So, I am very upset and confused about a situation that I have in my life currently.  I graduated from college last December and am ready to switch careers, and start interviewing.

In November, I had part of my thyroid removed because I had an illness and it was getting out of hand. The surgery cured the illness, but in the process of having the surgery, one of my vocal cords is now paralyzed. I sound awful and it's really hard to talk.  It doesn't look like it will go away without further treatment or surgical intervention.  I don't even feel comfortable starting to date now after quarantine, because I can't even talk...I feel like my life is on hold, just like it was during quarantine. 

I am so furious. After spending all of this time social distancing, and coming out relatively unscathed from Covid, a long period of unemployment, and an illness, I am really mad. I now have this to deal with, too. 

My problem is that I don't know where my focus should be- on aggressively pursuing a new posiiton, or sticking with the job and insurance I currently have to go get this fixed. I think my deductible might have already been met too.  I am currently working with a university-appointed career director who is there to help me get where I need to go in my new career. I can't really put this off either because I only have a few months post-grad to work with him.

I guess one of the possible solutions is voice-therapy. This of course will be after work and interfere with interviews and everything else I need to do to get a new job.  I suppose I could just go ahead and interview, but it just concerns me, changing jobs and insurance right in the middle of all of this-usually there is a waiting period with insurance.  And then having to request time off on a new job for medical appointments. But, I had to do that on this job, so what is the difference I guess...I have a Dr. appointment like every week. It's ridiculous.  I am having a very hard time with not being able to talk. And I am having problems with breathing and eating too.  I feel like I can't do anything until I get this resolved. 

I don't know.  If I delay I won't have much more time with my career advisor-I only have him for so long. It's like 90 days post grad and then we are on our own.  I don't want to delay looking for work too long after graduation and have a lot of time elapse between graduating and looking for a job. I suppose the other option might be to use COBRA for a month or two-but that is incredibly expensive.

Prior to getting the surgery, I asked myself: what is the worst that could happen, what are the likelihood of complications? My friend and I decided that it was not worth the worry and is pretty slim.  My surgeon is one of the top in my area and head of oncology at a local hospital.  To find someone more experienced I would have had to fly out of state, and that would be extraordinarily hard, and there are no guarantees of no complications there, either.

I guess it's a matter of making a decision.  I think the best course of action is to deal with both situations at once, and not one at a time. That will be a lot of coordination.