Not exactly the post I had planned to make

[pyesetz]

On August 28th, at 4:59 PM, I received an email from my immigration lawyer: my request for permanent residence in Canada was approved!  All that remained was medical exams and updated police certificates.

At 5:05 PM that day, stuffedwithfluf received a phone call from her doctor: the lump removed from her breast turned out to be malignant.  She needs radiation treatments and there was a 30% chance that chemo would be needed.  Also this makes her ineligible to enter Canada for five years.

Right now Wifey is under general anesthesia, having her lymph nodes examined to see if the cancer has metastasized.  Hopefully I can get this posted before the results arrive, in case the news will be bad.

So, 2½ years of fighting with the US government for the right to leave this "free" country, ½ a year getting an application together, a year waiting for Canada to decide to let me in, and now I'm "medically quarantined" in the USA for another five years.  I'll just mention "Book of Job" here without quoting from it.

It's hard to believe I'm quarantined in this loony-bin.  Recently President Bush said that it was unacceptable to think that the behavior of the US was in any way similar to that of Al Qaeda.  So the States are now a country in which there are officially-unacceptable thoughts.  The Bush government has admitted to spying on its own citizens without warrants, torturing them in Cuba and Syria, holding them indefinitely without charges, and in general acting like the former Soviet Union.  I studied the USSR in my youth; it was not a country I ever expected to find myself living in, and certainly I never expected that I would be medically prohibited from leaving such a place.

The health situation has sort of cooled my interest in getting another full-time job, since I may need to spend rather a lot of time over the next few months shuttling Wifey from one doctor's appointment to another.  I still have the job with 𝔾, but it doesn't pay enough even if I work at it for 40 hours a week.  And these last few weeks I haven't felt like working at it that much.

Update: Nope, didn't manage to post before the news arrived.  Her lymph nodes are clear.

Comments

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

Is it the US gov't or Canadian that is not letting you emigrate? I could understand that Canada would not want another patient for their socialized medicine, but why would the US stop you from leaving?

I'm so very sorry to hear about the cancer. It is good news that it hadn't spread to the lymph system.

[deffox]

Erf. That's horrible.

Hope that her condition is good, and that it won't require prolonged treatment.

But sorry to hear that it throws out the timetable.

[mrcougar.livejournal.com]

Please get the wife well.

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry to hear about your wife; I guess it's some small comfort that the cancer hasn't metastasised, but it's not exactly happy news even so.

Also this makes her ineligible to enter Canada for five years.

Really? Is there no way around that? I know Canada has a very unusual "one-tier public" medical system, and since that's unlike anywhere in Europe I'm not at all knowledgeable, but is the five-year bar an absolute one?

Anyway, that's secondary. Much more important is your wife's health, and like the others who've commented I really hope she responds well to treatment.

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. I really hope your wife responds well to treatment. Chemo is hard as hell on the system; let's hope that they feel she can do just the radiotherapy, or if chemo is mandatory, just the one cycle.

[rabbitswift.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry to hear that, on both counts but especially about your wife. It's good that it hadn't metastasized, though. Maybe that's a sign that things won't get too bad. Good luck to both of you.

[pyesetz]

Until 2004 it was the FBI, which refused my repeated Freedom of Information Act requests for a copy of my own file (required as part of application to Canada).  Their excuses were ridiculously lame (e.g., returning my signed form with a rejection note: "form not signed").  Then in 2004 they suddenly relented, for no obvious reason.  I suspect it was the replacement of Ashcroft by Gonzales, but really I have no idea what was going on.

[pyesetz]

Yeah.  This latest setback may make it impossible for me to ever leave the country.  I'll be 49 by then, which is awfully old to be trying to start a new career in a new country.

[pyesetz]

I'll let the doctors handle that.

[pyesetz]

Is there no way around that?

There *always* a way around these things.  The trick is finding it.


I know Canada has a very unusual "one-tier public" medical system

Not really.  They have a two-tier system like everyone else; they just pretend that private-sector medicine doesn't exist.  So one way around the problem would be to prepay for x years of private health insurance for my wife, so provincial health insurance doesn't have to pay for her until 2012.  Problem: because of her pre-existing condition, I suspect that she's probably uninsurable for at least a year, and the application that was approved will expire before then.


is the five-year bar an absolute one

This is Canada we're talking about.  Just about every law mentions the word "reasonable" several times.  Even the ban on immigration by former terrorists can be bypassed on "compassionate/humanitarian" grounds.


Much more important is your wife's health

Well, yes, of course.  But my wife has a very common medical condition that has a standardized treatment, while the immigration thing has now completely left the beaten track and so is by far the more difficult problem.

[pyesetz]

It seems that chemo is not *mandatory* because she fits the criteria for "Stage I" cancer.  But some doctors recommend it anyway since she's relatively young.  Hopefully it can be avoided.

[pyesetz]

Thanks for your well wishes.

[avenginglioness.livejournal.com]

Give your wife lots of hugs. And yams. And tell her that you love her. I hope her recovery is a quick one. and, maybe, based on said quick recovery you won't have to wait five years?

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Best wishes for your wife. I'm sorry to hear about the cancer, but at least it doesn't seem to have spread.

[rabitguy.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry to hear about your wife and I really wish for her a successful and speedy recover. I know a little bit about having a loved one with a serious illness and the whole shuffling around between doctors and it really does demand a lot of focus.

I do think the US will recover from Bush, as it has in the past with McCarthy and Nixon every 20 years or so, and each time getting a little bit stronger. Bush's statement really doesn't surprise me since the most telling statement he ever made was in 2002, to Bob Woodward: “I'm the commander. See, I don't have to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Also this makes her ineligible to enter Canada for five years.
...
Update: Nope, didn't manage to post before the news arrived. Her lymph nodes are clear.

I'm very sorry to hear all of this. Both about your wife and the status of your immigration. :-( Both of these look like they will be very long fights... *hugs*

Is there a bar against people just entering Canada with cancer?
And the update about the lymph nodes being clear - I don't understand, is that good news?

[pyesetz]

Cancer is not usually considered infectious, so the problem is basically OHIP—she can't *land* as an immigrant.

The lymph nodes were clear *of cancerous cells*.  This means the cancer was detected before it travelled up the lymphatic ducts as far as the nodes, which makes it quite unlikely that it has spread to anywhere else.

[pyesetz]

I guess I've just lost faith that the US really gets any stronger during its non-Fascist periods.  In some sense we have never recovered from the administration of John Adams the Elder.  Sometimes I wonder whether Bush is really that much different than Adams, other than being a moron and having a grudge against Iraq and thinking it's okay to use the national treasure of the USA in his grudge-fight.

[pyesetz]

Thanks for your well-wishes.

[pyesetz]

"Yams" is an inside joke.  Avoiding the 5-year period would require the CIC to make a special exception for us.