Imagine being at work when you suddenly start feeling really sick.

What would you do if your boss gave you a hard time about going home early?

Would you be too sick to really care what they thought, or would you want to prove to them how sick you really were?

In today’s story, one woman is way more sick than she even realizes, and she loves it when she’s able to rub that in her boss’s face.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Won’t let me go home sick? I’ll see you in 30 days when I pick up my cancer meds

In 2010 I worked at a corner drugstore as a department lead (back when those were relevant).

I was 21, I did the bare minimum, and I hated working Sundays, which were my Fridays.

I will be the first to admit that I could have been a better employee but I knew this wouldn’t be my career and I was just coasting until I graduated.

It’s hard to work when you’re not feeling well.

Sunday, May 2 rolls around and I felt awful.

I had already not been feeling great.

That Friday I was a bit under the weather.

When Saturday came around I felt pretty ok but then Sunday hit like a sack of bricks.

About 2 hours into my shift I asked my manager, Ryan, if I could go home.

The guys in management despised me so I was not surprised when this particular manager snarkily responded with, “You need to get someone to come in and finish your shift.”

It wasn’t that hard to find a replacement.

Fine, no problem.

I called one of my coworkers and she came in for me.

My boyfriend at the time was working at a hotel down the street.

We shared a car so I went to his hotel to sleep until he got off work.

I slept in the lobby for 9 hours straight.

She wasn’t joking about being sick. It was pretty serious.

We made it home and I started coughing up blood.

My boyfriend forced me to the ER that night.

I was diagnosed with strep and admitted to the hospital.

That Monday, the 3rd, one of the nurses informed me that I’d be in the hospital for at least a week so I called my store to let them know.

Here’s how the conversation went.

The manager I spoke with, Brad, hated me more than anyone else at that store.

I told him the news.

Brad: “You’ll be out for a week for strep?”

Me: “Yeah, do you wanna talk to the nurse? She’s right here.”

Brad: “No, we’ll see you when you get back.”

He was CLEARLY irritated by the news but there was nothing I could do.

The doctor suspected it was more than strep.

What I hadn’t told him, as I didn’t know at that time, is I was admitted because the hospital suspected I had something much worse.

I was visited by a doctor on Monday who explained he’d like to perform a bone marrow biopsy.

I had no idea what that was or why he’d want to do one except that my blood counts looked weird.

I had the procedure done and continued recovering from strep.

Tuesday, May 4 comes and the doctor from the day before pays me another visit.

The doctor had pretty scary news.

“Twinkies, we got the results of your BMB back. You have an aggressive form of leukemia that requires immediate treatment. We’ll be sending you to a hospital in big-city to start chemo tonight.”

My world was turned upside down.

I called my best friends, all of whom I worked with, and invited them to the hospital to share the news.

One of my friends had a shift that afternoon and broke the news to the store: Twinkies has cancer.

The store knew what was going on.

I spent 28 arduous days in the hospital fighting for my life.

My mom had visited my store a few times during my hospital stay and talked with my store manager, letting her know what was going on.

My SM was very understanding and supportive.

The other managers never said a word to me, my mom, or my friends about the situation.

She had to go back to the store.

When I finally got out of the hospital I went to my old store to pick up my maintenance cancer meds.

As I made my way back towards pharmacy, bruised, bald, and with a bright purple PICC line sticking out of my arm, I turned down aisle 10 and who do I see?

Ryan, stocking vitamins.

“Hi Ryan!” I gleefully shouted.

She loved his reaction.

The look on his face was priceless.

“Oh my god, Twinkies, are you ok? How are you feeling?”

“I’m great now, thank you. It’s a good thing I left early that Sunday and ended up in the hospital so they found the cancer!”

The whole situation was absolutely delicious.

She never worked there again.

Despite everything I went through, the feeling of complete vindication when they had to face my cancer-ridden self was incredible.

I never ended up going back to work there.

I had to file disability because the next 5 months of my life were week-long hospital stays followed by constant transfusions, check-ups, and even a case of sepsis that almost killed me.

But I still remember Ryan’s face and it brings a smile to mine.

I’m glad it sounds like she won her cancer battle.

Seriously, when she said she wasn’t feeling well, she really wasn’t feeling well!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Cancer is horrible.

This person also battled leukemia.

This person also found out they had leukemia after getting strep throat.

Yes, beating cancer is the best part.

When she said she was sick, she was very serious!

Good thing she listened to her body and went home.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.