remain on for life. There is a good prognosis for this type of cancer, however with Aaron's age and the aggressiveness of the tumor, for him they are slightly reduced.
We met with the surgeon yesterday and are scheduled for surgery on Thursday March 6th. Aaron will be in surgery for 1.5-4 hours and will probably be overnight in the hospital. The iodine treatment will be very interesting because he will be radioactive for about a week. For the first 48 hours we cannot touch Aaron or even be in the same room with him for more than about 5 minutes at a time. For 7 days, he cannot share a bed, kiss people or share plates/silverware etc. This will certainly be a challenge for us.
Due to the nature of the illness and treatment, Aaron will be off of work indefinitely. He will require special clearance from the FAA in order to receive medical clearance to fly again. Luckily, his union has several volunteer representatives to shepherd him through the process. We expect he will be able to fly again, but it will be 6 months or more before that happens.
Aaron is also 5 weeks short of being with the company for an entire year. Because Aaron works in California, he is eligible for CA short term disability and also a long term disability program and loss of license program through the Union and Airline. We are working on all of the paperwork for those programs, but as you can imagine, there is quite a bit of it.
As you can imagine, it's is quite a shock for this to happen to Aaron so soon after getting into his new career. He is disappointed at the prospect of not being able to fly after it becoming such a regular part of his life. And it is an adjustment to me and Max (our son) to have him home, continuously, now. But we are all doing the best we can with the news and are taking it one day at a time. Right now we are consumed with dr. appointments, phone calls to union and airline people, and getting together the paperwork that we need. We know that all of you will be thinking of us and will be wanting to know how everything turns out. Email is the best way to keep in touch with us.
Thanks for your support!
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Update from yesterday:
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Things are going pretty well for now. I feel like we are at the vortex of a tornado of paperwork and Dr. appt's now. 4 days this week we have appointments at the hospital complex with different Dr's. In between appointments with the Endocrinologist, Surgeon, Internist, Oncologist, Reproductive Endo and pre-op it seems like it's been something every day since we got the diagnosis. I think things will calm down considerably once Aaron has the surgery on Thursday and we get LTD paperwork completed. It's only 6 days into our new cycle and we have already used over 3/4 of our cell phone minutes (no small feat- we have a giant cell phone plan).
We are just 4 weeks shy of hitting that one year employment mark for Aaron (april 2). I was thinking today, and I remember that at my work, we have a sick time donation program. We brought it up to someone at base and she said she thinks there is one for XJet and that we should talk to the union. If we can get the people we know to donate a bit of sick time, we can continue to get paid through the month. Have you heard anything about a sick time donation program or have any ideas who we might contact about it?
It's funny, it's not so much overcoming the cancer, or even the money issue that is weighing on us, we've been told there is a good prognosis for this type. It the having to give up flying after just spending all the time and effort to transistion in. It is so frustrating to be stopped cold in our tracks.
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Does anyone know if we do have a sick back donation program here? All he needs is one months worth to get him through to April so that he can offically qualify for FMLA and be off of probation.
You can tell that Aaron has a very supportive wife. Please help if you can. I know it seems we've had a rash of folks that need help lately. But now is the time to really look at your life and compare it to Aaron's, Bob Kucera's, and Anthony Miller's family.
Options to help:
1. Money to help with the transition to LTD, and to keep insurance coverage up.
2. Sick time donation (If we can do this, he only needs a minimum of a months worth, so any little bit will help.)
3. Buddy passes for his family
4. Verbal and written support.
5. Thoughts and prayers for Aaron during his surgery this Thursday.
Thank you,
FO Aaron Ward diagnosed with Aggressive Thyroid Cancer...
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